This date in 1892 saw the birth of Oliver Hardy, half of the famous duo, Laurel and Hardy. 10 things you might not know about them:
- Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia. By his teens, he was singing on stage and also ran a cinema, financed by his mother. His father’s name was Oliver, which he used as his stage name. Watching screen comedies inspired him to get into the business himself, so he got a job at a film studio as a dogsbody and started learning the trade.
- Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Lancashire, to a theatrical family. In 1912, Laurel left England with the Fred Karno Troupe to tour the United States, and decided to stay there. He changed his name to Stan Laurel in 1931.
- Both of them had successful film careers before teaming up. Hardy starred or co-starred in more than 250 silent shorts, of which roughly 150 have been lost. Laurel, meanwhile, was starring in films with his common law wife Mae Dahlberg. She wasn’t easy to work with, however, and the couple frequently argued at work. It was reported that producer Joe Rock paid her to leave Laurel and go home to Australia.
- The duo met while working for Hal Roach. They both appeared in a film called The Lucky Dog in 1921, although not as a team. At that time, the film technology used wouldn’t reproduce Stan’s pale Blue eyes properly – they appeared White on film and he had to wear heavy eye make up to compensate for that. For this reason, Laurel worked mostly as a writer until panchromatic film was developed, which solved the problem.
- Laurel and Hardy officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared together in the silent short film Putting Pants on Philip. They went on to make more than 100 films together, their last being Atoll K in 1950.
- The pair dressed to emphasise their difference in size, with Hardy wearing jackets that were too small and done up with one straining button, while Laurel wore jackets that were too big.
- They never actually said the words "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into." What they used to say was actually "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" which had been used earlier by Gilbert and Sullivan in The Mikado. It was first used by Hardy in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case in 1930. The misquote originates from the fact that they did make a film with the title Another Fine Mess. Another famous catchphrase was 'D'oh!' which lives on as a catchphrase for Homer Simpson.
- The duo's signature tune is known as The Cuckoo Song, Ku-Ku, or The Dance of the Cuckoos.
- The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is called The Sons of the Desert, after a fictitious fraternal society in the film of the same name.
- Laurel and Hardy are popular around the world but are known under different names in various countries and languages. In Scandinavia their title translates as The Whole and the Half, and in Spanish speaking countries they’re known as The Fat and the Skinny. In Poland they are Flip and Flap, and in Germany "Dick und Doof", which translates as Fat and Dumb.
New Year New Reading Challenge?
I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:
A title with three words
- Death and Faxes
- Killing Me Softly
- Settling the Score
- Secrets and Skies
- Over the Rainbow
- Closing the Circle
A title with six words
A book with a number in the title
A book with a colour in the title
Short story collections/A book with a green cover
A book published in the last year/during lockdown
A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages
A book featuring characters from a deck of cards
A Book set during Christmas
A book with a place in the title
A Debut novel
A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings
A book with a female villain or criminal
Includes space travel
Features Royalty
Books featuring skiing or snowboarding
A book with the Olympic games in it
A book with a bird in the title
A book featuring a secret society
A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:
Books featuring superheroes
Books featuring ghosts
From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!
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