February Meeting 2023 February 13, 2023

This month we’ll be paying tribute to Stanley J. Sandford……aka “Tiny” Sandford in celebration of his birthday this month (ie 26th Feb 1894).   As his name doesn’t imply…”Tiny” was actually quite a very burly actor who appeared in no less than 23 films with Laurel & Hardy, usually as a man of authority eg a policeman or a prison officer.  On Wednesday, we will be showing three Hal Roach Studio short film subjects where Tiny puts in a very strong supporting appearance with the Boys.

As promised, our main feature film this month will be one of their finest…..Way Out West from 1937, with the famous “At the Ball” dance routine and of course the Boys singing “Trail of the Lonesome Pine”.   “Tiny” was cast as the Sheriff but subsequently replaced by Stanley Fields part way through shooting.  He can still be seen in the background of some scenes of the film and in outakes that were assembled together by editor Bert Jordan into a single gag reel entitled “That’s That!” for Stan’s birthday in 1938.  If all’s well we’ll see if we can view “That’s That!” on Wednesday.  It’s only about 7 mins long, though full of nonsense, its quite historic and a film that Lois loved to present at Sons of the Desert conventions.

We’ll also show another Porky Pig cartoon with a L&H connection…which coincidentally share a similar them with “That’s That” and was also released in 1937.  There’ll be the usual raffle – all donations gratefully accepted….and of course the loyal toasts.

As mentioned last month…there are two L&H related theatre productions coming soon to a theatre near you!   Firstly, “The Lucky Dog” theatre company are performing “The Laurel & Hardy Cabaret” at the Leicester Guildhall  this forthcoming Saturday and Sunday at 4pm as part of the Leicester comedy festival.  They perform a selection of L&H film  and UK tour sketches.  You will need to book this online on the Leicester comedy film festival website at £11/ticket.  I’ll be going on the Sunday afternoon.  Secondly, there’s a relatively new theatre production entitled “Charlie and Stan” that is presently on tour round a few UK theatres.  Our nearest theatre is the Derby theatre in the Derbion from 28th Feb to 4th March.  It’s mostly a silent slapstick/mime theatre show accompanied by live piano music.  It  loosely tells the story of the trip made by Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel’s to New York to perform the ill-fated Karno’s Night in a English Music Hall – L&H play a small part toward the end of the show.  It’s a very fun, clever and entertaining play with lots of slapstick.  Sadly its quite expensive at  £22/ticket but recently there has been an offer of £15/ticket for the Tuesday and Wednesday performances.  You need to quote CHARLIE15 when booking online . I’ll be going on the Thursday night.   Doh!

So, hopefully, we’ll see you next Wednesday to celebrate Tiny’s birthday.  Please bring friends and family – all are very welcome.