The Terrible Catsafterme

I guess you could blame a tomato for my introduction to Bob Satterfield the man, not to be confused with Bob Satterfield the fish (as introduced here). And not just any tomato. I’m talking a 1928 tomato. Because it was Thomas Benton Roberts, who had been hit in the face with a tomato in the 1928 Laurel and Hardy silent comedy Two Tars who referred me to Bob (again, the man) to purchase a scene photo of himself covered in said tomato, which I could get autographed. How appropriate that Bob and I both hate tomatoes.

So to be completely specific about our first encounter, it occurred on Saturday, July 26 at approximately 6:48pm at the 1986 Sons of the Desert Convention in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. This meeting followed the Convention Keynote Speech that John McCabe gave and then surprised many by announcing his engagement to Rosina Lawrence. I approached Bob, whom I was well-familiar with from his integral role at Hollywood ’80, as he sat sprawled out in the last row of chairs, introduced myself, and began with a word or two of flattery (praising the incredible work he had done on the L&H locations issue of Pratfall magazine). Then I asked if he had some photos of Thomas Benton Roberts for sale. He told me that yes indeed he would be selling them in the dealer’s room the next morning for the cost of $2.00 each. That was pretty much it for our first encounter.

The next event of the evening was the Grand Parade of Tents in the hotel ballroom. I scarcely remember the brief skit that our Towed in a Hole Tent Grand Sheik Carl Ahlm came up with for us to perform. I had a couple of lines and that was that. But what I do remember well was the skit that my new friends Bob Satterfield and Thomas Benton Roberts starred in for the Way Out West tent. It began with Bob smashing a tomato into John Duff’s face, followed by T.B. reciprocating with a tomato in Bob’s face. Oh, how I’ve replayed that brilliant moment in my mind over the years.

 Bob attempts to smash a baby tomato into John Duff’s mug

 Bob gets his and the crowd implores “One more time!”

So T.B. Roberts happily obliges

Unfortunately for Bob, the tomato juice was highly toxic on the eyes, and as Bob struggled to see as he exited the stage, a pen and paper was forced in front of him so that he could sign a waiver to use his appearance in the film called The Revenge of the Sons of the Desert being created in tandem with the convention. I remember this first-hand, as Bob told it to my family and me as we waited in line for the next event of the evening, Lily’s Dinner and Show in the Lily Langtry theater in the hotel. The event was rather risque and wildly inappropriate for a Sons convention, including a couple of well-known comic impersonators. Unfortunatley they were Martin and Lewis, not Laurel and Hardy!

But the highlight for me was standing in line with Bob waiting to get into the show. As fate would have it, he ended up right next to us – and was subjected to about 30 minutes of my constant chattering. I think it was here that we solidified our friendship as I regaled him with my vast knowledge of Laurel and Hardy and the Our Gang, citing articles from the Intra-Tent Journal that he had written and forgotten about…but which I had practically memorized from reading the issues over and over. We talked about trying to find silent Little Rascal Mickey Daniels, who at that point no one knew had already passed away. I was in awe of the people he had met and collected autographs from.

My family didn’t sit with Bob at the show. He was probably busy with his Way Out West clique, so we ended up near Carl, Alan Garfield, and Dwain Smith. When Dwain mentioned that he had received a letter from Bernard Delfont, the promoter who brought L&H to England in the 1940’s, I requested his address from Dwain, which he later sent me resulting in me obtaining his autograph as well. The show didn’t end until 11pm, so we were up rather late.

But that didn’t stop me from getting up bright and early on Sunday morning and making my way down to the dealer’s room promptly at the 9am opening time. Naturally, I was waiting there for Bob when he leisurely strolled down sometime after that point, lugging a couple of huge photo albums along with him. Remember that $500 Laurel and Hardy fund that I had brought along on the trip? Well, I’m guessing that somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of it ended up going to Bob. Of course if we knew then what we know now, he probably wouldn’t have been parting with signed photos of Anita Garvin and Hal Roach for $10 each. And of course, I would have been buying them all up.

So right off the bat, Bob and I discovered our second mutual hobby besides Laurel and Hardy…collecting autographs. It was on this basis that Bob began sending signed photos to me through the mail as he collected various L&H and Our Gang co-stars. We then began corresponding regularly through mail and by telephone. He always identified himself as “Bob Satterfield from California” when he called – compared to now when I just hear a simple “UGGH” groaned on the other end of the line.

By 1988 I was making my first trek alone to California where Bob would take me around to many of the film locations and celebrity graves in California, to Disneyland, and Universal Studios, and visits with some of the living legends in the area. But all of that is a story for another time.

And the rest, as trite people say, is history. Obviously anyone who reads this website sees Bob’s mug spattered all over many of the postings (and for that I apologize). We have been the best of friends for over twenty years now, going on many travels and adventures together. And if there is truly anyone out there who is Laurel and Hardy reincarnated, it just might be us – as we are able to launch into their personalities and routines at will, for no one’s amusement but our own. Of course my dumbness is mostly an act, whereas his grumpiness is all his own…but that only makes it more fun to annoy him.

But no matter how much we rag on each other, I would be remiss if I didn’t confess that Bob is most certainly one of the best friends I’ve ever had and I look forward to many more years of adventures. Unless of course he still hates me after the last one.

Valley Forge will continue…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 6:53 am and is filed under 1980's - Late, Laurel and Hardy, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.