60 Fun Facts About Laurel and Hardy

In which Lancashire town was Stan Laurel born in 1890?

There is a Laurel and Hardy museum there today, one of three in the world.

What was Stan Laurel's real surname?

He only changed his name legally in 1931, having used the stage name since 1917.

In which US state was Oliver Hardy born?

His birthplace, Harlem, has a Laurel and Hardy 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?

He went to America with the troupe in 1912 and never went home; he later did a Chaplin impression in a vaudeville trio.

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

He started by helping with lights and props before acting; he made 177 shorts for the Vim Comedy Company between 1914 and 1916.

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

He was 6 ft 1 in and about 280 pounds in his prime.

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

Hardy played a mugger trying to rob Laurel; both later said they had forgotten the film entirely.

Which producer's studio brought the team together and employed them until 1940?

Their director Charley Rogers said it could not have happened if the three men had not met at the right place and time.

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?

McCarey's punchline on television: 'All on account of Hardy had a little lamb.'

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

Laurel played a kilted young Scotsman; Hardy played the uncle trying to get trousers on him.

How many films did Laurel and Hardy appear in together?

That is 32 silent shorts, 40 sound shorts, 23 features and a dozen cameos.

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

Marvin Hatley wrote it as the on-the-hour chime for the Roach studio's radio station and Laurel asked to borrow it.

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

Laurel's was narrower with a flattened brim; 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?

He improvised it in Sailors, Beware! after an unexpected pail of water in the face; his 'camera look' was born in the same film.

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

He kept his hair long on top specifically so it would stand up like a fright wig.

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

The 'fine mess' misquote comes from the title of their film Another Fine Mess; W. S. Gilbert used the phrase in The Mikado.

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

It was also the last line of dialogue in their final film.

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

He appeared in 33 of their films, usually as the belligerent neighbour or foil.

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?

Only a fragment survived for decades until a more complete print turned up in 2015.

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

The title plays on 'Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking'; a trade paper said they used dialogue 'as a kind of punctuation'.

Which 1932 short, in which the pair haul a piano up a long flight of steps, won an Academy Award?

It took the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Subject and remains their best-known film.

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?

Roach built his own expensive set after MGM demanded a picture in exchange for theirs, then 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?

They actually sneak off to a lodge convention, and the ship they claim to be on sinks.

Which 1934 fantasy film, still a Christmas TV staple, caused a lasting rift between Laurel and Roach?

Laurel rejected Roach's story treatment outright; Roach later said he no longer wanted to produce for the team.

Way Out West (1937), a favourite of both stars, was a satire of which kind of film?

It is also the film in which Laurel lights his thumb like a lighter, to Hardy's bewilderment.

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

In Block-Heads he pours tobacco into his fist and smokes it like a pipe.

Laurel and Hardy's frequent 'tit for tat' adversary, played by Charlie Hall, was usually what?

The alternative was their wives, played by Mae Busch, Anita Garvin or Daphne Pollard.

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

The film fed rumours that the team had split on bad terms; they 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?

United Artists overruled him and released both as full-length features.

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

They were treated as hired actors in the B units, initially barred from improvising or touching the scripts.

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

Laurel's weight fell to 114 pounds during filming; an American recut called Utopia is the best-known version.

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

It was their first European tour in 15 years, and the trip that made the two men close friends off screen.

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

Crosby then got him a small part in Capra's Riding High the following year.

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?

It was at the Palace Theatre; from 1952 they had toured Europe with sketches Laurel wrote himself.

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

They were lured to the Knickerbocker Hotel expecting a business meeting with British producer Bernard Delfont.

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

He nonetheless suffered several strokes, and weighed 138 pounds when he died in August 1957.

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

He did contribute gags to other filmmakers, and helped Jerry Lewis on The Bellboy.

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

Van Dyke, a devoted fan who based his style on Laurel's, hosted a TV tribute after Laurel's death in 1965.

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

It was founded in New York in 1965 with Laurel's blessing and now has well over 150 chapters.

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

The team's Technicolor sequences in the 1930 musical The Rogue Song are also mostly lost.

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

Maurice Sendak also put three Hardy-like bakers in his 1970 book In the Night Kitchen.

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

It came from a compilation album of songs from their films.

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

It followed the 1953 tour; the screenwriter had to invent quarrels because the real pair hardly ever fell out.

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

The team are known by different names around the world, and are hugely popular in Germany.

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, 'The Dance of the Cuckoos', originally as a radio station chime?

Laurel heard it as the on-the-hour chime on KFVD, the Roach studio's station, and asked to use it.

In which Georgia town was Oliver Hardy born, under the name Norvell Hardy?

He took his father's first name for the stage; a Laurel and Hardy museum now stands in the town.

How did Hardy come to be nicknamed 'Babe'?

An Italian barber in Jacksonville rubbed his face with talcum powder while saying it, and co-workers copied him.

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

In all he made more than 250 silent shorts, roughly 150 of which are lost.

Under what stage billing did Laurel imitate Chaplin in a vaudeville act with Baldwin and Alice Cooke?

He had arrived in America with the Fred Karno troupe in 1912 and decided to stay.

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

Roach then rehired the pair to test his 40-minute 'streamliner' featurettes.

To which Hollywood hotel were the pair lured for their surprise This Is Your Life tribute in 1954?

They thought they were meeting British producer Bernard Delfont; the doors of suite 205 opened to bright lights instead.

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

Laurel died in Santa Monica that February and is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills.

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

Animated versions of the duo also guest-starred in a 1972 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.