The name Hollywood ’80 had entered the common vernacular of most Sons of the Desert members – both to those who had been fortunate enough to actually attend it, as well as to those who had only heard tales of the legendary convention. So it was in deliberate reference to that Sons convention’s nickname that I named an article I did for Dante’s Info #13 as Hollywood ’95. This particular vacation to California was not a convention, but my third journey to the wild western state in a successful attempt to recapture the magic of Hollywood ’80.
So as a kickoff to this string of postings regarding this particular vacation, here is the article as I wrote it in its entirety. As a side note, the article contained a few additional blurbs (sub-articles, whatever) that I will post at a later time. Please do not confuse this trip with the concurrent postings about Hollywood ’80 and Hollywood ’07 (or the forthcoming Hollywood ’05). And bear in mind that this was an article in my L&H publication, so naturally the slant is on all things Roach.
California is known for many things. The Gold Rush. The smog. The quakes. The riots. That O.J. thing. But when I stepped off that plane (it had landed), none of that mattered to me. I was in Roach territory: on vacation and on assigment by that hard-nosed editor of Dante’s Info. There were many exciting things done during my week in California. Among them: Miss Saigon, a VIP tour of Warner Bros. Studios, a special screening of Vertigo in a huge restored theater, the Nixon library, and even a sushi bar. In addition, I bumped into Penny Marshall and Pat Morita, several Palayboy Playmates bumped into me, and I met Henry Jones and Patricia Hitchcock, daughter of Alfred. But all that, of course, has no relevance in these pages.”Hollywood ’80” stands out as one of the greatest conventions the Sons of the Desert (that’s us) ever held, simply because there seemed to be no end to our ability to reach out and embrace our surroundings. To stand on the locations Laurel and Hardy filmed. To speak to those with whom the boys worked. To visit the final resting places of Stan and Ollie and their greatest co-stars. So when staying with tour-guide-o’-fun Bob Satterfield, it’s possible to do all that again.
On June 24th and 25th, Bob and I attended the Ray Courts autograph and collector’s show where not only did I get to meet up with some fellow Sons friends, but I got to see some of my Our Gang pals: Dorothy deBorba, Tommy Bond, Frank Coghlan, and Joy Wurgaft. Also present was TV’s “Dobie Gillis,” Dwayne Hickman, who as you may know appeared with Our Gang in Melodies Old and New. It was a great pleasure to see Tony and Lois Laurel Hawes and Chuck McCann working the crowd as well. I also spent a small amount of money on autographs but I’ll tell you about that when Lisa isn’t around. After the first day of the show we had dinner with Way Out West tent members John and Janet Duff, Jimmy, Kris, and Jimmy Jr. Wiley, and none other than Dorothy deBorba herself. But to see Bob and John verbally demolish each other…that’s the real treat. Later in the week, several of us would meet again for dinner, along with Lori Jones McCaffery.
The Laurel and Hardy movie locations in the area will always hold special meaning to the Sons of the Desert. And we visted some of the most popular incluiding the Perfect Day house, Big Business house, Bacon Grabbers house, downtown Culver City which houses locations fo a lot of the silents, and naturally The Music Box steps. A couple of sad revelations were made at a couple of the sights. The house at the top of The Music Box stairs, which was actually only seen in Hats Off, has become the equivalent of Hats Off. Apparently destroyed by earthquake, it is currently being rebuilt. You may want to quickly jet into Culver City for one last look at the building in front of which Laurel and Hardy lay in the street, drenched, in We Faw Down. In our next issue we will see an entirely new location not found in “Pratfall,” which Bob and I saw for the first time. There’s another big change to another major location, which started out bad and ended up good
Now obviously, I made my way to Fresno during the week to see Janet Burston and Harry Spear, but I also visited someone else who hasn’t been heard from for a while. The closest one could possibly come to stepping back to the past and seeing an Our Gang kid as they appeared as a child need look no further than Joe Cobb, who looks, acts, and speaks almost exactly as he did in the early thirties. Granted, he’s altered but he hasn’t changed a bit. He’s as outgoing and friendly as he was in Lazy Days.
As I have on all of my four trips to California, I visited Stan and Babe at their final resting places to pay them my utmost respect. Searching for the grave markers of some of our stars is not as easy as I thought it would be as I soon found out. The biggest thrill was finding Charlie Hall’s grave for my first time. Did you know Forest Lawn in Glendale will not give out the burial sites of ‘celebrities’? All well and good, but I found it irritating that we couldn’t get the location Ben Turpin or Lawrence Tibbett, when we could get Charley Chase! We did find out that Mary Kornman was shipped from there to Colorado.
Among those we visited during the week were Walter Long, Charles Middleton, Alan Hale Sr., Gertruded Astor, Darla Hood, Alfalfa and Harold Switzer, and T. Marvin Hatley. Why I even stumbled onto a couple myself. Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum was one. The other was Benjamin Shipman, who was Laurel and Hardy’s business manager late in their careers. He is interred at Forest Lawn in Hollywood, the same cemetery where Stan rests.
On a final note, I had hoped to bring you a report on the Oceana Apartments where Stan spent his final years. In fact we reserved it for a night but they gave us the room next door. Another nice mess. For your reference, Stan had the only room on the second floor with a balcony facing the ocean if you should ever attempt this. Don’t let ’em tell you different.
All in all, you and I will both feel the ramifications of this trip in many an issue to come.
(P.S. As a point of fact, the three photos directly above were the only three photos published as part of the article in DI#13. There were additional photos within the three boxed-in blurbs sprinkled throughout the article – which you will see in future postings. The photo at the top did not appear in the original article and is actually of me leaving Bob’s house – rather than arriving – but it just seemed like such an appropriate shot!)
HOLLYWOOD ’95 will continue…
Bypass Hollywood ’95 and continue with 1995…
Leave a Reply