The end of any Sons of the Desert convention is always a little bit sad, and this one had been particularly fun. Bob had an idea to make this one a little more palatable though, as even after it ended on the morning of Sunday, July 6, 2014, with the standard Farewell Brunch and passing of the Pineapple and all that good stuff, it wasn’t really over. That morning David and I got up and ready at his place and were on the road around 8:30 back to the Loews. I bid farewell to David’s cat Flo, which turned out to be the last time I saw him, as he passed away later that month. David thinks this is the last picture of him as well.
With little Flo
The Going Bye-Bye Brunch began at 9am in the Grand Ballroom and was a buffet of delightful breakfast food. David and I sat at the celebrity table with Mildred Kornman and Jim MacGeorge, along with Dickie Bann. Originally scheduled to be there that morning were Chuck McCann and Dickie Jones. Dicked had been in the Our Gang and had been the voice of Pinnochio in the Walt Disney classic. Although I had met him before in 1997, I had never gotten a photo with him and was anxious to do so. Unfortunately he didn’t show up that morning… and then sadly passed away the next day. Chuck McCann likewise didn’t show up because of… something, so the Laurel & Hardy routine that he was going to perform with Jim turned into a Jim solo act.
With Jim MacGeorge, one of the all-time best Stan Laurel impersonators
Hooray for Dickie Bann!
With Jim and Mildred at breakfast
Jim’s performance… which I missed
Helping Mildred plug my number in her phone
Unfortunately I missed that too, as Mildred had to get her baggage and self into a taxi to catch her plane home, so I assisted her with that and missed Jim’s performance. What I didn’t miss were two presentations given by Bob, one highlighting the various celebrities he’s met relating to Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang, and one featuring the many friends he’s made in the Sons over the years, including yours truly. There were also the standard presentations of the winners of the trivia contest (that’s us), and the winners of the Pee-Wee contest (not us).
Bob gives Cate her certificate of thanks
Certificate and statue, holding an Oscar
The Quizmasters
First place winner: The Sanford Arms
Bob gives last minute instructions on how to win friends and influence people
Bob also handed out certificates of appreciation to those who helped with the convention, but he forgot mine (and felt terrible) because he had already given me mine earlier in the week for some reason. We also bore witness to the Passing of the Pineapple through an odd array of past convention hosts or folks standing in for convention hosts. Such great quotes were revealed during this moment including: “whatever you’re standing there for”, “Tacoma 2000!”, and “head waiter.”
After the proceedings David and I circled the room saying goodbye to many and getting photos with friends old and new… and some ‘others’ as well. There really wasn’t much going on for the afternoon except for the dealer’s room being open, so David and I decides to go to Disneyland for a few hours and then return to the Egyptian Theatre for the final program and film presentation.
The Stan Laurel impersonator and the guy who threw up on Dickie Bann
With our new friend Borgey
Irene and Mary May, daughter of Roach special effects man Thomas Benton Roberts
With the grand old man of the Sons, the late Dwain Smith
We got to Disneyland around 1pm and since lines weren’t too bad, we were able to ride a handful of rides over the next three hours, starting with Space Mountain, which had less than a 30-minute wait.
Hello castle
Space Mountaineers
It’s safe to say everyone in this rocket knew when the camera would flash
Then we headed from Tomorrowland over to Frontierland and hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which only had about a 15-minute wait. You may recall that when we rode this the weekend before, the ending explosions that had just been added to the third hill as part of a refurbishment weren’t working. David was anxious for me to see them, and this time they worked just fine… and were quite cool. It looked like a trail of lit fuses traveling up the walls leading to an explosion in front of you as the track exited the cave.
Big Thunder pals
Ready for the runaway train… and that big explosion
That big explosion
Next we hit the one-two punch of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean in New Orleans Square, followed by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain (for which we had a 2:35 FastPass) in Critter Country. All four of these rides only took one hour. Not bad, eh?
Two hitchhiking Sons
Pirate scary guys
Carl, the scruffier version
The many adventures of Brad and David
Proving the blusteriness of the day
Splash Mountain… sure as you’re born
Splash Mountain welcomes the America Sings singers
The drop
Our final hour at the park was spent just sitting and relaxing over a Pastrami Reuben on Rye lunch at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. We left the park about 4:00 and headed back toward Hollywood. It had probably been one of my briefest stays at any Disney park, but I certainly couldn’t argue with hitting six E-ticket rides and have a nice lunch in that amount of time.
We reconvened at 6pm on Hollywood Boulevard at the Egyptian Theatre for the final program of the convention. There we saw another array of fun, rare, and interesting films including Harold Lloyd in Young Mr. Jazz, the Spanish version of Our Gang’s When the Wind Blows titled Los Fantasmas, a Fox Movietone Newsreel from 1937 featuring the Our Gang reunion at the Hal Roach Studios, a Hearst Metrotone Newsreel from 1932 showing Laurel & Hardy in a skit getting a traffic ticket in Times Square, Laurel & Hardy in County Hospital, Charley Chase in Fallen Arches, and the complete version of This Is Your Life with the Hazel Bishop Beauty Box (Hazel Bishop Beauty Box, Hazel Bishop Beauty Box) ads in it. Overall a very fun program and great way to end the convention.
