The Boys

Stan was born in Ulverston, in Lancashire, England as Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16 1890. Both his parents were involved in the theatre, and it was no surprise to anyone that Stan inherited their love of the theatre. Quite early on, Stan reaised he had a talent for making people laugh.

His father, Arthur Jefferson, was an impresario and a writer, whilst his mother, Madge was an actress. Unlike his brother Gordon, who went into theatre management, Stan chose to be a performer.

For a number of years after leaving school, Stan worked on the music hall circuit, touring the UK with fellow performers. It was a hard life with the players often going hungry. Fred Karno, one of the big names in the "variety" shows, discovered Stan in 1910 and hired him to work in his troupe. It is interesting to note that Charlie Chaplin was already a member of the Karno troupe, but he and Stan were never close.

In 1910, the Karo troupe (with Stan and Charlie) toured the US, and in 1912 Stan decided to strike out on his own. After touring with two colleagues who had also left Karno, he met Mae Dahlberg in 1916. For a number of years they worked together. During that time, Stan changed his name to Stan Laurel -- the main reason was that his name Stan Jefferson consisted of thirteen letters, and Stan was superstituous.

In 1917 a one-reeler was released starring Stan and Mae, called Nuts in May. Stan then signed a contract with Universal and made a number of shorts but the contract was cancelled within a year. For a number of year, Stan worked for the producer Joe Rock, who managed to presuade Mae to return to her native Australia, since he felt she had a bad effect on Stan. Then, Hal Roach lured Stan away from Rock and in 1926 Stan joined the Hal E. Roach Studios.

Stan's personal life was never without change and upheaval. He married eight times -- to four wives. His daughter Lois remarked that her father was always faithful to the woman he was married to. She said that Stan used to fall in love, and then immediately wanted to get married. Stan died from a heart attack on February 23rd 1965.

Oliver Hardy (1892 -1957)

Ollie was born as Oliver Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia on January 18 1892. He was the youngest of six children. Unlike Stan, Oliver did not come from a show business family -- his father was a senior lawyer, who died when Oliver was young. His mother then moved to Madison, Georgia where she ran a hotel.

As an adult, Oliver had a beautiful tenor voice (as evidenced in a number of his films) and studied for a while at the Conservatory of Music in Atlanta. He also attended a military school for a while, and went to university -- but he gave all that up to go into acting.

After 1910, Oliver moved into films -- acting during the day and singing in a nightclub at night. He had plenty of work, appearing in many comedy shorts. At the time, he was married to Madelyn Saloshin, but the marriage lasted only a few years.

Oliver always regarded himself as an actor rather than a comedian. After working in Florida, he decided to try his luck in Hollywood and arrived there in 1918. . Oliver joined Hal Roach in 1925.

Oliver married three times, to three wives. He died on August 7th, 1957 after suffering s stroke which rendered him paralysed and unable to speak. He was always known as a very kind and sensitive man.

After having an earlier contract with Hal roach Studios, Stan returned in 1925, when Oliver was already there. Their initial pairing was a coincidence, but they worked so well together, that Roach asked them to make films as a comedy team. Stan was actually reluctant to be part of a performing team. He was particularly interested in writing and directing. However, after a while he became a very happy member of the duo.

The boys were very productive -- in 1927, they made thirteen films and in 1928 they made eleven. In total, they made more than 70 films with Hal Roach. Stan was often involved in the direction of the Hal Roach films, and wrote many of the gags and parts of the dialogue. After filming was done for the day, he would be found in the cutting room, editing the day's shots-- whilst Oliver made his way to the golf course.

It is interesting to note that they made the transition from silents to talkies without much effort. Ollie's pedantic comments and Stan's crying translated easily to sound.

Laurel and Hardy worked on their own brand of humour and gags, and did not try to develop into something they did not want to be. They perfected their routines and dialogue, but never attempted anything totally different. As Stan said, they just wanted to make people laugh. In this they succeeded-- their films remain popular and continue to attract new audiences.