About me / Contact me

Hello and welcome to my page all about your webmaster!

My name is Stephen Neale and I live in Perth, Australia.. I am 41 years old., married with 3 children. I work in the facilities department for a major company in Australia.. In my spare time I like to work on this website and listen to the music of Mike Oldfield and watch the Workington Comets speedway team.

If you would like to contact me you have 3 options, either write to me enclosing a stamped addressed envelope, email me or leave me a message on my guestbook.[ Please keep guestbook entries clean as this is a family oriented site, any messages left with a funny name or vulgar language will be removed]

Since I was a child I can always remember watching Laurel and Hardy on the television. For some reason or other I could always remember their films, Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd.didn't have that effect on me, even though they were all comic geniuses. My 'obsession ' for Laurel and Hardy started when I was about 14 years of age,  for a Christmas present I was given a Laurel and Hardy video with ' The Chimp ' on it, with my pocket money I started buying a few more of the 'virgin video' range of video's until I had the complete set on video tape. Having a video player that played both UK pal and USA ntsc videos meant that  I could buy video's from America which included Stan's home movies footage,  which were narrated by Stans daughter Lois, which were not available in this country .With the release of the dvd disc it meant my collection of video tapes were made redundant.

Me, Gareth Evans, Bill Winfield, and Charlie Lewis	With Tony Hawes [ Stan's son in law ]	Me, Pete & Angela Elkins, Rob Lewis, Joan Robertson and Tony Hawes

Around 1988 I joined the ' Helpmates ' branch of the sons of the desert . I attended many ' Helpmates conventions ' at the Crest Hotel in Chatham .My collection really started to take off with thanks to Rob Lewis, with all of his sales stall on offer, my collection grew and grew, you name it, I bought it, books, records, film stills, figurines, [ my wife hates polishing them !! ] posters, dvd's, badges, mugs, cd's, etc

I joined my local branch of the Sons of the Desert at Carlisle, Them Thar Hills Tent Oasis 43,after a few years the then Grand Sheik, Melvin McFadden, decided to step down, I was asked to take up the post as the new Grand Shiek and I gratefully accepted!

In 1992 I attended my first international convention at Las Vegas, USA,  I  shared a room with  Charles Lewis [ later to become Grand Sheik of Edinburgh's Blockheads'tent ] , we had a great time over there, it was fantastic to be in the same room as the great Hal Roach, I also met Jacquie Lyn who played "Eddie's baby" in Pack up Your Troubles. After the convention we headed to Hollywood, visiting the Music Box steps, the site of 'The Hal Roach Studios ', and various other film locations such as the houses from Big Business and Perfect day . During our time in Hollywood we visited 'Universal studios ' and saw some LOOKALIKES ...who looked nothing like Laurel and Hardy at all ! Our party of "Brits" were  also invited to one of the legendary Way Out West banquets.

Walking up the 'Music Box ' steps	Outside the 'Big Business' house	At Stan Laurel's grave

I have attended a couple of modern day Laurel and Hardy premiers at London, the first was the launch of Way Out West in colour on video tape at BAFTA which had Stan's daughter Lois as guest of honour. In 1998 to clebrate the 70th anniversary, four films were shown across the country at various cinemas, they were, Way Out West, The Music Box, Sons of the Desert and Helpmates, prior to general release a premier was held at The Prince Charles Cinema in London's Leicester Square. It was hosted by Frank Skinner, he did a talk about his love for the boys then about twenty people were selected to go up on stage, yes I was one of them!, to sing The Sons of the Desert anthem! So I can officially say that I have sung on stage in Londons West End! In the audience were celebrities from the world of stage and television which included Barry Cryer, Gorden Kaye, Roger Lloyd Pack and Burt Kwouk to name but a few. The after show party was held at Christopher's in Covent Garden, free food and drink was on the menu along with a live band and disco.

During my time I have met many celebrities at various functions, many of them admire Laurel and Hardy, below are a few photos that were taken at charity dinners that I have attended.

Above... with Norman Wisdom	Above...with Phil Collins	Above...with Reeves and Mortimer
Above...with Bella Emberg	Above...with Andrew Sachs	Above...with Clive Dunn
Above...with John Inman	Above...with Sue Upton	Above...with Ian Lavender
Above...with Frank Skinner	Above...with Gordon Kaye	Above...with Jim Davidson
Above...with June Whitfield	Above...with Sherrie Hewson	Above...with Sue Pollard

| Home | Index | About Us | Contact Us | Links | Subscribe l

© Copyright The Crazy World of Laurel and Hardy 2009-2010. All rights reserved .