Islip Bulletin June 13, 2024

Think you know movies and TV?

Wait till you meet Islip’s Larry Wolff

Film and TV historian Lawrence Wolff of Islip will be speaking about the classic movie “Casablanca” on Monday, June 24 at the East Islip Library. He also will be speaking about the comedy “Airplane” at the West Islip Public Library on June 20.

COURTESY PHOTO

Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2024 12:00 am

By Gary Haber

The first movie Lawrence Wolff remembers seeing was “The Sound of Music.”

It was a class trip from Our Lady of Peace Elementary School to a movie theater in Lynbrook. Wolff was 8 or 9 at the time.

Then Wolff got hooked on comedy teams like Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and the Three Stooges. Then he fell in love with gangster movies and horror films.

“They were all in my wheelhouse,” Wolff said.

Fast forward 60 years and a lot of movies later.

Wolff, 68, and retired from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, is one of Long Island’s top experts on film and television history.

The Islip resident lectures regularly at libraries and to private groups across Long Island on topics ranging from “Casablanca” to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

He’s been lecturing about movies and TV for almost 20 years.

At a recent appearance at the Northport Public Library, Wolff spent a fun 90 minutes tracing the history of “The Odd Couple,” from a Broadway play starring Art Carney and Walter Mattheu, to a movie starring Mattheu and Jack Lemmon, to a TV show starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

Wolff brought along film and TV clips, memorabilia and plenty of backstage stories, including the fact that playwright Neil Simon wanted Mattheu to play sloppy sportswriter Oscar but Mattheu instead wanted to play the fastidious Felix. 

Standing up in front of an audience is second nature to Wolff.

He used to write and perform murder mystery shows and has acted in community theater.

“If you open two slices of bread, I’m the ham in the middle,” he joked.

Wolff has a repertoire of about 60 lecture topics. “Casablanca” and Abbott and Costello are among the most requested.

It takes him several months to develop a new lecture. He added several this year, including talks on “Airplane,” “The Odd Couple” and Jackie Gleason.

“My favorite show is the one where I’m standing in front of people talking,” he said.

When Wolff gives a talk, he dresses the part, complete with a hat—a bowler for his Charlie Chaplin lecture or a short-brimmed trilby for a lecture on Jimmy Cagney—and a tie to fit the occasion.

Wolff has two appearances coming up at Islip-area libraries.

On Thursday, June 20 at 7 p.m., he’ll be speaking about the comedy “Airplane” at the West Islip Public Library. And on Monday, June 24 at 2 p.m., he’ll be talking about the Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman classic “Casablanca” at the East Islip Public Library.

January 1, 2023 Act Two edition of Newsday

By Arlene Gross Special to Newsday

All photos courtesy of Newsday

Trivia expert? He’s the reel deal

And he shares what he knows about old Hollywood movies in talks around the Island

 New fans for old Hollywood

Long Islander talks love of Hollywood and its lore

Stan Laurel, half of the quintessential comedy duo of Laurel and Hardy, was known to welcome strangers into his home. There, Laurel and his guest would typically kick back and watch a Laurel and Hardy movie or two together.

Jack Benny, who, in a span of 14 years in the 1950s and ’60s, did 343 episodes of “The Jack Benny Program” on television, was born Benjamin Kubelsky.

These are just two of the fun facts Lawrence Wolff recently shared with the audience at his “Holidays With the Comedians” presentation at Huntington Public Library that is part of the Lectures of Classic Hollywood series that he gives at Long Island libraries.

“If anyone’s here looking for warm, fuzzy holiday stuff, you’re in the wrong place,” Wolff advised two dozen people in attendance.

Peppering his lecture with photos, film and TV clips and all manner of trivia about his subjects, Wolff enumerated Laurel’s hobbies, which included marrying (four times), and mentioned that Abbott and Costello appeared on “The Colgate Comedy Hour” television show 20 times — more than any other act.

Screening Laurel and Hardy’s 18-minute 1927 film “Big Business,” in which the comedy team attempts to sell Christmas trees door to door and end up destroying a man’s house — as he, in turn, destroys their car — Wolff described the caper as a “study in reciprocal destruction.”

“What’s the moral of the film?” asked Wolff, 66, of Islip. “If Laurel and Hardy come to your house selling Christmas trees, you better buy one!”

