Some years ago, before my mother died, I was in Ulverston with my wife and we happened to come across the Laurel & Hardy Museum, purely by chance. On entering and paying I said that I was related to someone who had been in a film with Laurel & Hardy. There was a shout from behind the scenes and out popped the late Bill Cubin, the founder of the museum. He immediately asked if it was Dennis King I was related to and he said that he had been hoping to meet a lady he thought was still alive who used to be married to Dennis’s brother. “That’s my mother,” I replied!
In wandering round the museum we found Dennis’s signature in Stan Laurel’s Visitors’ Book although I cannot now remember the date of the entry or where Stan was living at the time.
I gave Bill details for contacting my mother in Birmingham and he did eventually do that, hoping to entice her to go to a meeting of the Sons of the Desert. My mother was pleased to see Bill but she declined the invitation. Luckily Bill did have his picture taken with my mother with both of them wearing the customary fezzes:
