LAUREL AND HARDY

'Laurel and Hardy' were an American-based comedy duo who became famous during the early half of the 20th century for their work in motion pictures. The members of the duo were the thin British-born-and-reared Stan Laurel and his heavier American partner from the state of Georgia, Oliver Hardy. The pair are considered among the most famous and finest double acts in cinema history. Each brought talents from his solo career to the team.
The two comedians worked together briefly in 1919 on ''The Lucky Dog'' released in 1921. After a period appearing separately in several short films for the Hal Roach studio during the 1920s, they began appearing in movie shorts together in 1926, and Laurel and Hardy officially became a team in 1927. They became Hal Roach's most famous and lucrative stars. Among their most popular and successful films were the features ''Sons of the Desert'' (1933), ''Way Out West'' (1937), and ''Block-Heads'' (1938); and the shorts ''Big Business'' (1929), ''Helpmates'' (1932), and their ''Academy Award-winning short, ''The Music Box'' (1932).
The pair left the Roach studio in 1940, then appeared in eight low-budget comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. From 1945 to 1950, they did not appear on film and concentrated on their stage show. They made their last film, ''Atoll K'', in France in 1950 and 1951 before retiring from the screen. In total, they appeared together in 106 films. They starred in 40 short sound films, 32 short silent films and 23 feature films, and in the remaining 11 films, had a guest or cameo appearance.

Contents

Before the pairing

Stan Laurel

Oliver Hardy

History

"Stan" and "Ollie": Hal Roach years

Style of comedy and notable routines

On-screen characterizations

Later feature films

Final years

Posthumous revivals

Lost films

Music

In popular culture

The Sons Of The Desert

Laurel and Hardy in other languages

References

Bibliography

See also

Public domain material

External links

Before the pairing

Stan Laurel

Main articles: Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel (June 16, 1890 – February 23, 1965) was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Lancashire (now Ulverston, Cumbria), England. His father, Arthur J. "A.J." Jefferson, was a showman and had served as actor, director, playwright, manager, and all-around theatrical entrepreneur in many northern English cities.
Laurel began his career in Glasgow Britannia Theatre of Varieties and Panopticon music hall, colloquially know as as the Panopticon, at the age of 16, where he crafted a comedy act largely derivative of famous music hall comedians of the day, including George Robey and Dan Leno. Over the next several years, he gradually worked his way up the ladder of supporting roles until he became the featured comedian, as well as an understudy to Charlie Chaplin, in Fred Karno's comedy company. He emigrated to America in 1912 where he decided to change his name; he worried that "Stanley Jefferson" was too long to fit onto posters. He shortened it to "Stan" and added "Laurel" at the suggestion of his vaudeville partner, Mae Dahlberg.
He made his first film appearance in 1917 (''Nuts in May'') and continued to make more than 50 other silent films and two-reelers for a variety of producers, including Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Hal Roach Studios, and Universal.

He experienced only modest success as a solo comedian. Producer Hal Roach later attributed this to the difficulty in photographing Laurel's pale blue eyes on early pre-panchromatic film stock, perhaps giving the appearance of blindness (which, in his earliest films, Laurel tried to remedy by adding heavy defining makeup around his eyes). Moreover, Laurel did not have an identifiable or easily marketable screen character, like that of Chaplin, Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton.
It was only when Laurel began appearing in satires of popular screen dramas that audiences really took notice of him. Between 1922 and 1925 he starred in a number of films including ''Mud and Sand'' (a burlesque of ''Blood and Sand'' featuring Stan as "Rhubarb Vaselino") and ''Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde'' (with Stan playing both the genteel doctor and the manic monster). Many of these comedies had crazy visual gags along with Laurel's eccentric pantomime, establishing the star as an inspired "nut comic".

