M A Y , 2005 I S S U E N º HOLLYWOOD 4368 The Internet Noiseletter of the On The Loose tent (Oasis Nº 206) of the Sons of the Desert StanStan Laurel:Laurel: N EXT M EETING May 21st, 2005 A Life on Film AA New Life Series Beginning on With Filmthe May 21st 7:00 pm ~ 12:00 am Meeting of On The Loose at 188 Seames Drive Manchester, NH Join us for an evening of film (titles both familiar and obscure), scholarship and finger food (take your eats right over there). With the May 21st, 2005 meeting, On The Loose takes a renewed purpose in tackling the “loving study of the persons and films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.” In the past few weeks, eh, months, ahem, years, bhhrr, near- ly a decade now, we have been steadily drifting away from the absolute purity of that purpose. Now, while we have not drifted so far away that the far shores presently reside on distant continents (or in-continents as may be the case with some of our members), it certainly wouldn’t hurt to put our shoulders together, row for the beach and hope sin- cerely that we wind up somewhere in the vicinity of Culver City. That doesn’t mean. however, that we won’t find our- selves now and again passing the Christie Studios, the Keaton lot, Mr. Sennett and company, or hanging from a telephone pole in the company of a certain cross-dressing ape friend. On the other hand, we will at all cost avoid wan- dering too far afield with the child-demons: Sunny McKean, Arthur Trimble and Mickey “himself” McNausea. EEDITORIALDITORIAL PPROGRAMROGRAM GGUIDEUIDE For the 21st May Meeting SSOME OF YOU WILL PAY NO ATTEN- TION TO THE WORDS YOU’RE ABOUT The screenings will begin at 7:30 pm and continue as long as the audience can stand it. As soon as they can’t TO READ.. II HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO stand it, the Keeper of the Celluloid’s job will be considered complete and probably even successful. If it looks as though WRITE THEM, RESPOND TO YOUR the audience is going to outlast the Keeper of the Celluloid, HALF-ASSED QUERIES (ALL OF WHICH everyone’s drinking will be heavily increased. If that fails to work, the management will have no choice but to resort to COULD BE ANSWERED BY SIMPLY the “nuclear option” and begin showing Chaplin shorts. STUDYING THE TEXT THAT FOLLOWS) AND DISMISS YOUR SHAMEFUL FilmsFilms andand OtherOther BEHAVIOR AS THE PRIMARY REASON WHY THE SONS OF THE DESERT ProjectedProjected MatterMatter NEVER GET ANYWHERE. Leave ‘Em Laughing (Roach-M-G-M, 1-28-28) with I will not aggravate you by suggesting that the Edgar Kennedy, Viola Richard, Charlie Hall and things I write in this column are of any importance to you Dorothy Coburn. DVD (Lost Films series) with a substi- or the ideas that weigh heavily upon your minds, but please tute score. try and take note of the following pointless statements any- way. This is the first issue of Looser Than Loose of the Air Big Business (Roach-M-G-M, 4-20-29) with James to be committed to a file-based format. All of the previous Finlayson, “Tiny” Sandford and Lyle Tayo. DVD versions of this little newsletter have been created using British Universal release with organ score. Microsoft Outlook Express, which does not display the message content consistently from browser to browser. Bacon Grabbers (Roach-M-G-M, 10-19-29) with Edgar Accordingly, we have embarked upon this pdf experiment Kennedy, Charlie Hall, Jean Harlow and Harry in an effort to enhance the discomfort you feel each time Bernard. 16mm with original organ track. you open your mailbox and find some message from the Stevensons milling around the place waiting eagerly to ruin Angora Love (Roach-M-G-M, 12-14-29) with Edgar your day. Amazingly enough, some of you have actually Kennedy and Charlie Hall. DVD (Lost Films series) with expressed what can only be described as a self-flagellating original organ track. desire to print and archive these missives, which to me are on a par with such things as laundry lists, Radio Shack cir- Locations Tour (1997) Video and slides shot in and culars and letters to the Editors of the New York Times. around Los Angeles, Culver City and Malibu. The vis- Nevertheless, here is your printable edition of Looser Than iti includes Main Street, the Big Business and Bacon Loose of the Air. Grabbers houses, Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café and Now, here’s a really unimportant point: as all of the the Oceana. Video and 35mm slides transferred to DVD. Outlook Express-based messages were created with absolutely no