Laurel and Hardy are a pair of comedians I grew up watching, despite the fact they were popular in the 1930s. My dad loves their work and that era of film. Today let's look at their history. You might learn something new. I know I did.
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| Courtesy of Fanpop |
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy didn't start out working together. Stan was more of a writer than an actor and Oliver was working as primarily an actor.
Stan Laurel (Stan Jefferson) was the understudy to Charlie Chaplin in 1910. While working in Vaudeville he changed his last name to Laurel. He found success in 1920 while doing comedy, then went more into writing and directing. Hal Roach Studios signed him in 1925 and he was supposed to be more behind the camera than in front.
Oliver Hardy (Norvell Hardy) took the name Oliver in tribute to his late father. He managed a movie theatre in 1913 and said "why not" to acting. He was in 200 short films for various studios. Hal Roach signed him in 1926.
They began working together when someone had a cooking accident, and Laurel had to step in. After that, they were rather popular. Their chemistry onscreen led to them being paired together quite often. One was the brainless one, and the other made the plans that went hopelessly wrong. By the end of the silent era, they were extremely popular, but the talkies era was their heyday. The 1940s were when Hal Roach and Stan Laurel had a falling out, resulting in less effective comedy and Stan no longer writing their content. It could have been because of Stan's many marriages, but whatever the reason, Hal and Stan were not the best of friends anymore.
The feature films began in the 1930s, where they were no longer just in shorts. I know I said they weren't as great in the 1940s, but there are 13 feature films in that time period. Hal Roach Studios gave them more freedom of creativity as a smaller studio, so they did pretty well here. In the 1940s we see them work with MGM and Twentieth Century Fox. MGM tends to chew up and spit out actors by killing creative freedom. This was when their worst work was made. They do have some acting work in 1950s era, but Oliver Hardy died in 1957 and Stan Laurel couldn't do it without his old friend. He turned down comedy work when asked to be in "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" because Oliver had passed.
Personal Lives
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| Courtesy of Britannica |
Starting with Laurel, he had three siblings (not counting the one who died in infancy). Their names were Gordon, Everett, and his sister Beatrice Olga. His parents were named Arthur (A.J.) and Margaret Jefferson. A.J. Jefferson was a theatre man and did what I'd call circus work, using various showman stunts to advertise his shows, many of them dramatic and unforgettable. Stan Jefferson (Laurel) grew up in England. Teachers and others around him noted his talent at comedy, even if his studies did suffer. His father and mother supported his theatre career wholeheartedly.
Fast forwarding to his marriages, we have a common-law marriage to Mae Dahlberg around 1917. His first legal wife was Lois Neilson, who bore him his daughter Lois and a premature son named Stanley, who died as an infant. Then we have Virginia Rogers, who was also his fourth wife because they remarried. Wife number three was...a whole long story. I'll put a link here so you can read about it yourself.
This came from the LA Times. It's almost equal to the whole Johnny Depp and Amber Heard marriage in crazy levels. His last wife stuck around and her name was Ida Raphael. They were married until Stan's death in 1965. I have learned more than I wanted to know about Stan's married life.
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| Courtesy of funeral-notices.co.uk |
Oliver Hardy's mother was Emmie Norvell and she had three children from a previous marriage (where she became a widow). She married Oliver Hardy in 1890. He had three children from two marriages previous. In 1892 Norvell (Oliver) Hardy was born. Emmie was then widowed - again - after he died of a heart attack. Norvell took on his name as his middle name as a tribute to his father. Oliver started his career in minstrel shows. He also worked with Charlie Chaplin around 1915 in New York. Hardy died in 1957 (age 65) of stroke complications (from multiple strokes). His nickname was "Babe". He had a passion for golf and Laurel would often cut filming close to golf to make his frustrated face more so (as he would cut into his time for golf). He had a major stroke in 1956, suffered two more in 1957, and died of cerebral thrombosis.
Now we look at his marriages, of which I saw three. In comparison to Laurel, he was not accused of trying to bury a wife alive in the yard. No, he had one marriage to Madelyn Saloshin in 1913, another to Myrtle Reeves (which ended because of alcoholism) in 1921, and Virginia Jones in 1940. The last marriage was a happy one that lasted the rest of his life.
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| Courtesy of Reddit.com - Laurel and Hardy in 1957 |
Sources:
Laurel and Hardy | Biographies, Movies, & Facts | Britannica
Stan Laurel - Wikipedia
Oliver Hardy - Biography - IMDb
Oliver Hardy biography. American comedian
Oliver Hardy - Biography and Analysis of his Career
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