Oliver Hardy

Main articles: Oliver Hardy

Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia, in the United States. Upon turning 18, he changed his first name to that of his father who had died years earlier, henceforth calling himself 'Oliver Norvell Hardy'. (His nickname was 'Babe').
Before Hardy began his film career as a "heavy" actor in the 1914 film ''Outwitting Dad'' he had been a movie house projectionist and manager at the ''Palace Theater'' in Milledgeville, GA. Oliver appeared solo in more than 250 silent short films, about 150 of which were destroyed in a studio fire.
Hardy was a trained singer, and often enjoyed performing for those on the set as well as singing in his own movies.

History

"Stan" and "Ollie": Hal Roach years

The first film encounter of the two comedians (as separate performers) took place in ''The Lucky Dog'', produced in 1919 by Sun-Lite Pictures and released in 1921. Several years later, both comedians appeared in the Hal Roach production ''45 Minutes from Hollywood'' (1926). Their first "official" film together was ''Putting Pants on Philip'', although their first pairing as the now familiar "Stan and Ollie" characters was ''The Second Hundred Years'' (June 1927), directed by Fred Guiol and supervised by Leo McCarey, who suggested that the performers be teamed permanently.
Hal Roach kept them a team for the next decade, making silent shorts, talkie shorts, and feature films. While most silent-film actors saw their careers decline with the advent of sound, Laurel and Hardy made a successful transition in 1929 with the short ''Unaccustomed As We Are''. Laurel's English accent and Hardy's Southern American accent and singing brought new dimensions to their characters. The team also proved skillful in their melding of visual and verbal humor, adding dialogue that served to enhance rather than replace their popular sight gags.

Laurel and Hardy's shorts, produced by Hal Roach and released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, were among the most successful in the business. Most of the shorts ran two reels (twenty minutes), although several ran three reels long, and one, ''Beau Hunks'', was four reels long. In 1929, they appeared for the first time in a feature as one of the acts in ''The Hollywood Revue of 1929'' and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-Technicolor musical feature entitled: ''The Rogue Song''. This film marked their first appearance in color. Considered a "lost film", only a few fragments of this production have survived, along with the complete soundtrack. In 1931, Laurel and Hardy's first starring feature was released, ''Pardon Us''. Following its success, the duo made fewer shorts in order to concentrate on feature films, which included ''Pack Up Your Troubles'' (1932), ''Fra Diavolo'' (or ''The Devil's Brother'', 1933), ''Sons of the Desert'' (1933), and ''Babes in Toyland'' (1934). Their classic short ''The Music Box'', released in 1932, won the first ''Academy Award'' for Best Short Subject, (Comedy).
Because the popularity of the double feature diminished the demand for short subjects, Hal Roach cancelled all of his shorts series, save for ''Our Gang''. The final short in the ''Laurel and Hardy'' series was 1935's ''Thicker than Water''. The duo's subsequent feature films included ''Bonnie Scotland'' (1935), ''The Bohemian Girl'' (1936), ''Our Relations'' (1936), ''Way Out West'' (1937) (which includes the famous song "Trail of the Lonesome Pine"), ''Swiss Miss'' (1938), and ''Block-Heads'' (1938).

Style of comedy and notable routines

The humour of Laurel and Hardy was generally visual, but based on character development with slapstick used for emphasis. Their physical tête-à-têtes are quite complex, which is part of what sets them above other comedy acts. Their characters and closeknit relationship preclude them from making any real progress in even the simplest endeavors. For example, in ''Night Owls'' (1930) the duo wants to enter a house without disturbing the occupants. Ollie pushes Stan through an open window, but they get into a argument and Stan closes the window on Ollie. Ollie signals for him to open the front door anyway. Stan opens the door but steps out to greet Ollie and lets the door close behind him. Ollie goes to reopen the window. Stan wanders about, finding another open window, through which he climbs. Stan opens the front door again but makes so much noise that Ollie, agitated, runs at him. Nervous, Stan ducks into the house, shutting the door. He peeks out; Ollie grabs him and pulls him, but since Stan is holding the doorknob, the door shuts behind him. Ollie desperately tries to open side A of the double-door, while Stan discovers that side B is unlocked. He goes inside, then appears at the window, from which he whistles to Ollie. Ollie sees side B door is open and goes in, shutting the door just as Stan, who was climbing out of the window, reaches the front of the house. He rings the doorbell, which alerts the butler who falls down the stairs, scaring Ollie out the door. The duo are both once again locked outside, where they get into an argument.
Much of their comedy involves a process they referred to as "milking", where a simple idea provides a basis from which to build several gags. Many of their films have extended sequences constructed around simply featuring the types of problems the pair can create for themselves in a given situation, without following a defined narrative.
In some cases, their comedy bordered on surreal "white magic." For example, Laurel would light his pipe by flicking his thumb upward 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 routine the team often performed was a bizarre kind of "tit-for-tat" fight with an adversary. In a typical scenario, a conflict would begin when Laurel and Hardy accidentally damaged someone else's property. The injured party would retaliate by ruining something belonging to Laurel or Hardy, who would calmly survey the damage and find something else to vandalize. The conflict would escalate until both sides were simultaneously destroying property in front of each other. An early example of the routine occurs in their classic short, ''Big Business'' (1929), which was added to the Library of Congress as a national treasure in 1992.

On-screen characterizations

The Laurel and Hardy onscreen personas are of two supremely brainless, eternally optimistic men, secure in their perpetual and impregnable innocence. Their humor is physical, but their accident-prone buffoonery is distinguished by their affable personalities and mutual devotion. They are 'children' in a adult world: a skinny-and-fat pair of life's innocent bystanders who run afoul of irate landlords, pompous citizens, angry policemen, domineering women, antagonistic customers, and apoplectic bosses. But they face the world together, no matter how disastrous the consequences, and their friendship sees them through more than 100 misadventures. If nothing else, they are gentlemen: "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy."
Laurel and Hardy had an inherent physical contrariety which was enhanced with small touches. Stan kept his hair short on the sides and back, but let it grow long on top to create a natural "fright wig" through his inveterate gesture of scratching his head at moments of shock or wonderment and simultaneously pulling up his hair. To achieve a flat-footed walk, he removed the heels from his shoes (usually Army shoes). When talking with Ollie, he would frequently look at his partner's forehead instead of his eyes, enhancing his out-of-this-world coloration.
Part of Laurel and Hardy's onscreen images called for their faces to be filmed flat, without any shadows or dramatic lighting. To invoke a traditional clown-like appearance, both comedians wore a light pancake makeup on their faces, and Roach's cameramen, such as Art Lloyd and Francis Corby, were instructed to light and film a scene so that facial lines and wrinkles would be "washed out." Art Lloyd was once quoted as saying, "Well, I'll never win an Oscar, but I'll sure please Stan Laurel."
Offscreen, Laurel and Hardy were quite the opposite of their movie characters: Laurel was the industrious "idea man", while Hardy was more easygoing. Although Hal Roach employed writers and directors such as H.M. Walker, Leo McCarey, James Parrott, James W. Horne, and others on ''Laurel and Hardy'' films, Laurel would rewrite entire sequences or scripts, have the cast and crew improvise on the soundstage, and meticulously review the footage for editing, often moonlighting to achieve all of these tasks. While Hardy did contribute to the routines, he was generally content to follow Laurel's lead and spent most of his free time on hobbies such as golf.

