The Terrible Catsafterme

Autograph collecting has always been a fun hobby. But I’d have to say it used to be more enjoyable in the past before it became so god-awful commercialized. It used to be that gathering autographs was the combined result of effort, talent, and luck. Now it’s mostly about the money. I don’t want to come down too hard on the Ray Courts Hollywood Collector’s Show or the celebrities who attend it, but it seems to me that the hobby is just getting out of hand. On Friday morning, February 16, Bob picked me up from David’s house and we headed for the show, held in Burbank. On the way, we stopped to see the grave of Oliver Hardy in Valhalla Cemetery, which meant more to me than most of the living people at the Courts show! Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve just spent well over an hour scouring photographs, documents, and collapsing inward inside my own head trying to piece together my trip to Hollywood during the Summer of 1995. If I had to do it all over again, I would be sure to keep some notes as to what I did on an important trip like this. For example, in the picture at left, I have no idea why I’m posing in this doorway! When it comes down to it, the dates aren’t all that important, but they are nice to know. Fortunately, I have enough memories and photos to keep the trip alive in my head for the time being as I try to record what we did. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m never really sure if people are as impressed as I think they should be when I tell them that I once met the original “Buckwheat.” The date was Thursday, July 31, 1980 and the event was the Our Gang Mixer in the Sierra Room of the Los Angeles Hilton at the Hollywood ’80 Sons of the Desert convention. All I had with me at the time was my little blue autograph album so this is what I had him sign. You might say that as far as I’m concerned, meeting Buckwheat is one of my personal claims to fame. So bear with me as I relay the details just one more time… Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The last chance I got to spend time with Gordon “Porky” Lee before his passing in 2005 was at the Sea-Tac Sons of the Desert convention in the Summer of 2000. Although it was the second time I had met him – the first being in Minneapolis in 1996 – I still was thrilled enough to purchase an additional four photos to have him autograph for my collection. Knowing his affinity for beer, I opted to keep my streak going, and treat him to one from the cash bar as I previously had on the occasion of our first meeting. As a hardened drinker and smoker, Porky was less appealing as an adult than he was as a child, but still a very nice and friendly man nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »