The two film buffs threaded a strip of 16-millimeter celluloid into an aging Kodak Pageant projector, which flickered to life and splashed a beam of light onto a nearby screen.

The buffs, Jack Roth and John Giriat, sat back as a hush came over the 30 or so people gathered on a recent Friday in a Manhattan church to enjoy a lush, black-and-white version of “Sons of the Desert,” a classic Laurel and Hardy movie.

The film’s name is shared by the official Laurel and Hardy appreciation group, which has some 100 chapters worldwide, with each chapter, or tent, named after a Laurel and Hardy film. Many of the groups were founded by Laurel and Hardy connoisseurs whose film collections offered fans a chance to gather in the dark for an uproarious celluloid fix of “The Boys,’’ as they are fondly known.

Since the New York City chapter was founded in 1965 as the first Sons of the Desert group, it has had nicknames like the Founding Tent, or — in keeping with the desert theme — Oasis #1.