This Website is dedicated to the persons, lives and films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
It is also the website of the Beau Chumps Tent of Sunderland, one of the many worldwide chapters, or ‘tents’, of the ‘Sons of the Desert’ – the International Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society. We meet on the second Wednesday of every month at 730pm at the Ashbrooke Sports Club in Sunderland. Please visit the meetings page for more details.
The site has new items added on an ongoing basis and the News/Blog page is updated regularly with blogs from a number of contributors as well as a weekly ‘Image of the Week‘. Well, it would be weekly, wouldn’t it… .
We also have a Facebook page ‘Beau Chumps Sunderland’, ID100033659106677. Our ‘story’ changes every day and at least one update per day is posted, usually more, and quite often this would include a classic clip.
Stan and Ollie played full week engagements at the Sunderland Empire in both March 1952 and February 1954, and Stan of course has many connections with the North-East of England. Please see the ‘Features’ page here or via the menu above for more details.
Please feel free to leave any thoughts or comments you might have at the bottom of the page, we’d love to hear from you.
Throughout the site, I have tried to refer to the boys as individuals as ‘Stan’ and ‘Babe’, to the team as ‘Laurel and Hardy’ and the characters as ‘Stan’ and ‘Ollie’. Very simple where Stan is concerned, but with Babe, not so much…
The original Beau Chumps Tent were very active in the 80’s and early 90’s and it has long been my intention to re-establish the tent. As I am now essentially retired, I am able to put my shoulder to the wheel, grab the bull by the horns, put my best foot forward and get the tent into the digital age with DVDs, websites, emails and other tools of convenience. No humping a projector and screen around these days, he says…
Mike Jones: December 2018
If viewing on a phone or mobile device, please note the site is optimised to be viewed in the landscape mode.
Count me in!
Juju
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Thanks for visiting Robert.
We hope you enjoy the site!
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I can’t believe how much info there is in this website! I’ve learned so much about Stan and Ollie from it.
Thank you too every one involved.
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Thanks for visiting Julie and so glad you like the site.
We’re always adding new items and revising existing articles, so please come back and check it out.
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Hi, I stumbled upon your website at the beginning of the March 2020 lockdown and thoroughly enjoyed the contents, when off duty as an NHS nurse. I’ve especially enjoyed the photo-captioned picture of The Boys wearing a PPE mask to protect themselves from granolavirus. My workmates were also amused by it!
The ‘internet of things’ is a sometimes wonderful tool, and when tooling around I discovered a fan rendition of The Rogue Song, using film footage, stills, some CGI(?) and other materials, all synchronised to the original soundtrack. I’ve seen no mention of this anywhere, apart from the YouTube channel it was on. The rendition isn’t as amateurish as my description sounds, and was most interesting to view. (The web address is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1kuNJREvo) I have no knowledge of the video makers, except what is stated on their YouTube channel – they are fans from Italy, who put up the channel in 2014, and apparently have 361000 subscribers. Hope that the information may be of interest to you. Regards and keep on taking care to protect from nasty viruses.
jon
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Hello John
Thanks so much for visiting, for your kind comments and of course for your remarkable efforts during the crisis. I hope you and your colleagues are all well and haven’t suffered too much as a result of this unprecedented situation.
The masked image was one of several circulating- all splendidly done – and I hoped that it helped encourage all to do what they could to help get us safely through the Granolavirus pandemic (as Stan might have said).
I’ve seen the ‘Rogue Song’ reconstruction and it is surprisingly good, hopefully a few more will pick it up from your link.
We also have a regular update email bulletin which did mention the reconstruction and which you might appreciate. Ill drop you an example and if you’d like to join the blind copied list I’ll be happy to sort it
Thanks again for your interest, and please, stay safe.
Mike Jones
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