56 Fun Facts About Laurel and Hardy

In which Lancashire town was Stan Laurel born in 1890?

Stan Laurel was born in Ulverston on 16 June 1890; the town, then in Lancashire and now in Cumbria, later opened a Laurel and Hardy museum and put up a statue of the pair.

What was Stan Laurel's real surname?

He was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; he adopted the stage name Laurel around 1917 and only made it legal in 1931.

In which US state was Oliver Hardy born?

Oliver Hardy was born in Georgia on 18 January 1892 and grew up in Madison and Milledgeville, where his mother ran hotels; his birthplace has a museum of its own.

What was Oliver Hardy's nickname among friends and in his early film billing?

It came from an Italian barber in Florida who patted his face with talc and said 'That's nice-a baby!'

Before films, Laurel toured with Fred Karno's troupe as understudy to which comedian?

Laurel understudied Charlie Chaplin in Fred Karno's company and sailed with it to America in 1910 and again in 1912, staying on in the United States after the second tour.

In which Florida city did Hardy begin his film career with Lubin Motion Pictures in 1913?

Hardy moved to Jacksonville in 1913 and sang in cabarets and vaudeville there before joining the Lubin studio, where he started by helping with lights and props and then acting.

Why was Hardy rejected for army service in the First World War?

Hardy tried to enlist in 1917 but was turned down because of his large size; he stood 6 ft 1 in and weighed close to 300 pounds in his prime.

In which 1921 short did the two men first appear together, purely by chance?

In The Lucky Dog, shot in 1919 and released in 1921, Hardy appears as a robber who holds up Laurel's character; the two did not work together again until 1926.

What physical trait of Laurel's initially kept him off screen at the Roach studio, according to Roach?

The arrival of panchromatic film solved it; their first film together had used heavy eye makeup to compensate.

According to Leo McCarey, what kitchen accident led to Laurel and Hardy becoming a team?

Hardy burned his arm with hot fat while cooking a leg of lamb in 1926, so Laurel stepped in for him in Get 'Em Young; McCarey's punchline was 'All on account of Hardy had a little lamb.'

Which 1927 silent short is usually cited as their first 'official' film as a team?

Putting Pants on Philip (1927) has Laurel as a kilted young Scot and Hardy as the uncle trying to get trousers on him; Laurel himself regarded it as their first real team picture.

How many films did Laurel and Hardy appear in together?

The total of 107 breaks down as 32 silent shorts, 40 sound shorts, 23 feature films and 12 guest or cameo appearances.

What is the team's famous theme tune usually called?

'The Dance of the Cuckoos', also known as 'Ku-Ku', began as the on-the-hour chime of the Roach studio's radio station; Laurel heard it and asked to use it for the team.

What kind of hat became as identified with the pair as their theme tune?

Both wore derby hats: Laurel's was narrower with a flattened brim, and he also took the heels off his shoes for a flat-footed walk.

What did Hardy do with his necktie when his character was embarrassed?

Hardy twiddled his tie when flustered, a gesture he improvised in the 1927 short Sailors, Beware! after an unexpected pail of water in the face.

What did Laurel typically do at moments of shock, alongside screwing up his face as if crying?

Laurel pulled his hair up in moments of fright; he kept it long on top so that it would stand up like a fright wig.

What is the exact wording of Hardy's most famous catchphrase?

Hardy's line was 'Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into'; the familiar 'fine mess' version is a misquotation drawn from the title of their 1930 film Another Fine Mess.

In which 1930 film was the 'nice mess' catchphrase first spoken?

The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, released in 1930, is the first film in which Hardy speaks the 'nice mess' line; it was also the last line of dialogue in their final film.

Which supporting actor's exasperated 'D'oh!' inspired Homer Simpson's catchphrase?

James Finlayson, a Scot with a squint and a double-take, appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films; Dan Castellaneta has said Homer's 'D'oh!' is a shortened version of Finlayson's drawn-out 'D'ohhh'.

In their 1929 short Big Business, what are Stan and Ollie trying to sell door to door?

The tit-for-tat fight with their neighbour destroys his house and their car; the film joined the National Film Registry in 1992.

The 1927 short The Battle of the Century is famous for a fight involving how many real pies?

