Calendar: April 16

A Year: Day to Day Men: 16th of April

The Serpent

April 16, 1932 was the release date of the Laurel and Hardy short film “The Music Box”.

“The Music Box” was produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It starred Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as delivery men attempting to deliver an upright piano up a long flight of outdoor stairs. This film won the first Academy Award for Live Action Short Comedy Film in 1932.

The stairs, which were the focal point of the movie was a steep climb of 133 steps with multiple landings. They still exist in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, near the now Laurel and Hardy Park. The steps are a public staircase which connects Vendome Street at the base of the hill with Descanso Drive at the top of the hill. In the film, the duo of Laurel and Hardy make four attempts to get the piano to the top of the stairs. Each of the first three attempts the piano winds up rolling down the staircase. On the fourth attempt, they succeed only to find out from the local postman that they could have driven their truck up a road to the front of the house. Dutifully they carry the piano down the stairs, put it in the truck and drive it up to the house.

Hal Roach Studios colorized “The Music Box” in 1986 with a remastered stereo soundtrack featuring the Hal Roach Studios incidental stock music score conducted by Ronnie Hazelhurst. In 1997, this film was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Note; As a great fan of the old comedy team of Laurel and Hardy, two films stand out in my memory. The second film is “Sons of the Desert” in which the duo, after telling their wives that they are taking a cruise for Oliver’s health, sneak off to attend a fraternal lodge convention. While having a good time, their supposed cruise ship sinks and they are assumed dead. The rainy night scene when they are hiding from their wives in Oliver’s house attic is great. However, the film that I rank at the top of that list is “The Music Box”; its stairway struggle in this film is a comedy classic that has endured for eighty six years. A must see.

Calendar: January 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of January

A Spread on the Wood Floor

On January 3, 1927, the first Laurel and Hardy film, “Putting Pants on Philip”, is released.

The team was composed of the English thin man, Stan Laurel, and the American fat man, Oliver Hardy. Laurel played the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous bully Hardy in their slapstick comedy routines, well known during the late 1920’s through the mid- 1940’s.

Prior to emerging as a team, both actors had well-established film careers. Laurel had appeared in over 50 films while Hardy had been in more than 250 productions. They were not a comedy team during that time; and it was not until 1926 that they appeared in a movie short together, when both separately signed contracts with the Hal Roach film studio. Laurel and Hardy officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared together in their first silent short film “Putting Pants on Philip”.

They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances that included the “Galaxy of Stars” promotional film of 1936. Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home videos.

In 2005, they were voted the seventh-greatest comedy act of all time by a UK poll of fellow comedians. The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as ‘Sons of the Desert’ which was named after a fictitious fraternal society featured in the Laurel and Hardy film of the same name. While much of their comedy remained visual, various lines of humorous dialogue appeared in Laurel and Hardy’s talking films. Some examples include:

“You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be led.” (Laurel, “Brats”, 1930)

“I was dreaming I was awake but I woke up and found meself asleep.” (Laurel, “Oliver the Eighth”, 1934)

“A lot of weather we’ve been having lately.” (Hardy, “Way Out West”, 1937).

Laurel and Hardy: Film History Series

Laurel and Hardy, Computer Graphics, Film Gifs

The humor of Laurel and Hardy was highly visual with slapstick used for emphasis. They often had physical arguments with each other (in character), which were quite complex and involved cartoon violence, and their characters preclude them from making any real progress in the simplest endeavors. Much of their comedy involves milking a joke, where a simple idea provides a basis from which to build multiple gags without following a defined narrative.

Stan Laurel was of average height and weight, but appeared small and slight next to Oliver Hardy, who was 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) tall and weighed about 280 lb (127 kg) in his prime. They used some details to enhance this natural contrast. Laurel kept his hair short on the sides and back, growing it long on top to create a natural “fright wig”. At times of shock, he would simultaneously cry while pulling up his hair. In contrast, Hardy’s thinning hair was pasted on his forehead in spit curls and he sported a toothbrush mustache.

To achieve a flat-footed walk, Laurel removed the heels from his shoes. Both wore bowler hats, with Laurel’s being narrower than Hardy’s, and with a flattened brim. The characters’ normal attire called for wing collar shirts, with Hardy wearing a neck tie which he would twiddle and Laurel a bow tie. Hardy’s sports jacket was a tad small and done up with one straining button, whereas Laurel’s double breasted jacket was loose fitting.

A great comedy team; to me, they were the best. The movie, The Music Box, 1932, which had them trying to deliver a piano to a house by pushing it up hundreds of concrete steps is indelibly etched in my mind. A comedic Sisyphean classic.