Bob Cummings
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007
I was very familiar with the work of actor Bob Cummings when I sent him an autograph request on July 22, 1985. Although his name might be vanishing into obscurity today, at the time I was enjoying watching The Bob Cummings Show on television. Being a huge Hitchcock fan, too, I was also a fan of his work in Dial M for Murder. He was the star of another of Hitch’s classics that I hadn’t seen yet at this point, too: Saboteur. Finally, and perhaps most important at the time, he was an extra in Laurel and Hardy’s Sons of the Desert (although in later years he denied it, stating he was already an established actor when he came to Hollywood in the 1930’s). Read the rest of this entry »
On Monday, February 5, 2006, I attended the funeral of Russell Willeman. The service was nice and full, as friends and family packed in to pay their final respects to this much-loved man. I was not able to make the viewing the day before, but from what I understand, enormous amounts of people paraded through the Littleton & Rue Funeral Home. It was obvious that that nearly the entire town of Springfield had been touched by Russell in some way. He had spent his career as a local high school Art teacher for 25 years. 
I still fondly recall the gala outdoor luau held at the Valley Forge Sons of the Desert convention in 1986, complete with a pig roast, music, and the warm night air – so it was a little disappointing to find that the Augusta convention Friday night luau would be held indoors in a stuffy banquet room. Not that it wouldn’t have been miserable in the Georgia humidity, but still it was a bit of a letdown. 
My first association with Our Gang member Jean Darling came in late 1985 when I sent for a 
During the midst of my autograph collecting spree, there was no question that I was still the biggest Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang fan in the world. So naturally, it was on my agenda to collect not only autographs of world-famous actors and actresses, but also anyone who worked in either of these series. Since I had not yet met Bob at this point, I relied on Carl Ahlm to get me the addresses of such folks. I had been present at Hollywood ’80, the incredible Sons of the Desert convention at which more than twenty Our Gang members had assembled for the biggest reunion in history, and picked up quite a few autographs there.