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A brief look at Laurel and Hardy, the most famous comedy duo ever |
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A brief look at Laurel and Hardy, the most famous comedy duo ever |
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So much has been written about Laurel and Hardy it is hard to try to write something new. However, the constant new generations of fans stops them from ever going away.
My earliest introduction of L&H was somewhere between the age of 12 and 14. I can remember a Christmas when my family decided to go for a Christmas day drink and asked me to come along. The thought of being dumped in a pub corner somewhere with a lemonade and a packet of crisps did not appeal, not when I had been watching Laurel and Hardy for about 10 mins and liked what I saw. I think I stayed in with my gran and watched several of their short films. I am now 39 and still hate to miss them. My only regret today is that Laurel and Hardy are not shown enough on British television. A lot of writers, critics etc have tried to analyse what it was about Laurel and Hardy that appealed even ????? After they are no longer with us. I personally don't know but I am sure it has something to do with the fact that one was American and one was British. Our American friends across the pond do laugh at different things to us but some things make the transition. We gave them Monty Python, they gave us Jerry Lewis. Somewhere inbetween that humour is Laurel and Hardy. To me there is not a lot of point in trying to analyse Laurel and Hardy. A lot has been said that it is slapstick, it is good clean fun. Yeah, that's true but if that is the case, why do I like Rik Mayal and Ade Edmondson, slapstick but certainly not good clean fun. I love toilet humour, Ben Elton, Billy Connolly, Bottom, Young Ones etc. Well, there I am trying to analyse . . . . lets take a look at how it all started.
Arthur Stanley Jefferson, later Stan Laurel, was born in Ulverston, Lancashire on 16th June 1890. His father, was a theatre man, writing, acting, producing plays as well as managing theatres and liked to be known as 'AJ'. He married an actress called Madge Metcalf and they had four children. They lived with their grand parents in Ulverston but in 1905 they moved to Glasgow. Stan was not a keen scholar, consistently playing truant, AJ decided to give him a job at the Theatre looking after the box office. AJ hoped to train young Stan to become a theatre manager but Stan wanted to be on the stage. He got to appear on stage for the first time when he was 16. Stan was later to join Fred Karno's famous troupe of music hall artists in Manchester in a highly successful run in Mumming Birds. In 1910 the troupe went to America with the show which became a showcase for one Charlie Chaplin as the drunk, Stan was his understudy. Chaplin left the show in 1917 but by now Stan was an accomplished mime artist and toured America with various comedy acts. 1917 saw Stan changed his name to the now world famous Stan Laurel. An Independent producer by the name of Adolph Ramish spotted Stan and asked him to be in a film. The two reeler was, Nuts In May, and impressed the now rising star Charlie Chaplin and Carl Laemmle of Universal Studios. Stan signed to them but after major reorganisation all contracts were cancelled. The 1920's saw Stan make a series of comedies for the Metro company. These films were mainly parodies of current films, such as Mud and Sand, a take off of Blood and Sand etc. Many of these films were devised by Stan. By 1923 Stan had signed to Hal Roach, who he would later find his biggest success.
Oliver Norvell Hardy was born 18th January in Harlem, Georgia. His father died when he was very young and Emily, the widow had the arduous task of raising five children on her own. Oliver was encouraged at an early age to sing. After his fathers death, the family moved to Milledegville where Emily ran a hotel. Oliver was later quoted as saying this is where he did his 'lobby watching'. He would watch the various characters etc. When Oliver was eight he ran away from home and joined the Coburn's Minstrels as a boy soprano. However, Emily decided to let him stay under the watchful eyes of Mr. Coburn. Emily hoped Oliver would tire of life on the road and return. Oliver did return but was by now, bitten by the show business bug. When Oliver reached the age of fourteen he was sent to Military college, where he was ridiculed for his size. He later studied at Atlanta Conservatory of Music. Not long after this, his older brother died, Oliver decided he should be close to his mother and studied law at Georgia University, this was not to last long when in 1910 he opened a movie Theatre. He gave this up in 1913 and moved to Florida, to work for Lubin Pictures. Oliver in private life was known as 'Babe'. It was around this time that name came about after a gay barber used to call Oliver 'nice-a bab-ee'. His career saw him work in New York and California where he mainly played heavies. Moving to Fox in cowboy films he was called for another western for one Mr. Hal Roach and Roach signed him immediately. Roach watched the beginnings of the now famous mannerisms, the stare at the audience, facial expression, squirming feet and twisting hands.
