Big news that will be of major interest to all fans of the Boys.  UCLA is undergoing a restoration of all the Hal Roach Laurel & Hardy titles in their collection.  The films, all on nitrate stock, will take several years to restore.  Chris Horak, the head of UCLA's film & television archive, told me that the goal is to find every original camera negative in existence and go from there. Features and shorts from the Hal Roach years is the target.  This Sunday (March 27, 2011), UCLA will have a website devoted to this new project and they will be asking for donations to help fund this massive undertaking.  Jeff Joseph, formerly of Sabucat, has pledged 100,000 dollars over the next five years.  I am going to donate as well and encourage all Sons to do the same.  I am preparing an article for the ITJ about this effort and how we all can help.  If you have some or all the films on DVD, remember that this project is to restore and preserve the "Original" elements for all time.  The negatives have been worn down to a shadow of their former selves and this is the first time that all the damage will be fixed and bring the films to a new level of preservation.  Your old VHS, DVD and even 8mm & 16mm prints have imperfections in them, copied and duped into subsequent releases over the decades.  This work is intended to fix all the wrongs, restore all the original titles, remove all the pops and crackles in the soundtracks and restore the picture to a quality unseen since the initial releases of these motion pictures.  I am going to call on all Sons Tents throughout the world to bring this matter up at their meetings and begin to organize a collection so we can all insure that these precious films will be around for our grandchildren's grandchildren.  I told Chris Horak my intentions and he is awed by the prospect.  Who better than the Sons Of The Desert to help fund this restoration.

(For more information about this project, click on the "Laurel & Hardy Film Restoration" link above)