The Way Out West Tent 40th Anniversary Banquet
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
The centerpiece around which the whole weekend celebration in Los Angeles took place was the Way Out West Tent’s 40th Anniversary Banquet which occurred Saturday evening, July 28, 2007 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel. Following our bus tour of Culver City, there was just a dab of time to check into our room and relax a bit. It was decided just hours before that I would be splitting a room at the Westin with my pal David so we got into our room, changed into our dress garb, and prepared for an exciting night with our Sons of the Desert friends. Read the rest of this entry »
Okay, I was young and uneducated at the time. I hadn’t seen many of the silent Our Gang films at that point. They just really weren’t very available for viewing in 1980. So at the time I scarcely knew who Mary Kornman was, much less her little sister Mildred. And the clincher was that the Kornman Mom – Verna Kornman – was also on hand for the Our Gang reunion. Mary, who had passed away from cancer in 1973, was THE leading lady of the silent Our Gang – as much as Darla was the leading lady of the sound Little Rascal films. 
On the morning of Saturday, July 28, 2007, the buses were all convening at the Culver Hotel where Bob and I had spent the night. Some were transporting guests who had stayed at the Westin near the LAX (the location of 
I wasn’t overly-ecstatic to meet Carla Laemmle on October 1, 2005 at the Hollywood Collectors Show. I didn’t even recognize her name…although I should have. She was the niece of Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle, so there should have been some name recognition. But I was a bit impressed that she had appeared – albeit briefly – in the 1930 Bela Lugosi version of Dracula. I became even more impressed to find that she had appeared in the Academy Award winning Broadway Melody. 
I had no appreciation really for who Peggy Ahern was when I met her at the Hollywood ’80 convention, but was eager to have any of the former-child stars whom I encountered sign my little blue autograph book. Later I found out exactly who Peggy was…one of the short-term leading ladies of the Our Gang series from 1924 to 1927. Over this span of time she only appeared in seven of the silent films. Of utmost distinction was that she signed my autograph page, and then Woim Kibrick signed on the same page right under her as seen