Great Furniture In The Movies

It might help in reading this if you're a Laurel and Hardy fan --- make that a hardcore Laurel and Hardy fan, because when you've reached the point where you're discussing the furniture in their comedies, you are indeed hardcore, maybe borderline needing help. Well, I'm that way about the Blotto table. You know (at least those of you who share my obsession know) there's that long sequence at the Rainbow Club. It's a deco speakeasy palace, and Laurel and Hardy get drunk, or they think they're getting drunk, only Stan's wife has replaced the contents of his smuggled-in bottle with brackish cold tea. Comedy mayhem ensues. So there is the story, and now we come to the table, and it is a wow --- a creampuff --- a lulu. I've wanted something like it ever since I saw the short for the first time at the age of 14. The picture in the center is from Blotto, and that's the table. Note the star, the little indentations that run around the circumference. You won't find this item at the local Transit-Damaged Freight Warehouse. Now those of you who haven't said who cares and signed off by now are probably asking, "That's all well and good, but did this unique specimen of woodwork ever make its way into any other movies?". Well, as a matter of fact it did, at least the photo at the left convinces me that it did. The still is from Okay, America, with Lew Ayres, presumably the table's first appearance on screen. Isn't it great when some obscure nugget of film history reveals itself? I was so caught up with that table that I decided to see if maybe it could be recreated --- and that's the photo on the right. As you can see, the man who built it is a real craftsman, and boy, are those chairs uncomfortable. Authentic, yes, right down to the last detail, but hell to sit in. Check out the ice bucket. My builder made that too. I was able to pass off the Blotto table as the real thing to some visiting Laurel and Hardy fans --- told them I bought it at the Hal Roach auction back in 1963. When I fessed up later, they were still amazed. We have some fabulous furniture makers in the South.