thought given to their pemanence (no impor- tance having been attached to their existence in the first Stan Laurel: A Life on Film place) and as we frequently purge our e-mail boxes to make In this series we will attempt to show every room for all those fascinating internet advertisements, we piece of film available to us in which Stan played a cannot furnish you with any previous copies of this role. Whether writing, directing or starring, Mr. Laurel newsletter. You may consider this issue to be the first of its chalked up a significant number of credits. Our intent kind and, therefore, number one in the series. Unless you is to provide a comprehensive look at these films in saved them in your own mailboxes, all of the previous LTLs chronological order by the date of release. have been irretreivably lost in the ether. By the way, all of the new LTLs will be archived and available at any given Just Rambling Along (Rolin Film Cº.- Pathé time to virtually anyone who wants them. Exchange, 11-3-18) with James Parrott, Noah Young You may be asking yourself why you have received and Marie Mosquini. NTSC Video with acoustic score. this document. Well, it may be that we simply don’t like you and wanted to insult you before you put us on your Hustling For Health (Rolin Film Cº.- Pathé Christmas card list. Perhaps we do like you and want to Exchange, 2-2-19) with Frank Terry, Marie Mosquini draw you into poking fun at the dopes and malcontents in and Bud Jamison. Laser Disc (L&H & Friends) with a our midst. Or, maybe we just want to sell you something- substitute acoustic score. with our fascinating internet advertising (the most likely scenario). In the end I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Huns and Hyphens (Big V Special Comedies - You’re Sons of the Desert and probably haven’t digested a Vitagraph Pictures, 9-23-18) with Larry Semon, Frank word of this column anyway. ~D.S. “Fatty” Alexander and Madge Kirby. PAL Video. Extra Stuff NNOTOT CCOMINGOMING AATTRACTIONSTTRACTIONS Let’s Do Things (Roach-M-G-M, 6-6-31) ZaSu Pitts - Thelma Todd series; with George Byron, Jerry Mandy, Dorothy Granger, Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Dave Sharpe, Gertie Messinger, Charlie Hall, Leroy Shield and company. 16mm - we’re showing them all in sequence again (ZaSu-Thelma and Thelma-Patsy). If all goes well, it should take just over three years. Dry and Thirsty (Christie - Educational, 2-16-20) with Billy Bletcher and Vera Reynolds. L&H fans will per- haps remember Billy for his audio work in the films: Beau Hunks, Me and My Pal, and The Midnight Patrol. He also appeared briefly in the feature Babes in Toyland as the chief of police. His more consistently visible work at Roach includes the Schmaltz Brothers and Taxi Boys series. You may best remember him, how- ever, as the voice of the cake in the Our Gang short Birthday Blues. This print is a new acquisition from Britain. It is, unfortunately, incomplete but offers a look at a familiar bit player in an early starring role. 16mm with an acoustic score. Three Tough Onions (Cameo-Educational, 5-20-28) with Monty Collins. Directed by Jules White. 16mm with an electric score. Why Chaplin Doesn’t Work With A A Song for Europe (Channel 4 Television, 1996) Father Contemporary American Audience. Ted series with Dermot Morgan, Ardal O’Hanlon, Frank Kelly and Pauline McLynn. PAL DVD. I have always said that when I get to heaven, assum- ing that Mr. Chaplin gets there as well, I will have the oppor- tunity to ask him all about the filming of the rooftop chase in The Kid. If, on the other hand, I wind up in hell, I expect that I’ll be forced to watch it again. FingerFinger FoodFood andand I have heard various film historians lament that Chaplin’s inability to reach contempoary audiences owes Cocktails entirely to the idea that we no longer live in a sentimental age. Cocktails As much as I’d like to agree with this notion out of deference All men sing when they’re in their cups to my friends, I cannot. You need only to turn on your televi- sion set to see that emotion and sentimentality have never been Feel free to bring chips, pretzels, nuts (in May) etc. so prominent in our culture as they are today. On an almost daily basis, empathic, feminist super(girlie)men, whose very if you wish to do so. There will be peperoni, cheese and Ritz lives are devoted to apologizing for having been born with crackers present as well as the usual chips and the unusual anatomical appendages that prevent the perception of glass salsa.