At their height in the late 1920s and early 30s, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy earned millions for the pioneering Hal Roach studio, but when they switched to the giant Fox and MGM studios in the 1940s they had less input into their films and as the quality of humour dwindled, their careers did too.
Now a film out tomorrow shines a sympathetic and touching light on the movie legends’ desperate attempts to resurrect their stardom in 1953-1954 on a gruelling tour of British variety theatres, which took in venues like the Bradford Alhambra, the Birmingham Hippodrome and the Nottingham Empire – a far cry from their former life in the sunshine of California.
Although they became inseparable on screen, Stan and Ollie socialised very little away from it.
They were very different characters – which was a large part of their cinematic appeal but didn’t make for a close friendship.
Stan was the creative force working long hours on scripts with memorable lines like “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into”, making props and working in the editing suites.
O’Reilly and Coogan as the iconic Hollywood double act (Image: -)
Steve Coogan and John C Reilly as Laurel & Hardy (Image: Aimee Spinks)
Ollie was totally committed when the cameras were rolling, but would then head for the golf course with his drinking friends.
It was only on the later variety tours that the comedians, in their 60s and not in the best of health, spent long periods together on ships, trains and in hotels.
To their surprise, they discovered that they really liked each other – in the words of their biographer, “each found a cherished friend.”
The film Stan & Ollie stars Steve Coogan as the diminutive, daft Laurel and John C Reilly as the 6ft 2in, 20-stone pompous Hardy.
As they are drawn closer personally, the pair find the professional pressure of working with a creative partner can put a destructive strain on any relationship.
One thing that didn’t change in their final years as performers was their sense of humour.
Laurel & Hardy at the height of their fame (Image: Mondadori Portfolio via Getty)
On a live BBC TV broadcast of the show Face The Music in 1953, Ollie informs Stan that the programme has an audience of six million and that host Henry Hall is “going to introduce us to them”. To which Stan replies: “That’s going to take a long time, isn’t it?”
The film initially portrays them playing a tatty venue in Newcastle to a dwindling number of fans, but later it reflects newspaper accounts and newsreel footage of the time, which tell a different story of big crowds packing top-line theatres.
The pair hope the publicity will convince a British producer to back Stan’s new idea of a spoof Robin Hood film.
Instead, they discover things they never knew about each other, despite a partnership that saw them starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films including classics such as Sons Of The Desert, Way Out West, A Chump At Oxford and The Flying Deuces. In 1931, The Music Box, which revolved around pushing a piano up a long flight of steps, won an Oscar.
One heartfelt moment in the new film has them arguing like a married couple with Ollie telling Stan: “You loved Laurel and Hardy but you never loved me.”
This profound realisation sums up their career, which happened almost by chance in the days of silent films.
Ollie and Stan during their tour of Brtain (Image: Popperfoto/Getty)
Stan was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Cumbria, in 1890 (see panel). His father was a theatrical entrepreneur in the North and in Scotland and got his son his first stage role in panto at the age of 16 under the name of Stan Jefferson. Billed as “He Of The Funny Ways”, he toured music halls with Fred Karno’s troupe, acting as understudy to Charlie Chaplin.
Two years before the outbreak of the First World War Karno took them both to America where Stan changed his name to Stan Laurel because Stan Jefferson had 13 letters and he thought it was unlucky.
After appearing in dozens of short silent films, Stan joined the Hal Roach studio as a director and writer in 1925.
In less than 18 months he starred in more than 50 films before teaming up with Hardy.
Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia, in 1892. By his late teens he was a popular singer. For his stage name, he took his father’s first name calling himself Oliver Norvell Hardy while offscreen his nicknames were “Ollie” and “Babe”.
His early film career was in Florida. He started by helping around the studio with lights and props and then became a script clerk. Between 1914 and 1916, he made 177 shorts as Babe, playing heroes, villains and even female characters. But in 1917 the Florida film industry went bust, so Hardy headed west to California to make another 80 films.
It wasn’t until 1927 that Laurel and Hardy were teamed up – Hardy as a plump but baby-faced actor and Laurel as the director of the Hal Roach film Yes, Yes, Nanette.
Over the coming months, the two men were cast in a string of Roach films – but not as a double act.
It was Roach, the cinematic genius, who spotted that their on-screen characters seemed made for each other and in 1927 they shared top billing in the long-forgotten Putting Pants On Philip. The rest is cinematic history although oddly the two men appeared in far more films separately than they did together.
During their 1953 UK tour, Laurel and Hardy were received rapturously by cheering crowds and Stan had difficulty visiting his family because he was mobbed whenever he set foot outside his hotel.
Laurel & Hardy and their wives in 1935 (Image: Getty)
In the new film, only their names appear on the posters outside the theatres, giving the impression they were on stage during the whole show.
In reality, they performed a 20-minute sketch topping bills that included stars such as Elsie and Doris Waters, budding comics like Harry Worth, and the usual jugglers, acrobats and animal acts.
In 1954, shortly after their last UK appearance in Plymouth, Hardy suffered a heart attack. He lost more than 10 stone, but suffered a series of strokes and died of a thrombosis in August 1957.
Laurel was also ill and could not attend the funeral. After retiring from acting following Hardy’s death, Laurel died in 1965 after a heart attack – which is the perfect cue for one of his funniest lines: “If any of you cry at my funeral I’ll never speak to you again.”
Ollie and Stan arrive at Southampton in 1947 (Image: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty)
Museum to preserve their legacy
Stan Laurel’s home town of Ulverston hosts a remarkable museum to its favourite son and, while making the film Stan & Ollie, both Steve Coogan and John C Reilly paid secret visits.
The museum was the brainchild of Bill Cubin, who had a lifelong love of the comedians.
Stan was thought to have been born in North Shields on Tyneside, where his father ran a theatre, but Bill’s research uncovered a birth certificate showing it was in fact Ulverston.
Bill, a former mayor of the town, expanded his collection of scrapbooks, pictures and memorabilia until, eight years later, it became a two-room museum behind the shop he ran.
Bill died in 1997 but the museum continued, run first by his daughter and then his grandson.
In 2009 it moved to the old stage area of the Roxy Cinema to coincide with the unveiling by Ken Dodd of a statue of Laurel and Hardy.
Five years ago the museum took over the whole ground floor.
Today there is a screen showing in a loop all the shorts made by Stan and Ollie, each 20 minutes long.
You can sit in the 15-seat viewing area all day without seeing the same scenes twice.