Laurel and Hardy and the Sons of the Desert are at the heart of Bowler Dessert magazine and Bowler Dessert Online

Recalling number 1 As we say goodbye to the longrunning newsletter Laurel and Hardy News, we recall stories (in summary) from the March 1999 edition

The first issue of Laurel and Hardy News appeared in March 1999, but its origins go back somewhat further. There had been a long-standing Cuckoo newsletter, with a different name each month. In 1999 I wrote, "After sixty-three Call of the Cuckoos Tent newsletters, we have finally found a permanent name. There were many contenders. How about Laurel and Hardy News? Yes, what a brain wave!" So, in a real sense, there have been over two hundred issues of Laurel and Hardy News. Wow! All tents were welcome to reproduce Laurel and Hardy News and many did just that throughout its publication. The concept was that the roughly-monthly, News would supplement Bowler Dessert, reporting news more immediately than was possible in Bowler Dessert (which has been around since 1976). One month after the launch of Laurel and Hardy News, Bowler Dessert Online was launched and its future is still bright, with many updates each month. With more and more Sons having access to the internet and with more and more Laurel and Hardy websites, communication within the Sons has never been easier or fuller and this is a good stage at which to put Laurel and Hardy News to rest.     FROM MARCH 1999 Big Business Tent Alan Ellsworth announces, "I have started a tent in Compaq in Bishopton. We work every fourth Saturday so, to brighten up a dull day, I have started to show Laurel and Hardy shorts. The first meeting was on 19th December and we showed Big Business. . . and that is what I am calling our tent." Gone cuckoo Bob Hickson sends us a copy of a National Trust magazine (Spring 1999) which says: Every April the people of Marsden in West Yorkshire hold a Cuckoo Day. The event is based around a time-old legend in which the people of Marsden longed for eternal spring. The National Trust jointly organises a Cuckoo Day with Marsden Community Association. Bob also sends us a copy of a leaflet for A-level physics students at Manchester University, which has a photo of Laurel and Hardy in A Chump at Oxford. Cuckoo walk Harlan Senior writes, "Just a short distance from where I live is the Chesterfield Canal. Though not used commercially now, it was once a thriving waterway and specially designed barges were used, having the name of 'Cuckoos'. No one knows of the origin. One part of the renewed tow-path is called 'Cuckoo Walk'!" Brats Tent's convention Forty people have so far booked for the UK Convention, being held in Rotherham from 30th April till 3rd May this year. New: ITJ Online A new website on the internet appears in January called The Intra-Tent Journal Online. Rolduc convention Subscriptions for Rolduc '99, the 4th European Convention in Holland, are coming in steadily, reports Bram Reijnhoudt. At the beginning of February one hundred and forty people have booked (seventeen from the UK). Wanted in Bradford The County Hospital Tent will be twenty-one years old next year. David Oyston says, "We are hoping to get Dave Beecroft to come along and join in the fun." Dave founded the tent and was a prominent Son till a few years ago, but has disappeared! The Scottish Convention is back! The 8th Scottish Convention in September will be hosted by the Bonnie Scotland Tent, based at the Park Hotel in Falkirk. Highlights will be a trip to Stirling, a disco, a quiz and games. Janice Hawton is in charge. Ghost doctors The Live Ghost Tent has a theme of "Medics" for its first meeting at the Florence Nightingale pub in London. Some members dress as doctors! Saps at Ulverston Stan Laurel's home town is set to become the Venice of the North for two days this summer, according to its local newspaper, sent to us by Harry Ingle. "Visitors from all over Britain and some from Europe are expected to visit the town for the National Canal Trailboat Festival in July. The festival will coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the Ulverston Carnival. Snow and hearts The Saps at Sea Tent has a snow theme for its third meeting, in January. Says Grand Sheik Roger Robinson, "Would you believe it? Our first snow in Southend fell the following morning. Good job our theme wasn't hurricanes!" For the meeting in February they have a Valentine's theme and £57 is raised for the Laurel and Hardy Charity Fund. Profiting from a fish In January the forty-first gathering of the Early to Bed Tent of Chesterfield welcomes fourteen devotees. Vice Sheik Anthony Fletcher compiles a quiz on Bonnie Scotland and Grand Sheik Grahame Morris wins. His prize is a fish and Grahame says, "When I got home the bed was turned upside down and a candle was lit to cook the fish." At their meeting in February no Laurel and Hardy films are shown! The programme consists of films with cameo appearances of the Boys, such as On the Loose, Wild Poses, On the Wrong Trek and a clip from Riding High, plus the BBC documentary Cuckoo. There is also a reconstruction of Hats Off. Shorts Fred Terris weds Janis on 25th February. . . Peter van Rooij has started a tent in Switzerland. . . Dougie Brown has applied for millennium funding for the Sons of the Desert to have a get-together or convention. . . The Be Big Tent meet on the last Monday of each month at the Greyhound Hotel in Ashton-under-Lyne. . . The Apollo cinema in Barrow, a few miles away from Stan's birthplace, has three performances of Way Out West on 27th January. . . . On 21st February in Fine Lines (Radio 4) Bill Herbert reads a melancholy, ghostly poem he has written about Stan and Ollie.