Later feature films

By 1936, although the relationship between Laurel and Hardy remained strong, Laurel's dealings with producer Roach became strained amid a tangle of artistic differences. Roach insisted that his feature-length comedies should also contain musical numbers and/or subplots. (Roach always contended that if you watched any comedian for an hour at a time, "you'd be bored to hell with him.") Laurel maintained that such padding distracted from the team's comedy. Because of this friction, extended stand-off periods became common during the late 1930s, with Roach occasionally threatening to pair Hardy with someone else (he kept them under separate contracts).
Roach terminated Stan Laurel's contract in August 1938. The New York Times for August 18, 1938 reported: "Harry Langdon replaces Laurel as Hardy's partner...comedy series planned...Laurel placed under permanent suspension...Laurel was removed from the payroll when he declined to report for retakes for 'Blockheads' and for the subsequent Laurel and Hardy effort which was to have been started two weeks ago. Langdon will be teamed with Oliver Hardy in comedies. The first will be ''Zenobia's Infidelity''," by H.C. Brunner..."
That film, ''Zenobia'', was made with Hardy and Langdon. While the film did enjoy moderate success, it turned out to be the only pairing of Hardy and Langdon. During the dispute with Roach, Stan Laurel made alternate plans. The NY Times of Sept, 12, 1938, reported:
::"...Mack Sennett announced that he had signed Stan Laurel to star in a series of films he will make with a new producing company to be known as Sennet Pictures Corporation. Laurel was under contract to Hal Roach as member of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, until last month, when Roach broke up the combination, alleging that Laurel violated his contract, and substituted Harry Langdon as Hardy's mate..."
Those films were not made, since by April of 1939 the dispute between Laurel and Roach was settled and the comedy team was again intact for further work with Roach. They made two films, ''A Chump at Oxford'' (1940) and ''Saps at Sea'' (1940), that Roach released through United Artists.
Hoping for greater artistic freedom, Laurel and Hardy split with Roach and signed with major studios 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. However, the working conditions were now completely different, as they were hired only as actors, relegated to the B-film divisions, and initially not allowed to improvise or contribute to the scripts. When the films proved popular, the studios gave the team more input, and Laurel and Hardy made a total of eight features through 1944. These films, if not the team's best, were extremely successful at the box office.
In 1941, Laurel and Hardy filmed a silent sequence as a public service for the Department of Agriculture; this footage was incorporated into the U. S. Government short ''The Tree In a Test Tube'' (1943). The duo demonstrated the uses of wood, especially as part of the war effort. The most remarkable thing about the film, narrated by MGM's Pete Smith, was that it was filmed in Kodachrome, only the second of their films to be shot in color. (There are also color home movies of Laurel and Hardy, some of which have been included in video releases of their Hal Roach films).
In 1949, when Laurel was temporarily unable to work due to illness, Hardy made two solo appearances with his partner's blessings. He played the comic sidekick to John Wayne in Republic's ''The Fighting Kentuckian''. Then, Frank Capra cast him as a racetrack gambler in an uncredited appearance in ''Riding High'', starring Bing Crosby.
After spending the rest of the 1940s performing on stage in Europe, Laurel and Hardy made one final film together in 1950. ''Atoll K'' (also known as ''Utopia'') was a French-Italian co-production directed by Leo Joannon, which was plagued by language barriers, production problems, and Laurel's grave health during shooting. Although the film contained some clever visual humor, its muddled storyline, bad voice dubbing, and Laurel's appalling physical appearance worked against its success. The film brought an end to Laurel and Hardy's film careers.

