One of the reasons I voted in 2004 to have the convention in Harlem was because it gave me the opportunity to visit Oliver Hardy’s birthplace. Often I had considered making the trek to attend the annual Oliver Hardy festival in October but it never panned out. Since the town is somewhat off the beaten path, I knew it would be difficult to swing into Harlem during any of our frequent trips through Georgia to Florida.
So on Friday, July 14, I finally got my chance to see the town. The convention arranged for a nice opening ceremony outside the Harlem City Hall, followed by a parade in the blazing heat. After the parade, two Sons from Britain got married and then had a reception. Ashleigh and I didn’t participate in much of any of this. I was more interested in seeing Ollie’s birthplace, his father’s grave, and the Laurel and Hardy Museum that the city maintains.
The Museum was fun but unimpressive. There were mostly modern artifacts (such as books, statues, photos, etc.) and included very little of any historical value. But it was a nice display that might appeal to the casual fan stopping by the town. In the back room of the museum was a nice, cool screening room where L&H films ran continually. Overall, a valiant effort at a tribute to Babe Hardy.
After browsing the Museum, Ashleigh, Dave, and I went on an organized scavenger hunt around the town, solving clues to locate local businesses. Once we figured out to which business the clue applied, we would go inside and get a rubber stamp from the proprietor. After we filled our paper with stamps, we were instructed to turn the form in to our ‘hillbilly host.’ Ashleigh turned in the paper and won the contest, much to the chagrin of fellow Sons member Lori, who thought she had won – but alas, her paper was not turned into the ‘hillbilly host,’ but another one of the hosts. It’s all very confusing, but in the end Ashleigh was presented with a nice wooden keepsake box and a $50 gift certificate to the hotel restaurant.
Following the scavenger hunt, we scouted the historical locations relevant to Babe. I will share these in the next convention posting. Then we all went back to the Harlem High School for lunch. The hosts announced that there would be a special presentation in the auditorium, a high school production of Take a Smile, a tribute to L&H. We opted to go back to the hotel for a swim, which I later regretted because most conventioneers reported that the play was fabulous.
To see the Oliver Hardy sights in Harlem, click here…
To continue the convention, click here…
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