The 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.”
