Dave and I awoke bright and early the morning of July 29, 2007 in our hotel room at the Westin LAX Airport Hotel. We packed up our stuff and headed over to the Wiley office to help load up the afternoon’s coolers with beverages and ice in preparation for the second leg of our bus tours to the various Laurel and Hardy locations. While the prior day’s tours had been centered around Culver City, this day would see some of the other film locations in the outlying areas of Los Angeles.
Fortunately, neither Jimmy nor I had to host a bus this time around, so we grabbed our seats on one of the big, more luxurious buses and prepared for a mostly relaxing trip. Jimmy had to assist his Dad up front for part of the time, so I turned to my neighbor to the left, Mr. Dick Bann of Playboy: The Girls Next Door fame and chatted about love and marriage…and more subdued topics that were Laurel and Hardy or Our Gang related.
It wasn’t long before we were careening our way around town, gawking at these relics of classic movies past. I had seen virtually all of these locations before, so there were few surprises. However, I did get a treat when we stopped at the Wrong Again house. In the past, the trees had been so overgrown in front of it that I could scarcely see anything. This time the trees had been cut back, so it was easy to make out some parts of the house which were prevalent in the film. We almost got to walk up to the front porch of the house, but the security guard wanted a dollar a head for everyone on the bus, so it didn’t happen. The house was currently being used for the TV reality series Beauty and the Geek – so it’s hard to get near.
We then drove past the Love ‘Em and Weep apartment and the Block-Heads / We Faw Down Alley (which I filmed myself running down earlier in the year), before stopping in downtown Los Angeles to get a closer look at the buildings that Laurel and Hardy were filmed atop in their 1928 thrill comedy Liberty. These buildings I had not seen since 1988 so it was fun to make some new comparisons with frame blow-ups of the film.
By this time, we were ready to stop for lunch and some freakin’ huge coldcut sandwiches with enough bread to nearly make up an entire loaf. We ate these at Hollenbeck Park, the site where Laurel and Hardy had filmed Men O’ War in 1929. Jimmy had taken me here in 2005 and pointed out the various landmarks which still remain that are actually visible in the film – among them the stone gazebo in the photo below.
I’m the suspcious looking guy in the black tank top
After lunch, we made our way to a building – and what was left of the gate – used in both the film The Second Hundred Years and The Hoose-Gow. This was yet another discovery of Jimmy’s which he had taken me to earlier this year for the first time. Our bus then drove by the nearby area in Lincoln Park where scenes from Laurel and Hardy’s first joint appearance in The Lucky Dog were filmed. I had been on a more extensive walking visit here with Jimmy during my October 2005 trip.
Our next stop was at the Heritage Square Museum where the old Palms Station train depot that was used in the L&H film Berth Marks now stands. It had been relocated in 1975 from where it originally sat alongside the Southern Pacific Railroad in Palms. It is here now only as a historical site with some historical displays and a gift shop inside. Here I was actually able to purchase a magnet inside an actual Laurel and Hardy location! And for some reason, they had a bowl of synthetic fruit inside so I was able to pose with the proverbial ‘wax apple’ as seen at the top of this posting.
Cross-eyed at the Palms
The final location of the trip was the biggie. Clearly the coolest Laurel and Hardy location one could visit is the tried-and-true steps from their 1932 Academy Award winning film The Music Box (which were also used in their silent film Hats Off). This marked my eighth visit to the steps and it was fun to point out some of the subtle points of interest to the many fans visiting for the first time.
Another trip to this wonderful location: the steps from The Music Box
Following our day of locations, we capped off the trip with a visit to both the final resting places of both Oliver Hardy (at Valhalla Memorial Park) and Stan Laurel (at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills). I purposely did not take a picture or pose with Ollie’s grave as I had visited it earlier this year without visiting Stan, so I wanted to make sure my visits were evened out. I know – it’s a little weird. I also posed for a picture with John Ritter’s grave and also for the first time (although I had visited it every time I saw Stan), Buster Keaton’s grave.
With Stan
Solemnly deadpan for Buster
It was around 6:30pm by the time we made the drop-off of passengers at the Westin. The other bus had taken a set of passengers to the Culver Hotel. We unloaded some of the stuff at Jimmy’s office and then several of us went out for dinner at Pacos Tacos. My friend Flip Lauer from Cleveland was nice enough to treat Jimmy, Dave, and I to a soda – and when I say soda, I mean margarita for me. We had a nice, filling Mexican dinner full of good conversation and evil snickering before the Wileys and I headed back to their estate.
Wasting away in Margaritaville
Flip Lauer, Bob Duncan, Stan Taffel, Ken Runyon’s dome, Big Jimmy, Kris, Mark Turner, Dave, me, and Jimmy stand by for the explosive Mexican delights that await us
There Jimmy and I whipped out the traditional mindless tome So What About Fin? and read passages to each other until well after midnight. I was so slaphappy that I had Jimmy film me trying to muddle my way through one single paragraph without laughing maniacally. Ask me if you’d like to see the video before you confirm my admission to the madhouse.
More fun than any human should be allowed
My flight home wasn’t insanely early the next morning, but it took off at 9:15am. Security was a madhouse here, but I made it in time. My layover was in St. Louis and I made it home by about 6:00pm. It was good to see Jackie when she picked me up at the airport. It would only be four days before I would be leaving her behind again and taking off on another trip…
For more on the locations click here…
So…what about “Fin”? Why does this book inspire howls of laughter? For good reasons, or…otherwise? (I remember reading passages from Leo Brooks’ book about the L&H Stock Company and wanting to fly out to see him for the express purpose of throttling him. What a bozo! An even bigger one than Larry Harmon.) Again, this here article ought to also be available over at that Wax Apple, which has been mighty quiet for several months.
Randy Skretvedt
October 9th, 2007
I saw that pose of you and Buster Keaton before let me think, Oh yes, at one of Stonewall’s graves.
Bob
October 17th, 2007