Since we were in Europe, it was assumed that most of the convention-goers would probably prefer to get out and see the local sites rather than stay around the hotel. But since I was in Europe for a full fifteen days, and was at this point just about to complete my first week, I was looking forward to some standard convention fun without all the hustle and bustle. Friday, July 11, 2008, was the day that felt most like a good old regular Sons of the Desert convention.
I began the day by missing breakfast with all of my friends due to my doddling around on the internet in the hotel room. Everyone had finished by the time I got there for yet another gigantic European breakfast and lunchmeat sandwich extravaganza. This was alright though as it gave me a chance to sit and chat with my pal René Riva. I had only met René through the Laurel and Hardy Forum website, but we had ‘talked’ several times in the chatrooms there. Rene is a professional singer in the Netherlands and he has appeared on numerous local TV specials. In fact, coincidentally, he was pictured on a concert flyer that was found in the hotel lobby.
René and me after our hearty breakfast
After breakfast was the traditional Pee-Wee contest. As the victor from the previous convention, I had returned the Stan Laurel Shield that would be awarded to the next winner. Although I had no illusions about winning again, I was hoping to have at least an un-embarassing showing. But that didn’t happen. I was as bad as I had ever been and displayed my typical poor performance as I had done at every contest except for the one I somehow emerged victorious. I had two ‘spinners’ that didn’t go anywhere and one that went behind me and I couldn’t even hit it. I had missed the putting contest with my late breakfast, so there would be no sports victories at this convention.
Mustering my concentration…
…and making a valiant effort to smack that pee-wee
Rear-view action shot
Supposedly the memorabilia room and film room opened briefly from 10am – 11am, but I missed them both. In fact, I never did get to see either of them during the whole convention, since they were hardly ever open. At 11am began the Grand Council meeting. As usual there was really no business at hand to discuss. There was only one lone convention bid – for Sacramento, California – but the audio-visual equipment wasn’t functioning and the presentation was put off until that evening’s banquet.
Roger Gordon announced that there would be some potential bids for the 2012 convention in order to generate some excitement and illustrate that the Sons were certainly not washed up. The two valid bids would be 1) a return to London and 2) a unified effort from some of the New England Tents. Other ideas that had been thrown around included a Williamsburg, Virginia convention and a cruise to Alaska. I know that the final one wasn’t going to happen, because Roger stated that it was my pal Bob Satterfield who had come up with the suggestion…unbeknownst to Bob!
The final bit of business had to do with the Ulverston, England statue appeal which has morphed from a Stan Laurel statue to an entirely different Laurel and Hardy statue. Dwain Smith introduced Eric Woods to speak about it…and then immediately and accidentally dismissed the group. He recanted when the room reminded him that we still had another speaker. It was nice to see Dwain and Roger looking as youthful as ever. They really are the future of the Sons!
Bram Reijnhoudt, Dwain Smith, and Roger Gordon – the once and future kings of the Sons of the Desert
A bird hanging out at the Avifauna Hotel
Waiting for our ship to come in, Peter, me, Patrick Kuster, and Catherine
With my pals Anita, Ellen, and Gene Sorkin, members of my former tent A-Haunting We Will Go
At 12:45 that afternoon, we all boarded a boat outside our Avifauna Hotel to go on another cruise on the Old Rhine. River trips were beginning to be ‘old derby’ by this time, but being troopers we all went along once again. The nice part about the boat trip would be that it would confine many of the Sons to one place (actually two boats) so that we could do some socializing. I chatted with several Sons throughout the journey, meeting Willie MacIntyre from Scotland for the first time, and hung out at our table with Jimmy, Dave, and Stan Laurel’s great-granddaughter Cassidy – who popped over to our table, the youngest in the house, a few times. And of course, we watched Steve Wichrowski shave at his table as the boat floated down the river.
Three schnitzelgrubens is my limit!
David and Jimmy on board
The lovely Cassidy and me
John (awake), Gary Cohen, Big Jimmy, Kris, Janet (hidden), and Patrick float on by
It was cool to see how popular Laurel and Hardy were in Holland. We just happened to spot these alabaster statues at a house on the bank of the river
We had sandwiches and weiners while on board the boat. Celebrity guest and former Our Gang member Jean Darling was on board our boat signing her new book Buttercakes and Banana Oil. With an outrageous price of 30 Euros, I decided to pass on it. Prostitutes in Amsterdam cost about the same amount. When we reboarded the boat after our destination for our return trip, Jean would switch to the other boat and rake in some more Euros from a different crowd.
Our destination was the nearby city of Leiden. We only had about 45 minutes to hang out there, so there wasn’t much time to look around the city. We mostly hung around the famous and historic gate (known as ‘De Poort’) to the city. I took a nice photo of the members of the Way Out West tent, using about ten different cameras. No matter what Cassidy did, her memory card kept saying that it was full. One Sons member’s hat blew off into the river. That was one highlight of the Leiden pit stop.
I’m the one peeking out on the right from inside the Leiden city gate
The Way Out West Tent attendees: Big Jimmy, Lori, Jimmy, Cassidy, Bob Duncan, Kris, Dick, and David
Another was my interview with Steve Wichrowski, whom I had to prevent from shoving a microphone in Cassidy’s face against her will. Below is the interview in its entirety, in which Steve explains how he had caught on fire the previous day at the Five Flies restaurant.
It was about 6:00 upon arrival back at our hotel some two hours after we left Leiden. Many local Model T Ford owners had gathered with their cars in the hotel’s parking lot. Two sets of Laurel and Hardy look-alikes went through some excruciating routines and the Laurel and Hardy calliope belted out some great tunes. The routine was mostly excruciating because one of the Stans cut himself on the car, performing his brand of tomfoolery. That was actually the funniest part of the routine.
Cassidy with some Abbott and Costello look-alikes
Bill and Jamie as the boys with Our Gang member Jean Darling
Our Relations meets Busy Bodies
The highlight of the day was the evening banquet which began at 7:30 – or at least the food that was part of it. They had a live cooking buffet, which was a gigantic all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of great food and desserts, including chef-prepared steaks, chicken, roast beef, pasta, and seafood. Atypical of what I would usually chow down on, I mostly stuck with the seafood, as they had some of the best salmon I’ve had in a while. At our table that evening were the Wileys, David, Dick, Rick Lindner, and me.
There was supposedly live entertainment called the Two-Pets, who were going from table to table and doing routines which I never saw. Among the other things I couldn’t enjoy was the convention bid (which I couldn’t see) and the triva contest (which I couldn’t hear). I thought it strange that they held the trivia contest during a banquet, and even stranger that they merely picked contestants from the audience. I couldn’t hear what they were saying at all, so I never volunteered. In fact there were no American teams represented. I don’t think any of us could understand them. They all sat on the floor level in a circle and were asked trivia questions. It was pretty much a fiasco for the audience and went largely ignored.
Cassidy, John Bogie, and me at the Friday night banquet
Instead, Dick Bann and I sat at a nearby table while he told me some stories about Jean Darling and also how he ended up with the position of writing the screening notes for the Playboy Mansion’s movie night. After the banquet ended, David, Jimmy, and I went back to our room so David could upload his memory card to Jimmy’s computer. He had lost some of his pictures when his memory card went bad earlier in the week, so he wanted to get them backed up. Then the three of us headed to an outdoor screening of The Bohemian Girl, which was quite fun. We were all exhausted though so we didn’t quite make it to the end of the movie, before retiring to bed.
The next day would be the last full day of the convention. It seemed it had just started and it was already drawing to a close.
Baby, I am not from Havana.
Fifteen is my limit on schnitzengruben.
Chris
September 23rd, 2008
The poor guy that was on fire! You had no sympathy for him AT ALL!
Heidi
September 23rd, 2008
wish I could have been there, looked like so much fun!
Lucy
December 23rd, 2008