Final years

After ''Atoll K'', Laurel and Hardy took several months off, so that Laurel could recuperate. Upon their return to the European stage, they undertook a successful series of public appearances in short sketches Laurel had written: "A Spot of Trouble" (in 1952) and "Birds of a Feather" (in 1953).
Laurel and Hardy returned to the United States in 1954. On December 1, 1954, the team made their only American television appearance, surprised by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program, ''This Is Your Life''. An audible gasp came from the studio audience when the two were introduced, since — unlike Europeans — many were unaware that they were still alive and well. By the mid-1950s, partly due to the positive response from the television broadcast, the pair was renegotiating with Hal Roach for a series of NBC television specials (in color) to be called ''Laurel & Hardy's Fabulous Fables''. However, plans for the specials were shelved, as the aging comedians suffered from declining health.
In 1955, Laurel and Hardy made their final public appearance together, taking part in a BBC television program about the Grand Order of Water Rats, the British variety organization. It was titled "This is Music Hall". Laurel and Hardy provide a filmed insert during which they reminisce about their friends in British variety. They conclude the segment with thanks and a fond goodbye to their fans. Neither would have known this to be their farewell appearance, but there could have been none more appropriate. Hear the audio and see a still picture from the TV broadcast at http://www.laurelandhardy.org/lastTV.htm
Under doctor's orders to improve a heart condition, Hardy lost over 100 pounds in 1956. But after suffering several strokes (that some partly attribute to the rapid weight loss), he died of a major stroke on August 7, 1957. Longtime friend Bob Chatterton said Hardy weighed just 138 pounds at the end. A depressed Laurel did not attend his partner's funeral, due to his own ill health, explaining his absence with the line "Babe would understand." Had Hardy lived only a short while longer, he would have seen the triumphant return of Laurel and Hardy to movie theaters, in the Robert Youngson silent-film compilation ''The Golden Age of Comedy''.
For the remaining eight years of his life, Stan Laurel refused to perform, even turning down Stanley Kramer's offer to make a cameo in his landmark 1963 movie, ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''. In 1960, Laurel was given a special Academy Award for his contributions to film comedy; he was invited to appear at the ceremonies but declined; when he received the statuette, he immediately dubbed it "Mr. Clean" since he was an avid television viewer and familiar with the popular commercials for the cleaning product.
Despite not appearing onscreen after Hardy's death, Laurel did contribute gags to several comedy filmmakers. Most of his writing was in the form of correspondence; he insisted on answering every fan letter personally, and his typewritten responses are highly prized souvenirs today. Late in life, he hosted many visitors of the new generation at his modest seaside apartment, including Dick Cavett, Jerry Lewis, and Dick Van Dyke. Van Dyke (who became a great friend of Laurel) did an imitation of Stan on his television show in 1963, which Laurel saw and wrote — much to Van Dyke's amusement — a lengthy set of "tips" to perfect the imitation. Laurel would live until 1965, surviving to see the duo's work rediscovered through television and classic film revivals. He died in Santa Monica, and is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.

Posthumous revivals

After Stan Laurel's death in 1965, there were two major motion-picture tributes: ''Laurel and Hardy's Laughing '20s'', Robert Youngson's affectionate compilation of the team's silent-film highlights; and ''The Great Race'', a large-scale salute to slapstick that director Blake Edwards dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy."
Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been re-released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals (both broadcast and cable), 16mm and 8mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home video. When film colorization was introduced in 1983, the first film demonstrating the process was a Laurel and Hardy film.
Merchandiser Larry Harmon claimed ownership of Laurel's and Hardy's likenesses, and issued Laurel and Hardy toys and coloring books. He co-produced a series of ''Laurel and Hardy'' cartoons in 1966 with Hanna-Barbera Productions. [1] His animated versions of Laurel and Hardy also guest-starred in a 1972 episode of Hanna-Barbera's ''The New Scooby-Doo Movies''. In 1999, Harmon produced a direct-to-video feature, the lackluster live-action comedy ''The All-New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy'', with actors Bronson Pinchot and Gailard Sartain playing the lookalike nephews of the original Laurel and Hardy, the nephews' names being Stanley Thinneus Laurel and Oliver Fatteus Hardy. [2]

Lost films

Virtually all of the Laurel and Hardy films survive, and have never gone out of circulation permanently. However, three of their 106 films are considered lost, as they have not been seen in full since the 1930s. The silent ''Hats Off'' (1927) has vanished completely. ''Now I'll Tell One'' (1927) was made in two reels, the first of which was lost and the second of which was never released commercially. In ''The Rogue Song'' (1930) the duo appear in 10 clips throughout the film, of which only one is known to exist. ''The Battle of the Century'' has several minutes of lost footage.

Music

Main articles: Laurel and Hardy music

The duo's 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 for the 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 represented Hardy's character (pompus and dramatic), while the harmony represented Laurel's own character (somewhat out of key, and only able to register two notes: "coo-coo"). The original theme, recorded by two clarinets in 1930, was re-recorded with a full orchestra in 1935.
In the UK the song, "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" is the biggest posthumous hit by an artist not making No.1. It is also the first after-death success for a duo. The song made No.2 in the UK charts in December 1975.

