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 the Ashbrooke Sports Club in Sunderland.
The site is now largely complete, but please revisit to see things as they develop as I am adding new items on an ongoing basis and the News/Blog page especially is constantly having new items added.
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.
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, take the bull by the horns 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.
