Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are probably the most famous comedy duo in film history.

Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel (June 16, 1890 - February 23, 1965) was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Lancashire (now Ulverston, Cumbria), England. Laurel began his career as a comedian in English music halls where he was an understudy to Charlie Chaplin in Fred Karno's comedy company. He emigrated to America in 1910 and embarked on a vaudeville career. He made his first film appearance in 1917 (Nuts in May). He stayed in film and did minor and undistinguished work for Hal Roach, Anderson and Universal.

Before his partnership with Oliver, Stan appeared solo in more than 50 silent one- and two-reelers. He had to use eyeliner, as his pale blue eyes wouldn't photograph well on the black and white film at the time. He also removed the heels from his shoes to give himself a "foolish" walk.

Oliver Hardy

Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892 - August 7, 1957) was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia, near Augusta. When he turned 18, he changed his first name to that of his father, thenceforth calling himself 'Oliver Norvell Hardy'. He was nicknamed 'Babe'.

Before Hardy started his film career as a "heavy" actor in 1914 (Outwitting Dad), he had been a movie house projectionist/manager at the Palace Theater in Milledgeville, GA. Before his partnership with Stan, Oliver appeared solo in more than 250 silent one- and two-reelers, only about 100 of which are extant.

Hardy had a very pleasant singing voice, and often enjoyed performing for those on the set as well as singing in his own movies.

Laurel and Hardy, together

Hal Roach years

The first encounter of the two comedians in a film took place in The Lucky Dog (1921). They first appeared in the same Hal Roach film in Forty-Five Minutes From Hollywood (1926), and their first 'official' film was The Second Hundred Years (June 1927), directed by Fred Guiol and supervised by Leo McCarey, who was the one to suggest that Stanley and Oliver be teamed permanently.

From 1926 onwards they starred in Hal Roach comedies, including silent shorts, talkie shorts and feature films – 106 in all. They made a great number of popular shorts before their first feature film with director James Parrott, Pardon Us (1931). The duo reduced the number of shorts they made to concentrate on feature films, such as Pack Up Your Troubles (1932), Fra Diavolo (1933), Sons of the Desert (1933), and Babes in Toyland (1934). They made the classic short The Music Box in 1932, which won the Academy Award for Best Short Subjects, Comedy, and stopped making shorts in 1935.

The duo's subsequent feature films (produced by Roach and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) were Bonnie Scotland (1935), The Bohemian Girl (1936), Our Relations (1936), Way Out West (1937) (which includes the famous song "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine"), Swiss Miss (1938), and Blockheads (1938).

Style of comedy and notable routines

The humour of Laurel and Hardy was generally slapstick in nature, often employing Laurel's character as dominant (although Hardy always presumed he had the upper hand), usually to Hardy's chagrin. A typical sequence would be their collaboration on the construction of a house: Hardy holds a number of nails in his mouth, Laurel warmly claps him on the back, Hardy swallows the nails.

In some cases, the comedy bordered on the surreal. For example, Laurel might light his pipe by flicking his thumb upwards from his clenched fist as if he held a cigarette lighter. His thumb would ignite, and he would light his pipe. Hardy, seeing this, would attempt to duplicate it. When, after many attempts he actually would achieve the same effect, he would be surprised to discover that his thumb was actually burning, and would cry in pain and hastily blow it out.

A famous shtick the team often performed was a bizarre kind of tit for tat fight with an opponent. In the basic scenario, the pair would begin the fight by damaging something that the opponent valued, while that opponent did not defend himself. However, when the pair were finished, the opponent would then calmly retaliate by damaging something that Laurel and Hardy valued, while the pair strangely refrained from defending themselves. The pair then dispassionately retaliated with an escalating act of vandalism and so on, until both sides were simultaneously destroying property in front of each other.

Throughout their career the driving force was Laurel, who wrote the scripts and frequently produced (and sometimes directed) the films, and always insisted on being paid twice as much as Hardy.

Decline

By 1936, the relationship between Laurel and Hardy was under strain, and both of them were distanced from Hal Roach. Laurel in particular frequently argued with Roach, and extended stand-off periods became common during the late-1930s. In 1938, The Roach studio switched distributors from MGM to United Artists. Laurel and Hardy made three more films before they split with Roach in 1940. They signed with larger studios, where they were relegated to the b-film divisions, making eight more films through 1944.

After spending the rest of the 1940s performing onstage in Europe, Laurel and Hardy made one final film together in 1950, the French-set Atoll K aka Utopia, directed by Léo Joannon.

Oliver Hardy died in 1957 at the age of 65 and was interred in The Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California. Laurel did not attend his partner's funeral, due to his own ill health, explaining his absence with the line "Babe would understand."

