It had been a fun couple of days with Jimmy and David at Disney and visiting the M*A*S*H location, but the real reason I had made the trek to California this time was to attend Laurel and Hardywood, the 19th International Convention of the Sons of the Desert. It had been a series of long roads, starting with the two-year road it had been for Bob since he bid on and was given the 2014 convention on behalf of his tent 45 Minutes from Hollywood. For the most part he did 90% of the work in coordinating the convention, but I and others had had our roles too, and over the course of the past two years, I had been pretty busy with convention website updates, sizing photos, writing and editing text, and managed the autograph fundraiser.
But an even longer road was the one I had been on with the Sons since 1980 when I first joined the club. This was also the year that I attended my first convention known as Hollywood ’80, which has over the years become no less than legendary. There really was no possible way for Bob to replicate the excitement of that convention. After all, so many of the L&H and Our Gang co-stars were no longer with us. Seeing the locations was old hat for a good portion of the convention-goers. And quite simply, the organization just isn’t as fun as it used to be. Video footage and photos of the bygone ear of the 70’s and 80’s gives a sense of visible excitement and fun. People are just moving slower nowadays… and I think they’ve gotten dumber. But anyway, I was here and ready to go along on the Hollywood ride one more time… a mere 34 years after the first one.
As much as I would have liked to stay in the Loews Hollywood Hotel, the $200 per night price tag just didn’t justify it, especially considering that my friend David had invited me to stay at his place during the convention. We got ready the morning of Wednesday, July 2, 2014, and drove the 25 minutes from Burbank to Hollywood ready to start the first morning of the convention.
We parked in the parking garage and made our way to the hotel through the back way, immediately coming upon the buses that were there to tote us to Culver City to begin our tour. I could see the delicate intricacies of coordinating the logistics of transporting over 200 people through the crowded streets of Hollywood. And I could also see the toll it was taking on Bob who looked to be nearing a meltdown already… and the convention had only begun about five minutes earlier.
Nevertheless David and I jumped in and tried to help however we could, handing out programs and snacks and what-nots. Co-chair Ed Greim assisted as well and left his box of programs on the ground so that conventioneers could take their own, thus destroying the bus counts. Oh well, if this wasn’t the place to have one nice mess after another, I don’t know where it would be.
We got the buses loaded and I got to talk on the microphone for the first time, giving simple instructions on what to do once we arrived in Culver City. Future buses this week would require a lot more talking and hosting. It was about a 45-minute trek to Culver City and Sony Studios, where we were let off and directed by our tour guide Tyler. One-half of the convention delegates were on this ‘track’ and would be touring the Sony Studios first, while the other half were taking the bus tours that we would board following the tour.
David and I take command of our first bus
Personally I had never been through the Sony Studios before, although I had once posed for a picture outside of the plaza since the exterior served as Wolfram & Hart in the TV series Angel. Although the name “Sony” doesn’t bring to mind classic Hollywood, the fact is that Sony was once the M-G-M Studios during the golden age of Hollywood. It’s hard to grasp one’s head around the number of legendary films that were made here: The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, Ben-Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, Gigi, and Grand Hotel are some examples, not to mention that two Laurel and Hardy films – Air Raid Wardens and Nothing but Trouble – were also filmed here. For the most part, everything was filmed on sound stages, so it’s not like there was a lot to match up. But it was still incredible to be here. We kicked off the tour at 9:30am with an introductory film highlighting the rich history of the studios.
The Sony Pictures Plaza
Bob arranged for Sony to take our pictures in front of green screens and then they added the convention logo behind our image. Here’sĀ one with David, Rick, and me
And then another with Gary Cohen
And finally, the stellar crew of convention organizers: Jimmy, Lori, Bob, me, Marcia, and Rick. Not pictured: Ed Greim
Gateway onto the Sony Pictures lot
A pair of superheroes
On the backlot, in an area which sometimes serves as a park on The King of Queens
Outside the Irving Thalberg Building
Getting ready to enter the building. An excited Gary leads the way to the display of Oscars.
The giant rainbow which serves as a monument to The Wizard of Oz
The two most interesting things we saw on the tour were naturally the two things we were not permitted to photograph. The first was the lobby of the Irving Thalberg Building that housed the original Best Picture Oscars for a dozen pictures that the studio claimed. You will never see this many in one place… but of course, no photos.
