I remember when I first saw the 1983 documentary Amos ‘n’ Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy, I spotted a very familiar face being interviewed. That was a little bit before my time of actually wondering and considering what had become of those sitcom actors in old TV shows that I would watch. Even though I had already met a handful of Laurel and Hardy co-stars and Our Gang members, I assumed that my brushes with fame would probably end there. Who would have thought that I’d be getting autographs, sometimes actually corresponding, and even more out of the realm of possibility, meeting these television icons.
The familiar face in this case was Richard Correll, and he was part of the this documentary because his father was Charles Correll, who along with his partner Freeman Gosden had actually created the radio characters Amos & Andy. Of course this was all news to me, as I had actually recognized him from something else: he had played Beaver Cleaver’s obnoxious friend Richard in 36 episodes of one of my favorite TV series Leave It to Beaver.
Over the years I came to learn more about Rich Correll… like the fact that he had also starred in two episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, that he had been a young admirer of Harold Lloyd and had become his frequent companion in his later years, that he had met Stan Laurel in his Oceana apartment, that he went on to direct a lot of television including Married…with Children, Perfect Strangers, The Hogan Family, and Family Matters. He had even co-created the sensation Hannah Montana. I really wanted to meet him.
Then I found out that Rich Correll was a good friend of my friend Dick Bann, and furthermore that Rich often attended the Wednesday lunches the Dick and some of his cronies have at the Culver Hotel… the same lunch that I had once attended. I was getting closer.
When Bob told me that Rich Correll had contributed one of the Harold Lloyd films shown at the Egyptian Theatre during the 2014 Laurel and Hardywood convention and would likely be attending, I was understandably excited. Turns out he did in fact show up and was introduced, but he slipped out before the end of the program and I didn’t get to meet him… which made me nervous that it wasn’t going to happen.
But thankfully that was assuaged on July 3, 2014, the next day, at the banquet at the Hollywood Museum. I was eating dinner when Bob called me and told me to come down to the floor with the Hal Roach display, and sure enough there was Rich Correll. He had stopped by to see the exhibits, including the make-up trunk that had once belonged to his old friend Harold Lloyd.
He was such a nice unassuming guy that it’s hard to believe the amount of TV and film history he had under his belt. I had screen captured a shot of him with Stan Laurel that was featured in a documentary on the Laurel & Hardy Fox films DVD set, which he was happy to sing multiples of. I told him that he had a book in him, and he of course knew it. Now I hope he gets around to writing it.
Meeting Rich Correll was one of the many highlights that took place during the Laurel and Hardywood convention, and one of the encounters I had waited the longest to happen.
Celebrities of Laurel & Hardywood 2014 will continue at the Our Gang reunion…
HJi, Brad. I’m still looking for a goodcolor picture of the Lake L&H plaque to blow up to actual size, and hang it on a wall. The best one I’ve seen is sort of like the one of you stooping down to it and smiling at the camera.It’s not completely head on and is blocked by a portion of the color photo of L&H and the Mrss. at the dedication. Have you ever found one that fits my needs? I may be able to find a shot of Dick VD kneeling with it, but that would need a lot of photoshop work, which I am not very good at.
Richard E Sloan
September 15th, 2017