I’ve always been a huge fan of Laurel and Hardy.

This week I found a silent film that Stan Laurel made in 1923 called ‘The Soilers’. A camp cowboy appears regularly throughout the ten minute film. Here are two clips:

Stan grew up in and around theatres in Britain because his father was a theatre manager. Many of the characters and routines in the early days of the movies would have been inspired by variety acts in the music halls and no doubt this kind of character would have been part of that. But it’s unusual to get a glimpse on film from this period and for it play such a major part in the storyline.

Manchester club Cruz 101 celebrated its 17th birthday on 23 May with a £10,000 prize raffle. Entrants could win a brand new 2009 Citroen C1 with private registration plate.

However rumours are circulating that the car was won by the nephew of the owner of the club. We have asked Cruz 101 for a statement on whether this is true and will let you know here if we get one.

No doubt this raffle drew crowds to the club itself and we understand it raised £4,500 for the Lesbian and Gay Foundation. In fact, the Licence Holder for the draw is a member of staff at the LGF. ‘The winners names can be obtained by sending a sae to Cruz 101 Birthday Winners, 101 Princess St, Manchester, M1 6DD, between May 30th and June 30th, 2009.’

One of the rules is that employees of ‘101 Entertainments Limited’ can’t take part. No mention of relatives though…

Update: I sent a stamped addressed envelope for a list of the winners but never received anything back.

Much has been written about the extra income that Manchester Pride brings in for the local economy.

In 2008, Andrew Stokes, who is chairman of Manchester Pride and chief executive of Marketing Manchester (the tourist board) told the press that Pride was worth more than £17.5m per year to Manchester’s businesses. Other estimates have been as much as £22m.

With Pride bringing in so much much cash for businesses you might think that Marketing Manchester would owe us? After all, Pride is funded mainly by the public, through ticket sales. In 2008, we coughed up about £600,000 — two-thirds of the total Pride income — to run this giant tourist bonanza for the city and its businesses.

But no… Take a look at page 21 of the 2007/08 Manchester Pride accounts (PDF) and you’ll see that Pride paid £6,040 to Marketing Manchester for ‘normal commercial services’. Whereas Pride invoiced Marketing Manchester just £92.

I can reveal that the £6,040 charge was because Marketing Manchester does the business accounts for Manchester Pride! What a nerve they have.

More interesting figures coming soon.

Update (April 2010): Andrew Stokes is now Chair of the [gay] Village Business Association, Chair of Manchester Pride, Chair of Queer Up North, Chief Executive of Marketing Manchester…

Vintage pig photos from the Library of Congress.