Jack Benny, the enthusiastic audience later learned, developed his famous exasperated hand-on-cheek pose to cover scratch marks his wife made in a jealous rage just before he went on stage during a performance in 1927 in Hartford.

After the lecture, Valerie Meszaros commented that Wolff, “seems so knowledgeable and his material is great. How can you miss?”

“I enjoy seeing people so passionate about something,” added Meszaros, 71, of Huntington, who’s retired from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

“It was good,” said her son Matthew Meszaros, 32, an urban planner who lives in Huntington. “A little older than the world I know.”

“Even though they died many years ago, he [Wolff] kind of brings the people back to life for the hour,” noted Don Becker, the media librarian at Northport Public Library, who has scheduled many of Wolff’s appearances there. “He’s really entertaining. He’s just really personable and funny — and the crowd loves him.”

A fan is born

Growing up in Lynbrook, Wolff developed a love of cinema by watching movies with his family.

“I started with the comedians and then the great horror stars: Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney,” Wolff said, referring to Bella Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney. “And then I branched off into gangsters.”  

Among his favorite gangster films: James Cagney in “The Public Enemy” (1931), “White Heat” (1949) and “Angels With Dirty Faces” (1938); Edward G. Robinson in “Little Caesar” (1931); and Humphrey Bogart in “The Petrified Forest” (1936) and “Dead End” (1937).

The first film that really hit home for him was, unquestionably, “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” (1948).

“Lou Costello was so likable,” said Wolff, who is retired from the State Department of Taxation and Finance. “When you match this child-man with classic monsters, the Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, it was just the perfect combination. And it turns out to be one of their best films.”

Feeding his budding love for the horror genre, the young Wolff relished Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and watched “Chiller Theatre” and “Creature Features,” weekly TV horror showcases.

“It was fun chills,” he said. “You knew that they were monsters. You imagined them chasing you and [wondered] what would you do?”

Film buff to lecturer

About 20 years ago, Wolff joined Sons of the Desert, the international Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, eventually becoming the organization’s “sheik” — he is currently a co-sheik — where he met John Carpenter, now 60, of Massapequa Park, a film historian who asked Wolff to present at one of his own lectures.

“After speaking a few times with John Carpenter, I decided to do my own lecture series,” Wolff explained. “I started with Laurel and Hardy. I went to Abbott and Costello. And since then, I’ve been off to the races.”

Praising his fellow guide on the film lecture circuit, Carpenter said, “He’s opening up new eyes and new minds to old films. But to these new eyes and new minds, they’re not old — they’re brand-new.”

Over the past 10 years, Wolff, who has written, produced, directed and acted in comedy dinner theater shows, has broadened his lectures to include in-depth discussions about Jack Benny, Victor Borge, Buster Keaton, The Marx Brothers, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. He has a whole lecture dedicated to Laurel and Hardy’s “March of the Wooden Soldiers” (1934).

At his Bogart lecture, he discusses “All Through the Night” (1942), one of his favorite films, in which Bogart battles Nazi spies in New York City.

“It’s not a very well-known film, but it has touches of film noir, comedy, drama, mystery, and it does it very well,” Wolff said. “You can watch that film, by the way they talk and the clothes, it puts you back in 1941.”

The bad language and violence in a lot of modern movies turn him off, Wolff said.

And, for him, the classic films never get old. “The stuff I grew up with, I still like,” he said, whether it’s “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) or “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1944).

Others, like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939), “High Noon” (1952) and the relatively recent “Jaws” (1975), he’s learned to appreciate as an adult for their acting, writing and messages.

Of Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights,” Wolff said, “That’s a film that, in my opinion, has the greatest ending of any film — silent or sound — ever.” (For those who haven’t seen Chaplin’s 1931 classic, we won’t spoil the ending.)

Expanding tastes

Along with his passion, Wolff brings DVDs, books, movie posters, photos, autographs and other memorabilia to his lectures; he sets the mood with period music or film soundtracks.

His audiences, he noted, are mostly middle age or senior citizens.

“When I do get a younger person, I find that’s a real treat. And I really do try to talk to them,” Wolff said, adding, “I am ecstatic when I’ve piqued their interest and opened a door for them.”

Over the years, Wolff has shared his love of movies with his wife, Joan, 66, a nurse, and his sons, Tim, 35, a mortgage broker, and Dan, 29, who works for Stony Brook University, both of whom live in Islip.