In popular culture

The catchphrase most associated with Laurel and Hardy is "Well, there's another fine mess you've gotten me into." The phrase has passed into common language usage and means to blame a partner for causing an avoidable problem. (This phrase is a misquote, as Ollie actually said, "Well, ''here's'' another ''nice'' mess you've gotten me into.") The phrase was first used in their 1930 film ''The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case'' and ''Another Fine Mess'' was the title of one of their short films released later that year. A turnabout to the phrase occurs in their 1931 film, ''Chickens Come Home'', when Ollie says impatiently to Stan, "Well...." with Stan interjecting, "Here's another nice mess I've gotten you into." The phrase is also reinterpreted in ''The Fixer-Uppers'' (''"Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled me in!"'') and ''Saps at Sea'' (''"Well, here's another nice bucket of suds you've gotten me into!"'')
There are two Laurel and Hardy museums, each in the comedians' respective birthplaces of Ulverston, Lancashire and Harlem, Georgia.
In 1976 STV (Scottish Television) produced a half hour play by Alex Norton called 'Stan's First Night' about sixteen year old Stan Jefferson's (Stan Laurel's real name) first appearance on stage at the Panopticon variety theatre in Glasgow.
In a 2005 poll, ''The Comedian's Comedian'', the duo was voted the seventh greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders, making them the most popular double act on the list.
In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama based on Laurel visiting Hardy on his deathbed and reminiscing about their career called ''Stan'' (Website).On 18th March 2007, it was reported in the UK newspaper the Sunday Express that British actors Robson Green (Laurel) and Mark Benton (Hardy) are to portray the comedians in a made-for-TV film project.
Laurel and Hardy were among the crowd of famous people and celebrites pictured on the Beatles' masterpiece LP ''Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.
In ''Friends'', Joey and Chandler have a picture of Laurel and Hardy hanging on a wall of their apartment.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dedicated his novel ''Slapstick'' to the duo, explaining in the prologue that "The fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy, it seems to me, was that they did their best with every test. They never failed to bargain in good faith with their destinies, and were screamingly adorable and funny on that account."
In the 2006 movie ''Borat'', the title character is eventually reunited with his producer Azamat Bagatov, who is dressed as Hardy and even emulates some of his gestures.
The style of Laurel and Hardy's comedy, relying somewhat upon Murphy's Law in that the two attempt to pull off some big undertaking outside of their wives' knowledge only to find in the end that something has happened to destroy their planned alibi, present in ''We Faw Down'' and ''Sons of the Desert'', made itself present in episodes of such TV shows as ''The Honeymooners'',''The Flintstones'', and ''I Love Lucy'' (although in the case of ''I Love Lucy'' the gender roles are reversed and it's the ''wives'' who scheme at a big undertaking outside the ''husbands' knowledge) and also in ''The Cosby Show'' episode, ''Off To See The Wretched'' (in this case it's a daughter and her friends who attempt the same outside of the parents' knowledge).

The Sons Of The Desert

The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as "The Sons of the Desert", after a fraternal society in the 1933 film ''Sons of the Desert''. It was founded in New York in 1965 by Laurel & Hardy biographer John McCabe, with the sanction of Stan Laurel. Since the group's inception, well over 100 chapters of the organization have formed across North America, Europe and Australia.

Laurel and Hardy in other languages

★ Albanian Olio me Stelion

★ Arabic El Tikhin Ouel Roufain

★ Czech Laurel a Hardy

★ Danish Gøg og Gokke

★ Dutch De Dikke en de Dunne ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ Estonian Laurel ja Hardy, Paks ja Peenike

★ Farsi Laurel Hardy لورل هاردی

★ Finnish Ohukainen ja Paksukainen ''(Skinny and Fatty)''

★ French Laurel et Hardy

★ Galician Laurel e Hardy, O gordo e o fraco ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ German Laurel und Hardy, Stan und Ollie, Dick und Doof ''(Fat and Dumb)''

