WORST TRIP EVER!

 The trip I try to forget but keeps haunting my nightmares:

One week in Los Angeles with my decrepit old father, who still insisted on sitting at the driver's seat in spite of being obviously unfit to drive. The times we almost crashed, ran over pedestrians or hit stationary objects were too numerous to recount. And when I was not having a heart seizure inside the car, we were wandering aimlessly inside every 99 cent and bargain store the old man could find. 

I never went on another trip with him until he finally kicked the bucket.

Remember STAN LAUREL

54 years ago, we lost Stan Laurel, a comedy genius and my own personal idol.

From Wikipedia:

In January 1965, Stan Laurel underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack on 19 February.  Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.

At his funeral, silent screen comedian Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest, I wasn't the funniest, this man was the funniest."  Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read "The Clown's Prayer".  Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again."  He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

At Forest Lawn Cemetery, a plaque was placed reading:

STAN LAUREL
1890 - 1965
A MASTER OF COMEDY
HIS GENIUS IN THE ART OF HUMOR BROUGHT GLADNESS TO THE WORLD HE LOVED.

Joining the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, the Sons Of The Desert, I was fortunate enough to meet Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois Laurel Hawes and visit Stan's final resting place with her, back in 1980, during the Sons of the Desert Second International Convention in Hollywood.

God Bless Stan Laurel!

Movie Books!

Movie, TV, Comic Book Art and Music reference books have been a staple of my library and I frequently resort to them for information and material. My biggest source for acquiring media and entertainment literature before Amazon and the internet came into existence, had always been the fine cinema bookstores in the Hollywood area. Some of them are still in business and whenever possible, I drop by to check out the new releases. Visiting an actual bookstore is a unique experience, much more exciting and rewarding than simply shopping for books online!

Part of my book collection.

My favorite bookstores, apart from Amazon, where I have bought most of my cinema and other media books, are these:

ONE WEEK IN LOS ANGELES AND SAN DIEGO WITH MY DAD...

November 7 to November 14 is a week that will live in infamy...
That is the week I traveled with my 90 year-old father to Los Angeles for what was supposed to be a fun-filled excursion, visiting the great tourist attractions and doing some leisurely sightseeing around the LA/San Diego area.  The trip took a turn for the worst when dad insisted in doing all the driving himself and, after several heated arguments, the trip became an exercise in endurance. The final result was: one hour in Long Beach, one hour in Coronado, one hour at the Kodak Theater Shops in Hollywood and the rest of the trip spent inside cheapie stores like Big Lots, DD Discounts, The Thrift Store, Dollar Tree and Fallas. But, I figured it was my dad's last trip with me so I decided to just grin and bear it. Hopefully, my dad enjoyed the trip immensely.  I sure didn't!