Tim often watches “Svengoolie,” a classic horror film series on TV. His dad, Tim said, has “pretty much seen all of them already, so before the movie starts, he’ll just tell me everything, all the background and all that stuff. Sometimes, I have no idea what he’s talking about. He’ll start naming people I don’t know .  .  . It makes it more fun.”

When he was growing up, Tim didn’t appreciate the older movies. “Everything was black-and-white,” he said. “Sometimes there were no words. Now that I’m older, I can definitely appreciate them more.”

His father’s tastes have expanded over time, too: Wolff still loves Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello, and the ghoulish films, but now also appreciates Gary Cooper in “High Noon” for facing down evil and standing up for what’s right.

“That’s why it was a favorite film of Presidents Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton and, reportedly, Harry S. Truman,” he said.

Another relative newcomer to his favorites list, “Casablanca” (1942) he said he appreciates for “the directorial touches and a bit of film noir here and there. Everything just clicks.”

As ever, the film connoisseur is riveted by the great screen actors — Cagney, Bogart and John Wayne.

“When they come on the screen, everyone else just fades into the background,” Wolff said. Movies, he said, remain the great escape, a break from bad news and life’s troubles.

Watching “The Wizard of Oz,” he said, you can delight in a fresh-faced, velvet-voiced, 16-year-old Judy Garland and not think about the troubles she would face later in life.

“I think when you’re engrossed in a film, you’re just transported into another world,” Wolff said. “These people will never age, they will never have problems with drugs or alcohol.”

“Whatever it is you like about a film, it gives you a chance to get away from all your everyday headaches and just get lost in some feel-good times,” Wolff said, adding, “For 90 minutes, [or] two hours, you’re transported back in time.”

Lawrence Wolff talks about Laurel and Hardy at the Huntington library

Attend a talk

Here are some of Larry Wolff’s upcoming library lectures, all of which are free:

LUCILLE BALL – THE QUEEN OF COMEDY, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Jan. 9, Amityville Public Library, 19 John St., 631-264-0567, email adult@amityvillepubliclibrary.org, advance registration suggested.

BUSTER KEATON – COMIC GENIUS, 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 6, Northport Public Library, 151 Laurel Ave., 631-261-6930, nenpl.org, registration required.

“THE QUIET MAN” – THE IRISH CLASSIC, 7 to 8:30 p.m. March 6, Amityville Public Library, 19 John St., 631-264-0567, adult@amityvillepubliclibrary.org, advance registration suggested; and 3 to 5 p.m. March 16, Huntington Public Library, 338 Main St., 631-427-5165, myhpl.org; online registration recommended.

For more about Lawrence Wolff and his lectures, visit www.classichollywoodlecturesandfilms.com

To see a sample lecture

Open the following link on Youtube to view my presentation on Charlie Chaplin for the Bayshore Historical Society from June 16, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMf2bDVtMLw This is a sample of how all of my lectures would be presented.

To hear the film discussion podcast with W. Zehava Schechter, Attorney at Law, click on the link at https://lilawpodcast.podbean.com/ )

If you are a fantasy fan, try this new book “Platinum Tinted Darkness” by my son, Timothy Wolff. Set in a fantasy world with a female heroine, Serenna Morgan, it is a tale of both light and dark power, indifferent gods that can not be trusted, death, destruction, chaos, violence and human kindness. Available in Amazon and in bookstores, it can be ordered on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in hardcover, paperback and in a Kindle version.

In the second book of the fantasy series, “Legacy of Boulom”, “Tears of the Maelstrom” author Timothy Wolff continues the story of the Guardian team. After book one, the team is left in tatters and it is up to Serenna Morgan to piece it all back together. Tempest Claw carries much of the plot and he is not to be trifled with which is why is he adorns the cover. The gods try to control the character’s free will setting the stage for a fast paced and exciting second entry to the series. Available in Amazon and in bookstores, it can be ordered on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in hardcover, paperback and in a Kindle version. (The reviews are excellent!)

The fantasy story comes full circle in its exciting conclusion. Meddling gods, Guardian battles and the Legacy of Boulom wraps up its story as characters get what they deserved. Good vs Evil fight to the finish as each character received a fitting conclusion by the story’s end. If you’ve read the first two installments, you won’t be disappointed as every character gets their moment to shine. Early reviews are GLORIOUS! (If you don’t know the “GLORIOUS” reference, you’ll have to read the series.)