The second location was the recording studio/scoring stage where movie soundtracks had been recorded since 1929. Reportedly the acoustics in the room were so outstanding that it’s never been painted for fear of disrupting them. It was again hard to grasp that the scores for many of the films listed above were recorded right here.
I guess the coolest thing we were able to see and photograph was Stage 10 where they currently film Jeopardy. Of course it would have been cooler to actually see the show filmed, but I was pretty delighted that the did in fact allow photos inside the stage, as well as of the numerous Emmys that the show had won.
A cut-out of Alex Trebek adorns the numerous Emmys awarded to Jeopardy!
I could host this thing…
…and David, Rick, and I could compete on this thing. As the scores indicate, I would win.
With our tour guide Tyler with the Jeopardy! stage behind us
There was also a nice array of movie-used automobiles outside of which I got some nice photos. We also spotted the one and only celebrity of the trip: director Cameron Crowe, but by the time I realized who it was, it was too late to try and get a photo… even if it hadn’t been against the rules, which it was.
The Ghostbusters car
Will Ferrell’s race car from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Car and RV from Breaking Bad. Rick Greene assured me that the bullet holes in the door were important to the story.
After the walking tour was over, we all adjourned back to the Plaza where a coldcut lunch was catered, consisting of a turkey sandwich, chips, and a cookie. It was nice to finally sit down and catch up with some Sons friends like Rick Lindner, Rick Greene, Gary Cohen, and Gene Sorkin. Jimmy and his parents had been on the opposite track than us and had already been through the Culver City bus tour, but both groups converged at the plaza for lunch. His group would then go on the Sony tour, while we would board the open-air bus StarLine bus tour.
Enjoying lunch with Gary, Rick, and Gene in the plaza
I’ll say right off the bat that typically I don’t care for bus tours, as you already know how I am about pictures. However this one didn’t really make much difference to me personally because I had basically either been to or would have ample opportunities to visit the locations at a later time to get photos. So I just sat back and went with it. I didn’t use sunscreen, but I escaped relatively unscathed… unlike Dick Bann who was thrown up upon in a different bus by the Oliver Hardy look-alike.
Heading out on our open-air bus tour
Our host Bob gets everyone on the buses without strangling anyone (I think)
The bus tour lasted about two hours, and was hosted by a nice guy named Bruce, who had a pleasing voice and punctuated most of his sentences with “yeah”, and better yet whom I was happy to see had done some research by watching some Laurel & Hardy films before hosting the tour. The StarLine tour was normally a standard tour of celebrity homes and the occasional filming location. Bob had worked with them to tailor the tour to Laurel & Hardy specific locations.
For the most part it all worked as planned. We had a nice tour booklet which we had to work through backward as we went in the opposite direction as printed. We started out with the Perfect Day house on Vera, but Bob had the incorrect house for the newly discovered area where L&H’s car sinks at the end of the film. Jimmy and I would go find the right place later that week (more on that later). Then we drove by the location of the apartments from Sons of the Desert, which isn’t that great of a location since they have been torn down and replaced. We then saw the house in which Jerry Tucker lived in the Our Gang film Hi Neighbor! This was a new location to me, and one that I’d need to get closer to… and would later in the week. Next was the Bacon Grabbers home (and real-life home of sound engineer Elmer Raguse) on Bannockburn, followed by the Big Business locations on Dunleer. Unfortunately we had to skip the drive down Madison due to local ordinances involving buses, so we missed the homes from Hog Wild and street from Towed in a Hole. We hit the correct house from The Finishing Touch on Forrester, but stopped in front of the completely incorrect hospital from the same film. We also drove through Beverly Hills down Beverly Drive from Busy Bodies, noting a house which supposedly is in the film, although I’ve never actually thought there was a clear enough shot of the house in the film to do a comparison. We went by the Will Rogers Memorial Park where L&H filmed the opening scenes of Pack Up Your Troubles. We also drove by the Fox Plaza, which was used as the Nakatomi Building in the non-L&H film Die Hard, as well as checking out two homes of Stan Laurel, one on Glenbar, one on North Bedford, and homes of Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, and Jimmy Stewart. Interestingly we saw a pair of fans taking pictures in front of Stan’s North Bedford home, although they weren’t part of group. Finally on the way back, we made note of Hollywood High School.
