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, use the Tent Search feature in the Sons’ international database.

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.