The Terrible Catsafterme

Our last day in Daytona Beach came on Friday, September 28. We had all had a nice, full week and decided to round it out with our traditional visit to the Daytona Beach flea market after a quick breakfast in the room. There is seldom much here for me at hillbilly central, but I was able to pick up a stack of DVD’s to add to my ever-growing collection. And of course, I sampled the fruit and had a soft pretzel. We were back at the condo by early afternoon, so I plopped onto the couch, watched some more TV on DVD and ate lunch while the others swam. Read the rest of this entry »

I may not have ever seen one single solitary episode of Dennis the Menace in my entire life, but I certainly know an iconic television show when hear about it. That’s why I had no qualms about shelling out twenty bucks or so to have my friend Bob Satterfield pick me up the photo at left that had been signed by Jay North and Jeannie Russell – that is Dennis Mitchell and Margaret Wade from the classic series – when they were making a joint appearance at one of the Hollywood Collectors Shows. Read the rest of this entry »

My autograph collecting didn’t exactly get off to a rip-roaring start in the first months of 1986, but there were some cool ones that I added to my collection nonetheless. Following the great Jim Brady autograph that I’ve already shown, I posted a letter to Jean Darling on January 16 after receiving her package in the mail and she reponded on February 4 (see here). Then on January 21, I sent out two requests – one to Bob Hope (which yielded a return of a secretarial signature on February 5), and one to Ray Bolger (which yielded three photos, some of which can be seen here). Read the rest of this entry »

Of all of the celebrites I’ve met who worked with Laurel and Hardy, none can really approach the magnitude of Anita Garvin. When celebrities were gathered for the Hollywood ’80 Sons of the Desert convention in Los Angeles, Anita Garvin was truly the last of the living members of the Laurel and Hardy Stock Company, an informal title applied to those performers who frequently starred in the boys’ films. Anita worked in a whopping eleven films with Stan and Babe, twice portraying Stan’s wife and once as Ollie’s girlfriend. This doesn’t even take into account her numerous appearances with Charley Chase and the Our Gang – and an attempt by Hal Roach to form a female comedy team along the lines of L&H, using Anita with Marion Byron. Read the rest of this entry »