Read ghost stories and tales of those buried at both Mission San Miguel and the San Miguel Cemetery at Your Home Town under the San Miguel listing.

Movie Stars at Camp Roberts

Comedy legends Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were onstage at the historic Soldiers Bowl at Camp Roberts, on the afternoon of Sunday, June 8th, 1941.  They came to headline the first big USO Camp Show for soldiers, and their audience consisted of 15,000 Camp Roberts soldiers. 

The present Spanish Mission-style façade and dressing rooms had not yet been completed at that time, and a large lighting system was installed later in the year.  Other performers starring in the show were actor Mickey Rooney, actress Lupe Valez (the "Latin Spitfire"), Scottish singer Ella Logan, comedian Phil Silvers, Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers, actress Jane Withers, Peggy Morse and Joan Leslie. 

The historic Soldiers Bowl still stands today, down the road from Headquarters Hill, and there is an exhibit on the celebrities who entertained at Camp Roberts over the years.

Laurel and Hardy's show is one of the many shows that will be covered in a new book currently being compiled.  It will cover all of the stars who trained at Camp Roberts (Like Red Skelton, Robert Mitchum, Jackie Coogan, Bob Newhart, Steve Allen, Robert Blake, Jon Hall and many others), all the stars who staged shows there for the trainees, the live stage plays, the radio
shows that were broadcast from Camp Roberts starring such legends as Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Edgar Bergen, and the motion pictures and television productions filmed there.  The new book, entitled "Hollywood at Camp Roberts," will be available by next spring. 
- article by Gary McMaster, Director and Curator of the Camp Roberts Historical Museum