The good news was 'we were going to Hollywood'. Puttin' on the HIts will pay for Laurel and Hardy and their moms for 2 weeks. They will put us up in the Sheraton Universal, we will have a blast. The bad news. ..we can't use the song THE CONGA, because of licensing issues. We need another song. ( we thought, not that bad, but we ending up having to change the song a handful of times until we got the correct permission ).

But the really bad news was that they didn't see a need for my brother to be in the act. They felt Laurel and Hardy were a duo team, and not a trio. I thought about the 3 stooges, but the 3 of us didn't look anything like those guys. My happy little brother who was dancing around the house only seconds ago, was thoroughly urinated to put it scientifically. I didn't know what to say. The minute I should be rejoicing, I felt bad, but it was one of those situations that no matter what I said or did, it would have just been worse.

We soon discovered there were 3 other acts going to Hollywood from our area. 2 acts from Johnstown; a bunch of guys playing the California Raisins ( they had to be grapes, though ), and the other act was a little dancing kid who was a Gregory Hines wanna be. The other duo act was from the Prince Gallitzin area; a guy named Tim, who I still see around town today, driving the Med Van, and his lady friend was his singing partner. They played Kenny and Dolly singing ISLANDS IN THE STREAM.

The only other songs I remember trying for Laurel and Hardy were YOU CAN CALL ME AL, BY PAUL SIMON AND THE MUPPETS VERSION OF HEY, MR. BASSMAN. But after dozens of practices, we kept hearing back from Hollywood saying, 'choose another song'. Erin and I finally stumbled on an old Laurel and Hardy movie called WAY OUT WEST, and Stan and Ollie sang an old standard called THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE. We both loved it and got the permission.

Here's the dance clip from the movie that sparked our interest... ( the song will be on the next blog Part 5 )