August 7: On This Day in World History … briefly
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
1957: No more fine messes
Oliver Hardy, the fat one in the ‘Laurel and Hardy’ comic-duo, dies aged 65. Born in Harlem, Georgia, Ollie (real name Norvell) stumbled into films by chance after a series of career failures, including law and medicine. He made little headway in Hollywood until in 1927 producer Hal Roach teamed him with British-born ex-Vaudeville trooper Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) in a comedy short ‘Putting Pants on Philip’.
From the start there was never any argument between the two men, despite Laurel’s insistence on earning twice as much as his partner. While Laurel would spend hours rewriting scripts and involve himself in directing their films, the easy-going Hardy would head for the race track or golf course. The creativity that Laurel brought to the partnership was matched by Hardy’s ineffable presence on screen, however.
Laurel said to the duo’s biographer John McCabe: “Of all the questions we’re asked, the most frequent is ‘how did we come together’? I always explain that we came together naturally.” Laurel and Hardy were joined by accident and grew by indirection. In 1926, both were part of the Roach Comedy All Stars which was a group of actors of similar standing who took part in a series of films. Quite unwittingly Laurel and Hardy’s parts grew larger while those of their fellow stars diminished because Laurel and Hardy were considered to be great actors. Their teaming up was suggested by Leo McCarey who was their supervising director from 1927 and 1930. It was during this period that McCarey and Laurel jointly devised the team’s format. McCarey also influenced the slowing down of their comedy to a more natural pace. After teaming up they played the same characters for 30 years.
While on tour of Britain and Ireland in 1953, the duo appeared on radio in Ireland and on a live BBC television broadcast of the popular show ‘Face the Music’ with host Henry Hall a week later. Unfortunately, these shows do not appear to have been preserved on record, tape or kinescope, but notes from the Face the Music television appearance have been recently discovered. According to the notes, Ollie informs Stan that the television program 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?”
They made their final appearance on camera in 1956 in a private home movie, shot by a family friend at the Reseda, CA home of Stan Laurel’s daughter, Lois. It contains no audio and is three minutes in length.
In 1956, while following his doctor’s orders to improve his health due to a heart condition, Hardy lost over 100 pounds (45 kg). However, he suffered several strokes that resulted in the loss of mobility and speech. Despite having a long and successful career, it was reported that Hardy’s home was sold to help cover the cost of his medical expenses during this time. He died of a stroke on August 7, 1957, and long-time friend Bob Chatterton stated that Hardy weighed just 138 pounds (63 kg) at the time of his death. Hardy was laid to rest at Pierce Brothers’ Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood. Following Hardy’s death, Laurel and Hardy’s films were returned to movie theatres as clips of their work were featured in Robert Youngson’s silent-film compilation The Golden Age of Comedy. Laurel was reportedly devastated by the news of Hardy’s death.
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