For the remaining eight years of his life, Laurel refused to perform, but did contribute scripts and gags to several comedy filmmakers, and did some personal writing as well. He was anonymously assisted financially by Frank Sinatra. Stan Laurel died in Santa Monica, California in 1965 at the age of 74, and is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.

Trivia

• Part of Laurel and Hardy's on-screen appearance called for their faces to be filmed flat, without any shadows or dramatic lighting, to recall the traditional appearance of clowns. Both Laurel and Hardy wore a light pancake makeup on their faces, and Roach cameramen such as Art Lloyd and Francis Corby were instructed to light and film a scene so that the comedians would be "washed out". Art Lloyd was once quoted as saying "Well, I'll never win an Oscar [for Laurel & Hardy cinematography], but I'll sure please Stan Laurel."

• Their famous signature tune, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Waltz of the Cuckoos", was composed by Roach musical director Marvin Hatley as the on-the-hour chime forthe Roach studio radio station. Laurel heard the tune on the station, and asked Hatley to use it as the Laurel and Hardy theme song. In Laurel's eyes, the song's melody represents Oliver Hardy's character (pompous and dramatic), while the harmony represents Laurel's own character (somewhat out of key, and only able to register two notes: "coo-coo"). The original theme was first used in Night Owls (1930), and was later rerecorded in 1935 with a full orchestra.

• The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as Sons of the Desert after a fraternal society in the film of the same name. It was founded in New York in 1965 with the sanction of Stan Laurel.

• In a 2005 poll, The Comedian's Comedian, the duo were voted the 7th greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders, making them the most popular double act on the list.

Literature

• Louvish, Simon (2001). Stan and Ollie: The roots of comedy. London: Faber and Faber. [Greatly detailed double biography—essential reading]

• MacGillivray, Scott (1998). Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward. Lanham, MD: Vestal Press. [Post-1940 films, also revivals and home movies]

• McCabe, John (1961). Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy. New York: Doubleday; (1966) Signet. [The authorized biography of the team, quoting both Laurel and Hardy']

• Mitchell, Glenn (1995). The Laurel & Hardy Encyclopedia. London: Batsford. [L&H from A to Z]

• Skretvedt, Randy (1996). Laurel and Hardy: The magic behind the movies (rev. 2nd ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Past Times. [The definitive filmography—essential reading]

• Stone, Rob (1996). Laurel or Hardy: The solo films of Stan Laurel and Oliver "Babe" Hardy. [In-depth study of their earliest films]Temecula, CA: Split Reel.

List of short films

• The Lucky Dog

• 45 Minutes from Hollywood

• Duck Soup

• Slipping Wives

• Love 'em and Weep

• Why Girls Love Sailors

• With Love and Hisses

• Sailors Beware

• Do Detectives Think

• Flying Elephants

• Sugar Daddies

• Call of the Cuckoos

• The Second Hundred Years

• Hats Off

• Putting Pants on Philip

• The Battle of the Century

• Leave 'Em Laughing

• The Finishing Touch

• From Soup to Nuts

• You're Darn Tootin'

• Their Purple Moment

• Should Married Men Go Home?

• Early to Bed

• Two Tars

• Habeas Corpus

• We Faw Down

• Liberty

• Wrong Again

• That's My Wife

• Big Business

• Double Whoopee

• Bacon Grabbers

• Angora Love

• Unaccustomed As We Are

• Berth Marks

• Men O' War

• Perfect Day

• They Go Boom

• The Hoose-Gow

• Night Owls

• Blotto

• Brats

• Below Zero

• Hog Wild

• The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case

• Another Fine Mess

• Be Big

• Chickens Come Home

• The Stolen Jools

• Laughing Gravy

• Our Wife

• Come Clean

• One Good Turn

• On the Loose

• Helpmates

• Any Old Port

• The Music Box

• The Chimp

• County Hospital

• Scram

• Their First Mistake

• Towed in a Hole

• Twice Two

• Me and My Pal

• The Midnight Patrol

• Busy Bodies

• Wild Poses

• Dirty Work

• Oliver the Eighth

• Going Bye Bye

• Them Thar Hills

• The Live Ghost

• Tit for Tat

• The Fixer-Uppers

• Thick than Water

List of feature films

• The Hollywood Revue of 1929

• The Rogue Song

• Pardon Us

• Beau Hunks

• Pack Up Your Troubles

• The Devil's Brother

• Sons of the Desert

• Hollywood Party

• Babes in Toyland

• Bonnie Scotland

• The Bohemian Girl

• Our Relations

• Way Out West

• Pick A Star

• Swiss Miss

• Block-Heads

• A Chump at Oxford

• The Flying Deuces

• Saps at Sea

• Great Guns

• A-Haunting We Will Go

• Air Raid Wardens

• Jitterbugs

• The Dancing Masters

• The Big Noise

• Nothing But Trouble

• The Bullfighters

• Atoll K

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