Over 3,000 real pies were thrown in the climactic fight, staged across a whole city block; the film's second reel was thought lost until a print surfaced in 2015.

What was the title of Laurel and Hardy's first sound film, in 1929?

Unaccustomed As We Are, released in May 1929, was their first talkie; its title plays on the after-dinner opener 'Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking'.

Which 1932 Laurel and Hardy short won an Academy Award?

The Music Box won the 1932 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Comedy); its staircase in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, became a landmark for fans.

How did Roach cater to foreign audiences with the early talkies?

Their first feature was reshot in Spanish, Italian, French and German, with the supporting parts recast.

Their first feature, in 1931, grew out of a two-reeler set where?

The film began as a two-reeler set in a prison; when MGM asked for a picture in exchange for lending its jail set, Roach built his own and added reels to justify the cost.

In Laurel and Hardy's 1933 lodge-convention feature, where do they tell their wives Ollie must go for his health?

Ollie fakes an illness and a doctor's order for a trip to Honolulu so the pair can slip away to their lodge convention in Chicago; the liner they claim to be on then sinks.

Which 1934 fantasy film caused a lasting rift between Laurel and Roach?

Babes in Toyland, based on the Victor Herbert operetta, saw Laurel reject Roach's story treatment outright, and Roach later said he no longer wanted to produce for the team.

What did Laurel call the surreal streak in their comedy, like lighting a pipe with his thumb?

Laurel called these impossible gags 'white magic'; in Block-Heads he pours tobacco into his fist and smokes it like a pipe, and in Way Out West he lights his thumb.

When Roach released Hardy solo in Zenobia (1939), who was his comic foil?

Harry Langdon, the silent-era star, was Hardy's foil in Zenobia, made while Laurel was in a contract dispute with Roach; the film fed rumours of a split, but the pair were reunited in The Flying Deuces later that year.

What did Roach call his four-reel, 40-minute featurettes, tested with A Chump at Oxford and Saps at Sea?

Roach called them 'streamliners', 40-minute pictures meant to fill the middle of a double bill; A Chump at Oxford was later padded out with an extra opening reel for release as a full-length feature.

After leaving Roach, the team made eight features from 1941 to 1945 for MGM and which other studio?

Six of the eight were made at 20th Century-Fox and two at MGM; the pair were treated as hired actors in the studios' B units and at first were not allowed to touch the scripts.

What was Laurel and Hardy's final feature, a French-Italian co-production shot in 1950–51?

Atoll K, shot in France in 1950–51 and released in America as Utopia, was the team's last film; Laurel was seriously ill throughout the shoot, which ran months over schedule.

In 1947 the team famously clowned with a steam locomotive at the reopening of which miniature line?

Laurel and Hardy reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway's Hythe to New Romney section in March 1947, clowning on the footplate of the 15-inch-gauge locomotive during their first British tour since 1932.

Which Hollywood friend hired Hardy to co-star in The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) while Laurel was ill?

John Wayne, a friend, had Hardy play his sidekick Willie Paine in The Fighting Kentuckian while Laurel recovered from illness; Bing Crosby then found him a small part in Riding High in 1950.

When the team's boat docked at Cobh, Ireland, in September 1953, what did the town's church bells play?

Laurel recalled that he and Hardy looked at each other and cried.

In which English city did Laurel and Hardy give their last live stage performance, in May 1954?

Their final stage appearance was at the Palace Theatre, Plymouth, on 17 May 1954, when illness cut the tour short; since 1952 they had toured Britain with sketches Laurel wrote himself.

On which live NBC programme did the pair make their only American TV appearance, in 1954?

This Is Your Life ambushed the pair on 1 December 1954; they had been told they were meeting the British producer Bernard Delfont, and the live broadcast left Laurel unhappy at being surprised on air.

How much weight did Hardy lose on doctor's orders in 1956, the year before his death?

Hardy lost over 100 pounds on doctor's orders in 1956; he nonetheless suffered a major stroke that September and further strokes before his death in August 1957.

Which 1963 comedy did Laurel decline a cameo in, having refused to perform after Hardy's death?

