{"id":9635,"date":"2021-05-06T23:33:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T22:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9635"},"modified":"2021-05-06T23:33:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T22:33:51","slug":"sons-of-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9635","title":{"rendered":"Sons of the Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

THAT’S ANOTHER FINE MESS STANLEY<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n
\n

While on a visit to the Tourist Office in Ulverston which is in Cumbria, we came across a statue of Laurel and Hardy.<\/p>\n

This comedy pair were well known in the silent film era and went on to make many ‘talkies’. I have seen many of their films.<\/p>\n

Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in 1890 at the home of his grandparents, Sarah and George Metcalf. He lived there for the first six years of his life before moving to Bishop Auckland. Stan however continued to spend much of his school holidays with Grandma and Grandpa Metcalf in Ulverston and apparently Grandma Metcalf had to keep a close eye on Stan as they walked through the streets as often he would stop and make faces in the glass windows of the shops. Mrs Metcalf would often find that she had left Stan behind as she walked.<\/p>\n

The Council have now made a Stan Laurel Trail around Ulverston and the statue (see picture) of ‘The Boys’ was given to the town by the Sons of the Desert which is the International Appreciation Society for Laurel and Hardy. When Stan returned to Ulverston with Ollie in 1947, he received a hero’s welcome and was presented with a copy of his birth certificate on the balcony of the Coronation Hall.<\/p>\n

Sons of the Desert is devoted to keeping the lives and works of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before the public, and to have a good time while doing it.<\/p>\n

The group takes its name from a lodge that the co-medians belong to in the 1933 film Sons of the Desert<\/em><\/strong>. In keeping with the tongue-in-cheek \u201cdesert\u201d theme, each local chapter of the society is called a \u201ctent,\u201d and is named after a Laurel & Hardy film. Worldwide, there are well over 100 active tents, whose members meet regularly to enjoy Laurel & Hardy movies in an informal atmosphere<\/p>\n

So what is the film Sons of the Desert <\/em><\/strong>all about?<\/p>\n

\"\"Well Stan and Ollie trick their wives into thinking that they are taking a medicinal cruise while they’re actually going to a convention, the wives find out the truth the hard way.<\/p>\n

So that he and Stan can sneak away to Chicago and attend the annual “Sons of the Desert” lodge convention, Ollie pretends to be sick, and gets a doctor (who turns out to be a veterinarian) to prescribe a long ocean voyage to Hawaii. They return home only to learn that the ship supposedly carrying them has sunk in a typhoon. Their hastily- contrived tale of “ship-hiking” their way back cuts no ice with their wives, who’ve been at the movies watching a newsreel of the lodge’s convention parade, starring… guess who?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The nearest tent to Wenvoe is in Bristol and called the Fraternally Yours Tent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Colin Jenkins<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THAT’S ANOTHER FINE MESS STANLEY While on a visit to the Tourist Office in Ulverston which is in Cumbria, we came across a statue of Laurel and Hardy. This comedy pair were well known in the silent film era and went on to make many ‘talkies’. I have seen many of their films. Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[334],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-2vp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16451,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16451","url_meta":{"origin":9635,"position":0},"title":"The Cat And The Kipper","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"ARTICLES of GENERAL INTEREST THE CAT AND THE KIPPER This story takes place in Barry\u2019s West End during the early 1940s, when my family lived in a modest terraced house not far from the docks. My grandfather, Jim, was a Merchant Seaman who travelled the world from Barry Dock. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12902,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12902","url_meta":{"origin":9635,"position":1},"title":"“Taste” by Stanley Tucci","author":"Alan Williams","date":"2nd February 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"Taste\" by Stanley Tucci \u00a0 From award-winning actor and food obsessive, Stanley Tucci, comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen. Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15385,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15385","url_meta":{"origin":9635,"position":2},"title":"Lliw Reservoir & Nuppend, Alvington","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th April 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Lliw Reservoir After a longish drive, more of us than usual, arrived at the lower Lliw reservoir, and were happy to see a caf\u00e9. The caf\u00e9 has a handy leaflet describing local footpaths and points of interest. The reservoir was built in 1867, following an 1859 cholera epidemic which gripped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Picture5.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12360,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12360","url_meta":{"origin":9635,"position":3},"title":"Hedgerows – Small But Mighty","author":"Alan Williams","date":"12th October 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hedgerows - Small But Mighty Described by the Woodland Trust as 'small but mighty' these are 'the most widespread semi-natural habitats in Britain'. We mean, of course, hedgerows. Taken for granted by most people they bring a huge number of benefits as have been described by the Peoples Trust for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Picture10.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7261,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7261","url_meta":{"origin":9635,"position":4},"title":"Major Progress In February","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By the time you read this, so much has taken place in church towards the latter end of February. We are now in the solemn season of Lent, that period of 40 days before Easter, that the church keeps a low key as a preparation for the glorious feast of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "St Mary's Parish Church News"","block_context":{"text":"St Mary's Parish Church News","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5232,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5232","url_meta":{"origin":9635,"position":5},"title":"Winter Preparations","author":"Alan Williams","date":"22nd December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"RHS December tips 1. Check that your winter protection is still securely in place. 2. Make sure your greenhouse heaters are working properly. 3. Insulate outdoor taps and prevent ponds from freezing. 4. Prune open grown apple and pear trees, not those grown against a wall. 5. Still take hardwood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9635"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9637,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9635\/revisions\/9637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}