★ Greek Χονδρός και Λιγνός Chondros kai Lighnos ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ Hebrew Hashamen ve Haraze ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ Hungarian Stan és Pan

★ Icelandic Steini og Olli

★ Italian Stanlio e Ollio

★ Korean 홀쭉이와 뚱뚱이 (Hol-jjug-i wa Ddung-ddung-i) ''(The Skinny One and the Fat One) or (Skinny and Fatso)''

★ Kurdish Laurel û Hardy

★ Maltese L-Ohxon u l-Irqiq ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ Norwegian Helan og Halvan ''(The Whole and the Half)''

★ Polish Flip i Flap

★ Portuguese (in Brazil) O Gordo e o Magro ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ Portuguese (in Portugal) Bucha e Estica ''(Chubby and Stretch)''

★ Romanian Stan şi Bran

★ Serbian Stanlio i Olio, Станлио и Олио

★ Spanish El Gordo y el Flaco ''(The Fat One and the Thin One)''

★ Swedish Helan och Halvan ''(The Whole and the Half)''

★ Turkish Lorel ile Hardi

★ Slovak Laurel a Hardy

★ Slovenian Stan in Olio

References

★ Laurel and Hardy: The Magic behind the Movies (2nd ed.), Skretvedt, Randy, , , Past Times, 1996, ISBN 0-940410-29-X

Bibliography

★ The Complete Films of Laurel and Hardy, Everson, William K., , , Citadel Press; Reissue edition, 1967, ISBN 0-8065-0146-4 . (First book-length examination of the individual films)

★ The Art of Laurel and Hardy: Graceful Calamity in the Films, Harness, Kyp, , , McFarland & Company, 2006, ISBN 0-78642-440-0 (Critical assessment of the comedians and their films)

★ Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy, Louvish, Simon, , , Faber and Faber, 2001, ISBN 0-571-21590-4 (Biography, with new research revealing more about the comedians' personal lives)

★ Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward, MacGillivray, Scott, , , Vestal Press, 1998, ISBN 1-879511-41-X (Discussion of the post-1940 films, projects, revivals, and compilations)

★ Babe: The Life of Oliver Hardy, McCabe, John, , , Robson Books, 2004, ISBN 1-86105-781-4 (In-depth biography of Oliver Hardy, drawing upon unused material from McCabe's earlier biography)

★ Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy: An Affectionate Biography, McCabe, John, , , Robson Press, 1961, ISBN 1-86105-606-0 (The authorized Laurel & Hardy biography, containing firsthand recollections by Laurel & Hardy themselves, and quotes from family members and colleagues)

★ Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies (2nd ed.), Skretvedt, Randy, , , Past Times, 1996, ISBN 0-940410-29-X (Film-by-film analysis, with detailed behind-the-scenes material and numerous quotes from colleagues)

★ Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Stone, Rob, , , Split Reel, 1996, ISBN 0-965238-407 (Exhaustive study of the comedians as solo performers, 1913-26)

See also

★ Laurel and Hardy films

★ Filmography of Oliver Hardy

★ Filmography of Stan Laurel

★ Double act

Public domain material

The following Laurel and Hardy material is in the Public domain. It can be watched, listened to or distributed freely.

★ Mr. Slater's Poultry Market at the Internet Archive. (Un-aired pilot for an NBC Old Time Radio(OTR) series - 26 minutes)

★ The Flying Deuces at the Internet Archive. (Their 1939 film ''The Flying Deuces'' in full).

★ Utopia at the Internet Archive. (Their 1951 film ''Atoll K/Utopia'' in full).

★ ''The Lucky Dog'' (1921). Their first film together.

External links

★

★

★ The official Laurel and Hardy website

★ Sons of the Desert: The International Laurel and Hardy Society

★ Stan. A fictionalized account of Stanley Laurel's last visit to the bedside of Oliver Hardy.

★ ''Pratfall,'' a periodical magazine tribute to Laurel and Hardy, with numerous issues and articles.

★ Laurel & Hardy Discussion Group

★ The Laurel and Hardy Forum