He Played Stan…And Ollie!
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
As far as Laurel and Hardy look-alikes go, I can take them or leave them. In fact, I’d generally rather leave them. For the most part I’d rather watch the real Laurel and Hardy in black and white up on the silver screen, than to see live and in living color imitators perform on a stage. But having said that, I will also confess that my favorite L or H look-alike has always been Jim MacGeorge. Not only does he look and sound the most like the real Stan Laurel, but he is also one of the nicest guys you’d ever hope to meet. Read the rest of this entry »
In the Fall of 1997, I decided to incorporate my ‘talent’ and interest in collecting autographs into some early Christmas shopping for my Grandpa Murphy. In those days, we had a family gift exchange which was determined by drawing names out of a bowl. So I had to make sure the fix was in when it came time to draw at Thanksgiving. I’m not sure who I drew, but I made sure that I ended up with Grandpa. The object was to get Grandpa a signed photos of one his favorite child actresses Deanna Durbin, so someone in the family kinded traded names with me. 
After the long, busy, and incredible day I had experienced on Monday, it felt good to sleep in a bit and spend a nice leisurely morning relaxing at Jimmy’s house when I got up on Tuesday, October 7. Cassidy had sent home some of the leftover pizza from the party at her place on Sunday and I had the leftover Olive Garden to snack on in the morning. And of course, there was the traditional giant carton of Goldfish crackers which hit the spot while watching some more reruns of It’s Your Move. And naturally, as any good road trip must be preceded by, there was the cermonial reading aloud of the hilarious pamphlet So What About Fin? 
It was hard to believe that we were getting ready to spend our last day together in Europe when we got up on the morning of Saturday, July 19, 2008 in Munich, Germany. In one sense, it had seemed like we had been here forever, seeing so many things and visiting so many places. But on the other hand, it was hard to believe that my two-week journey was drawing to a close. We had a lot to see this day, so we got up and moving relatively early. There was no breakfast at the Renaissance Munich Hotel where we were staying, a first in Europe. We jumped into our rental and headed out for our first destination of the day: the Olympic Park.