The Terrible Catsafterme

We had packed a lot of activity into the last five days, so on Wednesday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day – Jimmy and I spent a leisurely day traveling to and fro around Culver City, the Silverlake area, Hollywood, and Los Angeles scouting a select group of Laurel and Hardy locations. It had always been my desire to actually be involved in the finding of a new location. So we literally spent some of the day driving up and down in an area where we had reason to believe that one of the Laurel and Hardy films were made. 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 »

Hollywood ’80 is distinctly emblazoned on my mind as a completely iconoclastic experience – one that stands on its own, with no ‘before’ and no ‘after’. Unlike any other typical vacation, the time I spent on this trip is seldom thought of in the context of anything else that was going on during this time. It simply is remembered as ‘Hollywood ’80,’ the single most exciting experience up to that time, and likely one of the most important trips of my life. It was my first time in California, the first time to a Sons of the Desert convention, my first time on a plane, my first time meeting any L&H and Our Gang celebrities, my first ‘non-family’ vacation (I considered it to be much more of an ‘adventure’), and, as my attention to details are demonstrated by my remembrance of this, my first ham and swiss on rye sandwich. 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 »