A story told from the first person point of view of Lord Mute. Lord Mute has an interesting power granted to him by the Silent God that he will use when necessary. A dark and foreboding journey (with an occasional laugh) of the protagonist’s journey through the most dramatic decisions of his existence. This novella is available in book form as well as in an Audible Audiobook narrated by Nick Cracknell. If you would like to try a new world and invest just under two and one half hours, this is the journey you should take. This book is entered in the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) that is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community.

Special thanks to Newsday for their kind consideration of my opinion in the two articles below!

Laurel and Hardy pitch a Tent on Long Island

By DANIEL BUBBEO daniel.bubbeo@newsday.com October 4, 2012

 The Boys, as Laurel and Hardy were affectionately known, will be boys. Take their 1930 short "Hog Wild," in which portly Mr. Hardy's nagging wife has forced him to put up a radio antenna on the couple's rooftop, even though he literally can't find the hat on top of his head. He enlists the help of his equally incompetent pal Mr. Laurel, and .?.?. well, you can probably guess the rest, which involves a destroyed chimney and falling through the roof.

It's another fine mess they've gotten themselves into — emphasis on the word "fine," judging by the Laurel and Hardy har-hars the film elicits on a late summer evening at Old Bethpage Village's spacious theater. The screening room is the oasis where local chapter members of the Sons of the Desert, the Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society, gather eight times a year to socialize, snack and savor the films of the comic duo.

And with the recent interest in classic comics ("The Three Stooges" movie in the spring, "Chaplin" now on Broadway), what better time to revisit — or, for many, discover — the work of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

"No matter what country, what culture you come from, you may not wear derby hats and bow ties, but you get the brotherhood of these two guys who are in tattered coats and outcasts of society who are trying to fit in, and they never quite do," says Larry Wolff, 56, co-grand sheik (think president) of L.I.'s Second Hundred Years Tent. (Each chapter of The Sons of the Desert is called a tent and is named for one of the pair's movies.)

"The most important thing that makes them different from the Stooges and Abbott and Costello is the brotherhood that Laurel and Hardy share," says Wolff, who lives in Islip. "They really did care for one another in real life. They are a team that never had an argument in their entire career, which is pretty amazing."

That camaraderie also is apparent within the Second Hundred Years Tent, which was established in 1990, coincidentally, the 100th anniversary of Laurel's birth. It boasts about 50 members.

"Laurel and Hardy bring back an easier way of life, and this is a great place to see them," says Chuck Lupton, 64, of Islip, who joined 10 years ago.

Meetings usually begin with members socializing over cookies and soft drinks, followed by a toast to Laurel and Hardy, co-stars Jimmy Finlayson, Mae Busch and Charlie Hall, and finally, cartoonist Al Kilgore, the man who designed the tent's escutcheon. Then everyone crosses arms, holds hands and sings the anthem from Laurel and Hardy's 1933 classic "Sons of the Desert," before settling in for the night's film fare. The movies are sure to please fans — pristine, unedited DVD prints.

 "As the grand sheik, I get to wear a fez and talk," says Wolff, who usually offers some background on the movies before they're shown. "Dennis [Carter Jr., the co-grand sheik], runs the films, and I do the verbiage."

Despite calling themselves Sons, membership is about half female, says Carter's mom, Teresa, 57, a teaching assistant from Roslyn Heights, whose husband, Dennis Sr., also 57, is the grand vizier (aka secretary). "I'm the greeter," she says. "I greet everybody."

The Sons of the Desert, named for the film many fans regard as the duo's best feature, was created by a group of Laurel and Hardy aficionados — John McCabe, author of the bio "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy"; actors Orson Bean and Chuck McCann, Laurel and Hardy buff John Municino, and Kilgore. With preliminary help from Laurel, Tent No. 1 held its first meeting in New York City in 1965, shortly after his death. Today, there are more than 100 chapters worldwide.

And one of the cornerstones of the group is the "constitution" created by its founders with some help from Laurel. Laurel's biggest contribution was that there should be lots of imbibing at the meetings. The Second Hundred Years Tent on Long Island, however, likes to keep all activities family-friendly.

