Sons of Slapstick : Comedy: When 500 die-hard Laurel and Hardy fans unfold their tents in Las Vegas, the fun is just beginning. ‘There are scholars and crazies,’ says one. ‘Most of us (are) a bit of both.’

The first waitress to spot the billfold with the money sticking out of it simply asked if anyone had dropped a wallet. But the second one fell for the bait and made the mistake of bending over to pick it up.

Thw-a-a-ck!

It’s a sound you don’t hear much anymore--the loud crack of an honest-to-goodness burlesque slapstick striking an unsuspecting victim’s behind.

It’s a safe bet that no slapsticks were present at that other convention this week in New York City. But at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas, corny conventioneer gags were de rigueur.

About 500 members of the Sons of the Desert--the international Laurel and Hardy appreciation society--were in town for their biannual five-day convention to celebrate one of the most beloved comedy teams in movie history.

It was easy spotting the Laurel and Hardy buffs amid the high rollers and slot machine addicts in the hotel casino. They were the ones wearing the bright red fezzes with the gold Sons of the Desert logo. There was also a smattering of black derbies and a slew of Laurel and Hardy T-shirts festooned with L&H; pins and buttons.

As Sara Borgstede of Sacramento said, on her way to compete in the Laurel and Hardy look-alike contest (as Stan): “This is better than the political conventions. At least we have more fun.”

And so they did, with a schedule that not only included look-alike and sound-alike contests but trivia and Name That Tune contests, celebrity panels, continuous showings of sound and silent L&H; movies and a Tuesday night banquet to which members were asked to “come in your cops & robbers garb.”

That’s not to mention the Oliver Hardy Golf Tournament, the Stan Laurel Slot Machine Tournament and a dealer’s room filled with Laurel and Hardy merchandise and memorabilia--everything from pictures and posters to statues and, yes, even official Sons of the Desert slapsticks.

The festivities began Sunday with a banquet complete with toasts to Stan and Ollie and the singing of the Sons of the Desert theme song.

The banquet was a tribute to 100-year-old movie pioneer Hal Roach, the studio head who teamed Laurel with Hardy in 1926.

Despite the daylong activities, longtime Sons of the Desert member Randy Skretvedt of Buena Park said the biggest attraction of conventions is the people.

“It’s fun to actually meet the people who have a shared interest,” he said. “If you mention a line of dialogue, they know what you’re talking about. But you don’t just come to talk about Laurel and Hardy. You come to meet friends. It’s a very social club.”

Skretvedt divides Sons of the Desert members into two categories: “There are people who do practical jokes and people who are serious film buffs--who are interested in film preservation and research.

“There are the scholars and the crazies,” he said. “Fortunately, most of us have a little bit of both.”

Named after the 1933 movie in which henpecked Laurel and Hardy lie to their wives so they can attend their lodge convention in Chicago, the Sons of the Desert was founded in New York City in 1965 by John McCabe, author of the book “Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy.”

Laurel, who died a few months before the first Sons meeting, gave his blessing to the fledgling group and even supplied the club motto: “Two minds without a single thought.”

The motto was translated into Latin for the club’s coat of arms in the spirit of Stan’s dictum that the Sons of the Desert have “a half-assed dignity.” And that, as founder McCabe has written, is something they strive to maintain “at all costs--at all times.”

As dictated by the group’s constitution, each Sons of the Desert tent, or chapter, takes its name from the title of a Laurel and Hardy movie and is presided over by a Grand Sheik. (The vice sheik, naturally, is in charge of vice.)

Since the group’s founding, Sons of the Desert tents, which host monthly screenings of Laurel and Hardy films, have sprung up all over the world. There are about 10,000 members in 152 tents, including those in Los Angeles (The Way Out West tent) and Orange County (The Unaccustomed as We Are tent).

Since the first international convention in Chicago in 1978, the Sons of the Desert have held an international convention every two years.

There wasn’t any organized mayhem in Las Vegas like the staged pie fight at the Hollywood convention (1980) or the piano demolition in St. Paul, Minn. (1988) a la “The Music Box,” in which the apoplectic Billy Gilbert takes an ax to the piano Laurel and Hardy carried up that famous flight of stairs.

But Bob Satterfield and fellow members of the Los Angeles tent were up to their old tricks.

“I’m one of the crazy people,” boasted Satterfield on Sunday night, saying he had “already ransacked a few rooms. We really build up the convention atmosphere. We do wake-up calls at 6 a.m. and toilet paper a couple of the rooms.”

Satterfield and friends have been at their most creative at past conventions, passing out coupons for “free” breakfasts, which they typed up in advance on hotel stationery (Valley Forge, 1986). “What’s funny,” he said, “is the hotel honored them.”

“I think you get the idea,” said Satterfield, a high school English teacher from San Bernardino. “It’s not vicious or destructive. It’s in the spirit of the conventions.”

The comic spirit of Laurel and Hardy, of course, is what binds the diverse membership of the group.

And to just what extent their fascination with Laurel and Hardy takes them was evident in the official trivia contest.

Only through repeated viewings of the team’s films--and a sharp eye for the smallest details--could they even begin to answers questions like: What was the address the piano was delivered to in “The Music Box”? (1127 Walnut Ave.). And what phone number does Ollie ask for when he calls Stan in “Blotto”? (Oxford-0614.)

Then there are the Laurel and Hardy collectors.

Chris Krank, a 10-year-member of the Orange County tent, said she and her husband, Paul, own more than $4,000 worth of memorabilia--from films and posters to statues and pillow cases that have taken over one room and is now encroaching on another.

Skretvedt, the grand sheik of the Orange County tent, makes the Krank’s collection pale in comparison.

In addition to a file cabinet full of research material, he owns nearly 500 statues and toys, close to 100 films and about 1,200 photographs, including Oliver Hardy’s scrapbooks and photo collection up to 1937, which he bought from a friend of Hardy’s second wife.

Which brings us to the question of why, nearly 50 years after their heyday, Laurel and Hardy’s comedy continues to endure.

Roach touched upon it in a brief interview after the banquet: “I think Laurel and Hardy were very exceptional characters.”

Guest “celebrity” Tommy Bond, who played “Butch,” the tough kid, in “The Little Rascals,” and who also appeared in Laurel and Hardy’s 1938 film “Block-Heads” was more effusive.

“It’s because these two guys invented everything funny that’s shown today,” he said. “There isn’t a stand-up comedian or duo that doesn’t do their bits. They invented it then and it’s still funny today and it’ll be funny forever because people want to enjoy a laugh.”

Said Stan Laurel’s daughter, Lois Laurel Hawes of Tarzana: “I think it’s their type of comedy, which was family comedy, and the hard work they put into getting it right.”

And how might her father feel if he could see how the Sons of the Desert has grown?

“I don’t think he’d believe it,” she said. “I know he never dreamed it would get to this proportion.”