21.09.23.
The Perry Winkle
Issue number 101 of The Perry Winkle has arrived and - as always - it is superb. Recommended reading for all Sons of the Desert.
Contact editor roger.robinson5@btinternet.com
Adrian Gebruers writes
Part of the lovely convention booklet issued at the European Convention in Cobh had a poignant piece for Adrian Gebruers, who rang the bells during the festivities.
On The Trail of Laurel and Hardy in Cobh and Ireland
Catch a great video shot by the Midnight Patrol Tent at the convention in Cobh.
Stan’s house
The house where Stan Laurel was born in Ulverston has been sold to long-standing member of the Sons of the Desert, Tony Butcher. The news was announced by Mark Hammond at the European Convention in Cobh.
George Allen RIP
Just want to thank you all for the lovely messages for my dad.
I have just sorted the funeral arrangements. It will be on the 2nd of October at 3.00 o clock at Corbetts Tey crematorium. Address is RM14 2UY.
My dad has asked if any Sons of the Desert attend, please could they wear a Laurel and HardyT-shirt or something with Laurel and Hardy on and bring your fezzes as he wants us to sing our song around the coffin. If anyone it going to the wake after please bring £2 per person as he wants me to have a last go on the fruit machine for him and if we win the money is going to Little Havens Hospice.
Thank you again for the lovely messages.
Paul Allen
Madges’ grave
Bill Crouch reports that a new inscribed tablet has been placed (by persons unknown) on the wooden cross at the grave of Stan Laurel’s mother in Glasgow.
Call of the Cuckoos Tent of Glasgow
Men o’ War Tent of Colchester
Just a brief note about our next meeting at Brantham - this is on 28th October and programme details are listed on our website. This will be another 'Halloween' related meeting and, like last year, if you come to the October meeting in a 'fancy dress outfit' with a Laurel and Hardy link (it might simply be a hat, maybe a bowler, fez or a sailor’s doughboy, or perhaps go for a full costume), you might pick up the prize for best costume! Dressing up is, of course, optional.
Paul Harding
Come Clean Tent of Widnes
Twice Two Pinksteren 2024 Rolduc
There is an upcoming event in Rolduc in the Netherlands next year.
Go to
DVD and Blu-ray release
I’ve taken my time in watching every splendid second of the newly restored versions on the ‘Year One’ Flicker Alley release, and I can’t praise these too highly.
My sincere congratulations and thanks to all that were involved in this project, it is wonderful.
The link will take you to my thoughts, some info from the audio and the accompanying booklet, as well as my analysis of the timings of the restored versions which are invariably longer - sometimes significantly - than my existing versions.
If you were thinking of getting these, don’t delay, you won’t regret it.
https://beauchumps.wordpress.com/2023/09/12/laurel-and-hardy-year-one-a-new-bluray/
Mike Jones on Facebook
Appearing in The Bullfighters
Tony Hillman keeps busy posting info onto the IMDB website. He came across this
In 1943, while horseback riding in the Hollywood Hills, Rory Calhoun accidentally met actor Alan Ladd, whose wife Sue Carol was an agent. She landed him a one-line role in the Laurel and Hardy comedy short The Bullfighters (1945) under his name of "Frank McCown".
...and finally