Laurel and Hardy as a team was not deliberate. Stan now working at the Hal Roach studios spent most of his time devising and directing gags. He was for all intent and purposes, a gag man. He was to direct a film short called Get 'em Young (1926), which was to include Oliver as a timed butler. However Oliver injured himself before shooting and Stan, had to play the part himself. It was in this film that we first see Stan's famous 'cry'. He was coerced into writing and starring in the next picture, Slipping Wives (1927), which was to co-star Oliver. This was to be the first teaming of Stan and Oliver. The rest as most will know was history. In 1927-28 they appeared in more Hal Roach films though these were not, in a sense, Laurel and Hardy films.
1927 saw the release of Why Girls Love Sailors and it was in this film that we first saw Oliver's famous tie twiddle. In the film, Hardy has just opened a door and receives a pail of water in his face. Hardy relates the story, "It threw me mentally, just for a second or so, and I just couldn't think what to do next. The camera was grinding away, and I knew I had to do something, so I thought of blowing my nose with my wet and sopping tie. I was raising my tie to my nose when all of a sudden I realised that this would be a bit vulgar. There were some ladies watching us. So I waved my tie in a kind of tiddly-widdly fashion, in a kind of comic way, to show that I was embarrassed." The next moment Hardy turned to the camera with a long hard stare to show his disgust and exasperation, and the 'slow burn' was created. This slow burn was later to be used in many L&H films to savour comic moments. A pause for the audience to react.
Stanley's spiky hair was another 'accident', when he shaved his hair to play a convict. As he tried to brush it out but to no avail it brought laughter from the crew, so it stayed.
Another face often seen in L&H films was that of James Finlayson. Bald head, handle bar moustache, squinting eye. He nearly always played the villain, also like Oliver, he used the camera to communicate to the viewers. If Stan or Oliver did something ridiculous he would use the stare reminiscent of Oliver's slow burn, this was usually followed by the phrase "Doh". Matt Gronig, creator of The Simpson's, admits stealing this phrase for Homer Simpson, who says it in a much faster way.
Working at the Hal Roach studios gave L&H lots of freedom. Roach more or less left them to their own devices. They set about making one and two reelers, it was these films that perhaps Stan and Ollie were most famous. Many of the directors of these shorts allowed Stan to work out new gags which often changed the films during production. This was not to say there was not any input from Oliver, he often made suggestions but his real love was golf. Some of the shorts used some of the young beauties of the day and included Lupe Velez, Jean Harlow, Mae Busch and Thelma Todd. 1929 saw the stock market crash and the coming of sound movies. The Roach studios managed to keep going but many people suffered personal losses including Stan who lost, $30,000 through bank closures. However Laurel and Hardy made the transition to sound with great success. Their first talkie was Unaccustomed As We Are (1929). More success followed in The Perfect Day (1929), who can forget the famous "goodbye" scenes. If you have not seen this film rent, buy or steal a copy from somewhere. It was in this movie the now often used sound gag was used. You all know it, a character is hit on the head and the sound we hear is one of a hammer hitting an anvil. More success followed with Hog Wild (1930), Helpmates (1931), Scram (1932), Two Tars (1932) and another of their most famous shorts, The Music Box (1932). This was the one were Stan and Ollie play two removal guys who have to deliver a piano to a house at the top of dozens of stairs. This film won them an 'Academy Award' for best short subject film. It was Stan's opinion that this was their best film. |