In attendance at the screening was Betty Goulding, the widow of A Chump at Oxford director Alf Gouding, whom I hadn’t seen since 1992. After the show I chatted with Carl and Dee Ahlm and Jim Harwood, all members of the Towed in a Hole tent, where I grew up.
With Betty Goulding Saunders
Hail, hail, the old tent’s all here: Carl, Dee, me, Jim
We then all walked over to Mel’s Diner to have a late dinner with David and I sitting at a table with Big Jimmy and Little Jimmy, and Bob sitting at table next to us with Lori and Marcia and company, but sitting sideways to chat with us as well.
Tremendous amounts of excitement and good will at Mel’s Diner
After we ate, I said my goodbyes to David and Bob and everyone, and left to go back to Jimmy’s place to spend the night. I hadn’t stayed at his house in a while and Cate had now taken over ‘my room’, so I took the fold-out couch in the computer room. It made not difference because I think by that point I could have slept in the bathtub if necessary.
The next morning I got calls from Mom delivering me bad news about Carolyn’s car that it seemed could not be fixed, from Carolyn telling me that the air conditioning had gone out in my car again, and from Bob who realized he hadn’t thanked me at the brunch and apologized, also telling me that I didn’t have to pay any registration for the convention after all. This would certainly come in handy as I now had two cars out of commission. But onward and upward as I spend my last day with the Wileys.
After a leisurely morning for me, spent with Ellen and Cate while Jimmy ran some errands, he returned and we headed out to try again to hit the At Last Cafe, one of the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in the area. We had attempted this place in the Spring of 2012 but could not find a place to park. This time, we arrived on a day that it was closed. This turned out to be the second and final chance as they closed up shop in the Summer of 2017. Serves them right never being open and not having a place to park.
Last crack at At Last
While we were in Long Beach, Jimmy took me to the neighborhood where the house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is located. Although most of the film was shot in Chicago where the action takes place, this one wasn’t even close. It was a great location from a classic film.
Ferris Bueller’s home in the movie
My home now
I had also always enjoyed the original American Pie film, and was somewhat entertained by its sequels. So we stopped elsewhere in the neighborhood to see where Jim Levinstein’s home was located. And since we were there, we also checked out a couple of sites from American Pie 2, including Michelle’s house and the house they painted for their Summer job. Neither quite merited jumping out to pose with them so I just snapped pics from the car.
Jim hastily exits his home in American Pie
I hastily stand in front of it
The house to paint in American Pie 2
I painted it back to its original color
Michelle’s house in American Pie 2
I went there looking for her tutelage
Finally, the same neighborhood also contained two house utilized in the film Donnie Darko. I’m not a big fan of the film and really don’t remember much about it from the one viewing I had, but since I know it’s a cult favorite, I got a picture with Donnie’s house from the film, and we also swung by the house used as Jim Cunningham’s house (also used in the film Not Another Teen Movie.)
Donnie Darko’s dark house
It brightened up when I showed up
The Cunningham house in Donnie Darko
Technically the second Cunningham house filming location I’ve been to
All five of these houses were just a matter of a few streets apart. Mostly I was happy to get the Ferris Bueller house as it’s been on my bucket list for quite some time.
It was getting close to 1:30 by this time and since we had not had lunch, we found another DD&D at which to dine. This one was called the North End Caffe in Manhattan Beach and had been featured on the episode Surf ‘n Turf, as well as the Pork Hall of Fame episode. A little off the beaten path, the restaurant itself was just a few blocks up from the beach. The featured items according the online source I used were different from what their menu indicated, but I didn’t have any problem with getting the hot dog sampler featuring three dogs supposedly featured on the show (which I have yet to see).
DD&D #95: North End Caffe in Manhattan Beach, California
An impressive display of hot dogs
Five weenies in one photo. P.S. Jimmy didn’t get a hot dog.
These were the “North End Dawgs” with Belgian Fries and included one of each of three types of dogs: a Creole (bacon wrapped hot dog with Swiss, creole mojo, crystal hot sauce, tomato, onion, and Zatarain’s salt), the Opie (hot dog with American cheese, mustard, pickle, onion), and the Tijuana (bacon wrapped hot dog with Chipotle mojo, Avocado, mustard, hot sauce, onion, tomato, and cilantro). As you can tell by the sound of them, two were pretty spicy and had a few things on them I didn’t care for so I had to pick them apart a little, but overall I enjoyed the meal anyway.
After lunch, we headed to the Jimmy’s office and picked up Big Jimmy to go around checking out some Laurel & Hardy locations, mostly near Culver City. Yes, I know we had done tons of locations during the convention but since most of them were from a tour bus, I wanted to get some better pictures with me in them. It would be a nice way to cap off the trip.
Since these are a little more complicated and intricate to explain, I’ll save these final locations for one final posting pertaining this trip.
Laurel & Hardywood 2014 has ended, but the trip will conclude in the next posting…
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