Hello Laurel & Hardy friends,Our next film show is next Wednesday Octember 21st 7.00pm till 10.00pm at the usual venue, THE BARGE INN, at 177 Tamworth Rd, Long Eaton, Nottingham NG10 1DH. We are up on the upper deck. All are welcome – entry is free.
As it’s Octember our next Laurel & hardy film show will be quite spooktacular…with ghosts, ghouls and chumps that go bump in the night. We intend to show no less than 5 film shorts from the Hal roach lot including the 3-reeler “The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)” and the 2-reeler “Oliver the Eighth (1934)” with Jack Barty as Jitters.
This month we will also be celebrating the university of the birth of Arthur “hiccup” Housman …born 10th octember 1889 (137 years ago). Arthur was the eternal drunk both on and off the screen and appeared in no less than 5 Laurel & Hardy films. In tribute, we plan to show a super 20min documentary entitled “Hats Off to Arthur Housman” which was recently premiered at the Laurel & Har-day in Wigan. It was produced by Gary Winstanley of the Dirty Work tent ably assisted by our good friends from the Stoke Midnight Patrol tent, Ant and Jo Mitchell-Waite. It’s a biographical documentary with clips from all his 5 films with Stan & Ollie. During the evening we will be showing “The Live Ghost (1934)” where Housman plays a key role… the drunken live ghost! Also we will be showing “Scram! (1932)” where Housman…yep, again plays the drunk who after a night of drinking, totally soaked, falls down a drain taking Stan & Ollie with him!
We will also show the silent comedy “The Finishing Touch (1928)” , where the Boys apply their amazing carpentry skills to complete a house with quite horrific consequences! This film has only recently been restored and this month we will show it with a soundtrack orchestrated by Neil Brand with synchronised music/sound effects.
We will also be taking another brief look at was happening this month, exactly 100 years ago. After completing the filming of Duck Soup, the Boys would be put into another film, “Slipping Wives”. Wheras, they were chumps working together in Duck Soup, the fates conspired against us/them in their next film, where they played completely different characters. Infact, even to the point, that the Ollie character had a total dislike of the Stan character and was by the end of the film trying to kill him! This month, we will only show the closing 5mins of Slipping Wives, but we intend to show all of their films in the order they were released exactly 100 years ago, starting in January next year. However, we can be encouraged that by now, 100 years ago, Stan & Ollie were starting to be regularly working TOGETHER in front of the camera.
There will be a related spooky L&H cartoon entitled “Mummy Dummy” from the 1960s Larry Harmon series of cartoons, the usual raffle and of course the toasts in accordance with the Sons of the Desert constitution.
I still have one or two 2027 glossy calendars left created by Willie McIntyre of the Bowler Dessert, which I can sell for £10 each. These are of a slightly shorter format (and indeed a few £ cheaper) than the Calendar Club calendars that are now on sale on the High Street.
Our Nowonder film show will be on the usual third Wednesday in the month..November 18th with a plan to show a colorised version of “Babes in Toyland (1936)” aka “March of the Wooden Soldiers”. I also want to show the long awaited silent, the Boys last silent, that has recently been restored, “Angora Love (1929)”.
Before then, hopefully, we’ll see you on Wednesday. Please bring friends and family – all are very welcome.
Fraternally Yours,
Dave T
(Grand Sheikh – Nottingham Beau Hunks tent)
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