For a kid who considered himself the world’s biggest Laurel and Hardy fan – although you could probably count the number of those in the world on one finger – the 1986 Fifth International Sons of the Desert convention held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania from Friday, July 25 – Wednesday, July 30, was a virtual Garden of Eden. It had been four years since I had been to a Sons convention since our family opted to skip the one in 1984 held in Ulverston and London, England. Too expensive for my parents’ taste. Four years when you are growing from a ten-year old to a fourteen-year old seems like forever. And during that time, my interest in L&H had blossomed and flourished to a near-obsession.
My vow going into the convention was to try and get my foot in the door of becoming a valued and prominent member of the organization. I wanted to introduce myself to as many of the ‘bigwigs’ in the club as I possibly could. I seemed to know some of them as well as they knew themselves as I had been carefully following every written word in Rick Greene’s Intra-Tent Journal publication. Also, for the past two years, I had managed to save $500 of paper route money and I fully intended to spend every penny on Laurel and Hardy memorabilia in the dealers room.
Now some may tell you that Valley Forge was one of the weaker convention, but for someone like me who was purposely squeezing every bit of fun, exposure, entertainment, knowledge, and collectibles out of the week, I frankly had an absolute blast and can recount almost every minute of the week. Although it was only four full days, with an evening and morning on each side, this convention felt like the longest one I’ve ever attended – and I mean that in a good way. There was so much crammed into it that it seemed to be at least a full week’s worth of activities.
Unlike most conventions of the last decade, there seemed to be something always going on. You simply could not attend every function because many of them overlapped. Films were constantly showing in the film room and there were nearly 400 delegates in attendance with whom to socialize. Also – and most notably – the inevetible weirdos you might expect to find in a crowd like this seemed to be the exception rather than the norm.
The convention was also to be packed with celebrities – maybe not by standards of the earlier conventions, but by today’s standards indeed. As you know, my autograph collecting had resumed in full force the previous year and collecting signatures of L&H and Our Gang stars was extremely high on my to-do list. In those days, getting addresses or even photos of these stars was no easy task when one lived in Dayton, Ohio.
My entire family attended this convention once again and we drove from Dayton to Valley Forge which was roughly an eight-hour drive. As I had on our previous vacation to Florida, I brought along my autograph photo album for no good reason at all. We also brought along costumes that we had purchased at a thrift store so that we could dress up as townspeople of Toyland for our one and only foray into participating in the traditional costume affair.
I was always proud of this photo that I took of our hotel. It looks like a postcard.
Our destination was the Sheraton Valley Forge hotel. As you can imagine, it was almost unbearable sitting through the long drive, doubtlessly forcing my parents into playing L&H trivia all the way. Once we got there, even registration was exciting, getting our goody bag and taking it back to the room and pawing through it. Words cannot express how happy I was to finally be there.
At promptly 6:00pm, I was down in the opening cocktail mixer, mingling about, mostly playing the voyeur. I had brought along the one L&H co-star photo that I had, a lobby reproduction of the Roy Rogers film Bad Man of Deadwood which featured Henry Brandon as a co-star (seen here). I found him right away and asked him to sign it. A fellow Son from England was impressed that I would have such an obscure item. Another Sons member (Howard Newman possibly) asked me where I was from and I told him Dayton, Ohio. He told me that I must know Virginia Karns Patterson then, to which I replied that I knew who she was but had never met her.
Virginia played the role of Mother Goose in the 1934 Laurel and Hardy film Babes in Toyland. He took me over to meet her and she was excited that I was from her hometown. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The convention wasn’t even an hour old yet and I was already hobnobbing with the stars. (See more on Virginia here.)
The opening banquet began at 7:30pm. My family who had rested for a bit met me down in the banquet room and we got a table together in our comfort zone with the Ahlms – Carl, Dee, Holly, and Stacy – Steve and Sharon Stayonovich (non-active members from Lima, Ohio, with whom I had socialized at the conventions in 1980 and 1982), and Vic and Nancy Duane. To add to the excitement, Carl had brought along a batch of photos that he had obtained for me to feed my autograph-collecting hobby, among them Della Lind, Iris Adrian, and Johnny Downs. The photo of Johnny Downs was an adult photo and I didn’t recognize him, so I asked Carl who it was. Over the loud live music of The Nighthawks who were playing the tunes of Leroy Shield, he shouted over the table “Johnny Downs!” I was ecstatic with the photo…with the music…with the convention…with life at that moment.
After dinner, the film Babes in Toyland was screened. This was the complete print of the film which I had never seen at that point, which contained the opening montage of storybook characters, and Mother Goose stepping out of the storybook to sing Toyland, Toyland – which was especially amazing considering Mother Goose herself – Virginia Karns – and her husband Bill Patterson were sitting just a few tables away from us.
There was no way that I was getting to bed at a decent hour, so I doubtlessly retired to the film room and then stole into our room in the small hours of the night, to which Mom expressed her irritation. She’d have to get used to this, I thought, we’re in my world now.
You know I had to be excited to snap a photo of the registration table
Bypass the trip and continue with 1986…
I can’t wait to read the rest! The Sons conventions must have been a ‘Lot Of Fun’ in those days.
Dave Chasteen
May 27th, 2008