May Meeting 2022 May 15, 2022

Hello Laurel & Hardy friends,

After 819 days since the last Beau Hunks film show….there’s now only 7 days to go before our re-launch show.  Horray!!

This will be on Wednesday May 18th 7.30pm till 10.30 pm at the THE BRIDGE INN on Longmoor Lane, Sandiacre NG10 5LW –  in the outside function room.

For this first meeting we will be showing our tent’s title film, the 4-reeler,  “Beau Hunks (1931)” .   This is in tribute to our tent and all our tent members.  Indeed, we will be celebrating our 20th, 21st and 22nd years as a tent at some future date.  The film features the image of “Jeannie Weenie” , a young Jean Harlow, who was well-travelled and broke many hearts during the 1920s and 1930s.  Jean appeared in no less than 3 Laurel & Hardy silent films in 1929 and we also intend to show her first appearance with the Boys in a film celebrating “freedom and high hopes” for the future…..but I’m not at liberty to tell you what the film is just yet!   You’ll have to wait and see.

As its May….we will also be paying our traditional tribute to one of Laurel & Hardy’s  best loved supporting stars,  Annie Mae Busch.  Although, her birthday is in June, it falls just two days after Stan’s , so as she’d hardly gets a look in at June meetings, May’s always the best month to celebrate Mae.  I have lined up two talkie shorts where she features very well with the Boys.  For those who like colour films, I also intend to show one of the only two films that was genuinely shot in colour.  No, its not the Rogue song.

There will be the usual raffle, toasts….and I’ll show a L&H cartoon or two in the intermission.   The event is FREE and all are welcome to come and enjoy the show.  After so long, it will be great to see you again and to hearing you all laugh again at the Boys on the silver screen.  As this is our first meeting, can I please ask for everyone to take care, be mindful and supportive of those who would still prefer to wear masks and can I ask,  if you can take a lateral flow test, please do so, before coming out.

As I mentioned last month, I’ve decided this year to have just the one meeting in June, that being on  Saturday afternoon of June 18th at the  Bull Inn, Bottesford 1pm til 6pm.   It’ll be our “Twice-Two – Part Deux” film show ….all with the number 2 or 22 in mind, which celebrates our 22nd year in the year 2022.  We will be having a  marathon film show culminating in the showing of “Sons of the Desert (1933)” with an observational quiz after, and yes with prizes.   Undoubtedly, the highlight of the day will be Robin Cook’s  showing of his restored version of the Boys silent film “The Second Hundred Years(1927)” in its most complete form based on  copies of the original 35mm film elements and specialist film restoration software/techniques.  We will have a number of Laurel & Hardy book authors on hand selling their latest books.  We are also hoping that John Palmer will be able to exhibit his wonderful Laurel & Hardy car, a genuine Model T Ford.  Finally, we are hoping to have a number of  known “out of town”  Laurel & Hardy guests, including Rob Lewis ,Grand Shieik and founder of the Helpmates UK tent and Laurel & Hardy magazine.

As with all our film shows, the film show at the Bull Inn is FREE and WELCOME TO ALL from toddlers to zimmer-framers including their families and friends.  So, please do come along and support us, it will be a great day out.   As most of you now know, the Bull Inn was the pub that Olga and Bill Healey ran during the 1950s…Olga being Stan’s younger sister (who incidentally gets a mention in the Beau Hunks  film!).  During their  theatrical tours of 1952 and 1953/4,  the Boys and their wives would regularly visit this pub and on Christmas Day 1953, the Boys pulled the pints behind the bar for the locals.  The Pub lounge is adorned with photos and memorabilia and there are plaques inside and outside the pub that commemorates their visits,

In the morning of June 18th, I will also be doing a  guided walk around Barkston (a few miles north of Grantham),  with visits to the Plough Inn on West Street (Olga’s first pub visited by the Boys in 1947)  and to Arthur Jeffersons grave (Stan’s father) in the Barkston&Syston graveyard.  We’ll  start this at about 10am at the Stag Inn in the centre of the village.

So that we can make it a really comfortable day for all at the Bull Inn, please can I ask you to reply to this email just to let me know if you are thinking of coming  and on the potential numbers – it doesn’t commit you in anyway and you can change your mind one way or the other right up to the day.  I just want to get a rough idea on possible numbers such that i can judge how much I can/should advertise the event outside of the tent and this email correspondence.  Obviously i don’t want to be flooded with too many people nor do we want to have so few….I’m just looking for a comfortable number with the virus still on our minds.  However, the pub does have open spaces and Bottesford is also a nice village to explore.