Third Grade Begins
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
After our return from the Hollywood ’80 convention, I was forced to return to my suburban Ohio lifestyle. I spent out the rest of the lazy days of Summer watching TV and playing outside, being babysat by Kelly Nye on the days that Mom worked. To fill my hours, I began compliling a list of all of the performers from the Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang films – as listed in the books Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang: The Life and Times of The Little Rascals. I would write each name down and then put the corresponding number of each film that they appeared in. It was a very early and rudimentary version of the Internet Move Database. Read the rest of this entry »
Henry Brandon became one of the staples of the Sons of the Desert conventions throughout the 1980’s. Although one of the kindest and gentlest men you would ever hope to meet, the Sons took his role as the evil Silas Barnaby in Laurel and Hardy’s Babes in Toyland to heart. Everytime he would enter a room, he would be greeted with scores of boos and hisses. I always wondered if that would eventually get on his nerves, but he was always a great sport about it and treated the Sons member like they were long-lost family at his convention at his five consecutive convention appearances. 
Even with my somewhat limited knowledge of the Laurel and Hardy canon in 1980, I was especially excited to get to meet Rosina Lawrence when we went to the Hollywood ’80 Sons of the Desert convention. She was best-known to me as playing the lead role of Mary Roberts in one of L&H’s best films Way Out West. She also played schoolteacher Miss Jones in several of the Our Gang films including the Academy Award winner Bored of Education and their only feature film General Spanky. 
Thomas Benton Roberts was the only celebrity at the Hollywood ’80 Sons of the Desert convention who signed my autograph book twice. I reckon that I had him do this because I really had no idea who he was at the time. Later on I realized that he appeared in the classic Laurel and Hardy silent film Two Tars as the hapless victim of Stan’s gushy tomato. Still later, I found out that Thomas Benton Roberts actually meant much more to the production of the L&H films. He was what was referred-to-as a ‘stand-by carpenter’ – a less-than-glamourous term for a special effects artist. 
Eddie Quillan (seen at right with comedy producer Mack Sennett) had a long and distinguished film and TV career, playing more than 200 roles from the golden age of slapstick to the late 1980’s. My interest in Mr. Quillan – as you might suspect – was due to the role he played in the 1934 all-star feature Hollywood Party. You might even say he was the ‘leading man’ among the sea of comedians, including Laurel and Hardy, Jimmy Durante, and the Three Stooges among others.