Laurel turned down Stanley Kramer's offer of a cameo in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, having vowed never to perform after Hardy's death; he did go on passing gags to admirers such as Jerry Lewis for The Bellboy.

Who accepted Laurel's special 1960 Academy Award on his behalf when he was too ill to attend?

Danny Kaye accepted the honorary Oscar, 'for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy', at the April 1961 ceremony while Laurel stayed home ill; Dick Van Dyke later gave the eulogy at Laurel's funeral.

The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society takes its name from which of their films?

The Sons of the Desert society, named after the pair's 1933 film about a fraternal lodge, was founded in New York in 1965 with Laurel's blessing; its local chapters are called 'tents'.

Which 1927 Laurel and Hardy short has vanished, one of only three of their films that are lost?

Hats Off, a 1927 short in which the pair haul a washing machine up a long flight of steps, has no known surviving print; the 1930 musical The Rogue Song is also mostly lost.

Which cover of a 1967 Beatles album features cut-outs of Laurel and Hardy?

Peter Blake's collage for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band includes cardboard cut-outs of both Laurel and Hardy among the crowd; Maurice Sendak later drew three Hardy-like bakers in In the Night Kitchen (1970).

The 1975 single 'Trail of the Lonesome Pine', from their films, reached what UK chart position?

The 1975 reissue of 'The Trail of the Lonesome Pine', lifted from Way Out West, peaked at number 2 in the UK singles chart that December, behind Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

Who played Stan and Ollie in the 2018 biopic Stan & Ollie?

Steve Coogan played Stan and John C. Reilly played Ollie in Stan & Ollie, which follows the pair's 1953 British tour; writer Jeff Pope heightened their quarrels because the real pair seldom fell out.

Besides the two stars' birthplaces, in which German city is the third Laurel and Hardy museum?

Solingen, a blade-making city near Düsseldorf, has the one Laurel and Hardy museum not in a birthplace of the stars; in Germany the pair are known as 'Dick und Doof', 'Fat and Dumb'.

How did the two men typically spend the end of a working day?

Laurel sometimes saved Hardy's 'camera looks' for late in the day, when his exasperation to get to the golf course was real.

In 1949 the team first appeared on network television in which of their features?

Syndication of the Roach films the next year made them an instant hit again, though they got no residuals.

Who composed the duo's theme tune, originally as a radio station chime?

Marvin Hatley, the Roach studio's musical director, wrote the tune in 1930 as the hourly time signal for the studio's radio station KFVD; Hatley was later Oscar-nominated for scoring Way Out West and Block-Heads.

In which 1933 short do Stan and Ollie work at a sawmill?

Busy Bodies (1933) has the pair as sawmill workers whose day descends into chaos, with Ollie sucked into a sawdust extractor pipe and their car finally sliced in half by a giant bandsaw.

Between 1914 and 1916, Hardy made 177 shorts for which Florida comedy company?

The Vim Comedy Company paired the heavyweight Hardy with the diminutive Billy Ruge as 'Plump and Runt' in a run of one-reelers in 1915 and 1916.

Under what billing did Laurel perform a vaudeville act with Baldwin and Alice Cooke?

As The Keystone Trio, Laurel and the married couple Alice and Baldwin Cooke toured American vaudeville from around 1916 with an act parodying the slapstick film comedies of the day.

Which independent producer made The Flying Deuces (1939) with the team after Laurel's Roach contract lapsed?

Boris Morros, a former Paramount musical director, produced The Flying Deuces independently for RKO release while Laurel was between Roach contracts; Roach then re-signed the pair for two more pictures.

To which Hollywood hotel were the pair lured for their surprise TV tribute in 1954?

The Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel on Ivar Avenue was the setting; the pair thought they were there to meet the British producer Bernard Delfont, and the doors opened on a live broadcast instead.

Blake Edwards dedicated which 1965 comedy to 'Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy'?

Blake Edwards dedicated The Great Race, his slapstick epic with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, to 'Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy'; Laurel had died in Santa Monica that February.

Which studio co-produced the 1966 Laurel and Hardy animated series with Larry Harmon?

Hanna-Barbera co-produced the 1966 series with Larry Harmon, who held the rights to the pair's likenesses; the cartoon duo later guested in a 1972 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.