"We don't do the alcoholic cocktail in the constitution," Wolff says. "It was written that first everyone should have a cocktail, then a discussion of the films with a cocktail, then pre-dinner cocktails and then see the film with cocktails. Stan liked his cocktails."

Better to drink in the atmosphere at each meeting, which sometimes includes special guests with a Laurel and Hardy connection. One of the most popular visitors was Copiague resident Jerry Schatz, formerly known as Jerry Tucker during his child-star days as a member of the Little Rascals shorts produced at the Hal Roach Studios. Schatz, now 87, also appeared in Laurel and Hardy's 1934 classic "Babes in Toyland," playing several roles, including an offspring of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and one of the Three Little Pigs. "I was standing right next to Laurel and Hardy when they got dunked into the pool, and I was also one of the kids hanging onto a soldier," he says.

Despite working closely with them, Schatz was unfazed by their stardom. "We filmed the Little Rascals on one set and they would film their stuff on the other set. They'd come through to our set and talk to us. I remember Stan Laurel was wearing a derby hat, and he just gave it to Stymie [one of the Little Rascals]. They were very nice people, both of them," he recalls. "As children, we couldn't care less about who they were and what big stars they were. It didn't mean a thing because we were just people who they worked with."

The next generation

 Not surprisingly, membership in the Sons does skew older. Mainstays of the group have included Dwain Smith, 87, of Franklin Square, who has attended all 18 of the Sons of the Deserts conventions, held everywhere from Amsterdam to Manchester, N.H., and Edmund "Jazzbo" Tester, 85, who played Clarabell during live shows with "Howdy Doody's" Buffalo Bob Smith. Tester, who corresponded with Laurel and Hardy, is also the proud owner of a derby given to him by Hardy. "We had show business in common," he says of the comic team.

Tester, of Medford, passed on his love of Laurel and Hardy to his grandson Dennis Carter Jr., 37, of Roslyn Heights. He started showing him Laurel and Hardy movies when he was kid, and Carter was hooked.

One of his missions has been to attract a new generation of members. "I'm on Facebook and meeting people, mentioning Laurel and Hardy and telling them about the tent," says Carter Jr., who works as a concierge at an apartment development. "One of the apartment complexes I work at has a movie theater. Every month, they have a movie night, so I'm trying to talk them into having a Laurel and Hardy night."

One of those younger members is Wolff's 19-year-old son, Dan, a Suffolk County Community College student, who was introduced to Stan and Ollie with "Babes in Toyland," aka "March of the Wooden Soldiers," traditionally shown on TV for Thanksgiving. "The main thing I like about them is that they always came up with new material, they always came up with different stuff. I like newer comedians, too, but nothing beats the old classic stuff."

Dan Wolff has even introduced the comic twosome to some of his friends who never heard of Laurel and Hardy. "One of my buddies, he loves the Three Stooges, so I brought him to my house and showed him a Laurel and Hardy movie," he says. "He was like, 'Who are these guys? They're hilarious. I've never seen them before.' "

For longtime enthusiasts, that's a welcome reaction. "My goal is not only to show the films to the people who already know about them, but to get a new generation involved," says Larry Wolff, who is doing a program on Laurel and Hardy at Comsewogue Public Library in Port Jefferson Station in January and Port Washington Library in April. "They don't show that kind of comedy on TV anymore. It's all sex and dirty words and screaming, so if I can just get my foot into the door in libraries and then schools and show a couple of shorts to the kids, I'll be happy."

If you have questions on the Tent activities (which now meets in Deer Park) or related lectures, please feel free to contact me.

John C. Reilly does double duty in two buddy movies

By Joseph V. Amodio Special to Newsday December 20, 2018

John C. Reilly stars in two buddy movies opening this month, each with an uncommon take on their subjects.

 “Holmes and Watson,” opening Dec. 25, is a raucous comedy about the (usually cerebral) fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. John Watson (played by Reilly).

 “Stan and Ollie,” a dramedy out Dec.30 in limited release, reveals the serious, real-life relationship of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (Reilly), the beloved comedy team whose mannerisms and classic routines are painstakingly reproduced.

 For Reilly, it’s a study in opposites.

 “Unlike Holmes and Watson, [the characters Laurel and Hardy played in their films] were often mystified by the people and inanimate objects around them, and they always came up short — just the two of them against the world,” says film expert Larry Wolff of Islip

For moviegoers, it’s a chance to see Reilly inhabit two very distinct worlds.

