ABOUT SONS OF THE DESERT

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.

The group takes its name from a lodge that the comedians belong to in the 1933 film Sons of the Desert. In keeping with the tongue-in-cheek “desert” theme, each local chapter of the society is called a “tent,” 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.

“It is important, I think, to realize that Sons of the Desert is not a fan club,” explained John McCabe, the team's biographer, who founded the Sons in 1965. “The word ‘fan’ derives from ‘fanatic’ and I hope we are none of us that. I consider us ‘buffs,’ people having a connoisseur-like affection for Laurel & Hardy, and being discriminating in that affection, with fun as our goal and operative guide.”

To find a Sons tent near you, please click here to e-mail the Corresponding Secretary.

If there is no tent near you, please click here for more information about our Utopia tent for delegates-at-large. 

If you’d like to form a tent yourself, please click here to e-mail for more information, or write to:

    Scott MacGillivray
    Corresponding Secretary
    P.O. Box 2102
    Natick, MA 01760 USA

For answers to frequently asked questions about the Sons of the Desert and Laurel & Hardy's films, please click here.