When Laurel & Hardy get out of the cab in Sons of the Desert, this is where the house across the street that is seen in the film once stood
Although not seen in the film, this is where the ‘homes’ from Sons of the Desert would have stood. Of course these buildings have been erected since the film was made.
Stan Laurel’s home on Glenbar Avenue. He lived here from 1933-1936 with his wife Ruth
The Fox Plaza, also known as the Nakatomi Building in Die Hard
Hollywood High School
Once we got back to the hotel, David and I waited around for a while to connect with the Wileys, but somehow missed them. David and I walked over to Mel’s Drive-In on Highland, which shares the location of the former Max Factor building with the Hollywood History Museum, which we’d be visiting the next day. I went with the delightful Mushroom Burger.
Mel’s Drive-In
David and me enjoying our food, just like they did in the 50’s
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and swung by the cocktail mixer, but passed on actually having any cocktails since the prices were astronomical. It’s no fun drinking and then sitting in a dark theater anyway. But we mingled for a bit and said hello to friend Carl Ahlm, Irene Valasquez, Ed Greim, and others.
My pal and tent mentor Carl Ahlm
Rick listens intently to Greim’s list of grievances
Irene enjoys her first beer of the evening hours with Kris
Then it was on to the proverbial show, this one being at the historic Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, now run by the American Cinematheque. I happened upon my old Springfield tent-mate Jim Harwood outside the theater and we caught up for a few minutes before heading in for the show.
With my old pal Jim Harwood
I was really looking forward to this evening, not only for the great line-up of rare films, but for the celebrities in attendance. Some I had met before and others I had communicated with, but most of them I hadn’t gotten photos with. That was the first order of business as we mingled. Right off the bat I ran into comedian Emo Philips whom I was starting to get to know after attending the last convention with him, and then seeing two of his stand-up shows in Dayton. While chatting with him, film critic Leonard Maltin walked by. I had only actually met Leonard once (in 1992), but he knew me right away after I identified myself.
With the always interesting Emo
My favorite film critic Leonard Maltin
The fellas responsible for the book Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals
There were other cook and interesting celebrities in attendance, most of whom I got photos with. Some of them participated in giving the evening’s toasts (Ralph Platz, Joan Delmar, Leonard Maltin, Orson Bean, and Stan’s great great grandson Tommy Ferrigno, filling in for the no-show Chuck McCann). You can check out some of my new celebrity encounters beginning here.
With Cassidy and Lois. The mysterious looking man in the background is actor Booth Colman, who was Stan’s best friend
A closer look at Booth, who sadly passed away before the end of the year
The film program was quite interesting as well. We began with some raw footage featuring Hal Roach that was filmed at the studios in 1963 talking about the horribly sad demolition of the studios. The we saw the trailer to the Roach film There Goes My Heart, along with some of the raw behind-the-scenes footage shot for it, plus a bonus advertisement for Our Gang member Chubby Chaney’s personal appearance at a theater. Then we checked out the gag reel That’s That, the trailer for Hijos del Desierto (the Spanish Sons of the Desert), and finally 35mm prints of Helpmates and Way Out West.
It was certainly a fun and interesting program. After it ended, David and I chatted outside with Leonard Maltin for a bit. It was really cool that he thanked me (using the quote from the Hal Roach Crane twins “We thank you…”) for my work on Dante’s Info. We also talked a bit about the discontinuation of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD. Emo Philips invited David and I to join him and our trivia teammate Peter van Rooij for drinks, but as fun as that would have been, we figured we’d better hit the road since we had to drive back to David’s house in Burbank.
We got back there close to 11pm and we hit the sack pretty quickly, knowing that we’d have to up early the next morning to do it all over again. The convention was shaping up to be quite fun.
The 2014 Laurel and Hardywood convention will continue…
Click here to follow the trail of celebrities from Laurel and Hardywood…
Loved your coverage of Day One and am looking forward to the rest of the week! I think Dave should write a column for the new ITJ called Greim’s Grievances.
Rick Greene
March 2nd, 2015