 'HOLMES & WATSON'

CO-STAR Will Ferrell as Holmes was also Reilly’s partner on the outrageous “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers.”

 LOVE INTEREST Rebecca Hall as a female physician wooed during a meet-cute autopsy.

 SUITS Tweed. “It’s like the cargo shorts of England,” he said recently.

 'STAN & OLLIE'

CO-STAR Steve Coogan as Laurel also appears in “Holmes & Watson.”

 LOVE INTEREST Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle of “Harry Potter” films) as Hardy’s devoted wife.

SUITS Fat. Prosthetic jowls and mounds of reticulated foam around the torso required four hours in the makeup chair each shoot day and was so warm they had to plug Reilly into an ice machine between takes.

 Reilly knows he’ll be scrutinized by fans, like the Baker Street Irregulars, the oldest literary society of Sherlock enthusiasts (founded by bestselling Roslyn Estates author Christopher Morley in 1934).  Or the Sons of the Desert, an international Laurel & Hardy fan club named for one of their popular films, with a LI tent, or chapter, led by Wolff and Lake Ronkonkoma resident Dennis Carter Jr. (Meets six times a year at the Community Presbyterian Church of Deer Park.)

 “Laurel and Hardy were not just two actors hired to work together to make a movie,” says Carter. “They were friends having fun, making people laugh.”

 Such camaraderie fuels all buddy films.

 “We’re having a great time,” said Reilly, speaking of his reunion with Ferrell in a recent interview. “If you can engineer a job where you get to work with your actual friends, it’s a great thing. I highly recommend it.”    

The LI Law Podcast

Ep 11: Larry Wolff, movie critic, reviews “All Through the Night” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and discusses politics and government in movies.

August 28, 2019

Welcome to the LI Law Podcast.  We feature legal issues and developments which affect Long Island residents and business owners.  The podcast focuses on Long Island law topics and includes greater New York court and legislative happenings.  If you are one of the approximate 8 million residents of Long Island (Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, and Kings counties), or want to enjoy all law-related matters on Long Island, this podcast is for you!

We are taking a slight turn with this episode.  Our guest on this 11th episode is Larry Wolff, movie critic and lecturer, who will speak to us about 2 movies about politics and government, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “All Through the Night,” as well as their connection to Long Island.  This is a not-to-be missed fun episode.

Larry Wolff was an expert New York State Residency Tax Auditor for most of his 35 years of employment with the Tax Department. After retiring, he decided to have some fun. He now applies his lifelong accumulated knowledge to film lectures. At an early age, he appreciated the art of the cinema that entertained him. His early film interests were Gangsters, gag men and ghouls. He later came to appreciate dramas, with interesting story lines, as well as film noir. He now brings these interests before the public with Power Point enhanced film and Hollywood personality lectures and film showings. His goal – to entertain and educate his audience.

He has appeared on Lou Telano’s Street Wise radio program, and has been a regular contributor to the “A and P” Podcast show and the Abbott and Costello New York Fan Club.  Larry has served as Grand Sheik of the Long Island Tent of the Sons of the Desert (Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society) has given public lectures for the last ten years at libraries, synagogues, churches, fraternal organizations, and private groups.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN HUNTINGTON, NY

HUNTINGTON TO GIVE LECTURE ON CLASSIC COMEDIANS 2022-10-11

Lawrence Wolff will be giving a holiday-themed presentation at the Huntington Public Library in December.

Holidays with the Comedians is a program where people can watch and learn about classic comedic Christmas specials. During the lecture, attendees will get to see clips featuring Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and Jack Benny. Each segment of the presentation will be accompanied by PowerPoint slides. Guests can also view a memorabilia display during the program while listening to holiday music. The library's show will be open to the public.

Lawrence Wolff is an experienced presenter who specializes in classic Hollywood films and actors. Wolff incorporates clips and memorabilia displays related to the movies he discusses to help elevate his presentations. He has covered several topics, including James Cagney, Charles Chaplin, and Babes in Toyland. Wolff offers both private and public lectures and has been featured at venues like Farmingdale State College and Half Hollow Hills Community Library.

The presentation on classic comedians will take place on Monday, December 12 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. There is no cost to attend Wolff's program, and guests do not need to pay to see the lecture. He will also hold another holiday-themed event at the Mineola Memorial Library on December 17.