Stan Laurel Archives - chimesfreedom

We are used to seeing Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as relatively young men in films from the prime of their career together that spanned 1926-1945. By chance, both did appear as even younger men in the movie The Lucky Dog (1921), although it was before the two became a team. As for after the 1926-1945 period, following the main years of their career together, the two men did appear together in the 1950s before Hardy passed away.

Their last feature film together was an Italian-French production called Atoll K, which was released in 1951 and marketed in the U.S. as Utopia and in the U.K. as Robinson Crusoeland. It had been more than six years since Laurel and Hardy had appeared together in their previous film, 20th Century Fox’s The Bullfighters (1945). Below is the trailer for Utopia (1951).

At the time of the filming of Atoll K/Utopia, the two men were not in good health as the production faced various challenges. Most considered the resulting poorly dubbed film a disaster. If you would like to watch the entire movie, it is available on YouTube.

After Atoll K, around 1954, Laurel and Hardy appeared on the TV show This is Your Life, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The series surprised and honored people by recounting their life and bringing on people who knew them. In this episode devoted to both Laurel and Hardy, the guests included Buster Keaton.

Finally, a silent home video captured Laurel and Hardy in 1956 at the Reseda, California home of Stan Laurel’s daughter, Lois. Stan Laurel had been born with the name Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16, 1890 in the United Kingdom, so he was around 66 years old at the time of the video. He would live awhile longer until he passed away on February 23, 1965 in California.

Oliver Hardy, whose birth name was Norvell Hardy, was born on January 18, 1892 in Georgia, so he was around 64 at the time of the home video. Hardy earlier had a heart attack in 1954 and at the time of the video, he only had about a year to live as he passed away on August 7, 1957 in Los Angeles.

So, check out this 1956 home video from the UCLA archives, which may be the last time the two giants appeared together on film. Even without sound, you can see the spirit of the two men as they look into the camera one last time.

What is your favorite Laurel and Hardy moment? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Harvest Moon Will Smile, Shine On All the While

Trailer for “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”

This Week in Pop Culture Roundup (Post-Thanksgiving 2011 Edition)

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

The Harvest Moon is the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox and gained its name because in the days before electricity, the moon aided farmers harvesting when the sun was not up. What mainly distinguishes the Harvest Moon from other moons is that this time of year there is less time between successive moonrises than usual.

For more information on the Harvest Moon and its special appearance, check out the EarthSky website. If you prefer a video explanation, check out this video:

The Harvest Moon is also responsible for inspiring a classic Tin Pan Alley song from the early 1900s. There is some dispute about the song’s authors, but “Shine On, Harvest Moon” was originally credited to the couple of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, who were married at the time they wrote the song but later divorced. Both Bayes and Norworth had other successes, including that Norworth wrote the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but during their lives they were probably most famous for “Shine On, Harvest Moon.”

The song has been performed by a number of artists on TV and in film, including an appearance in the 1944 film Shine On, Harvest Moon, as well as on an episode of The Mickey Mouse Club by a young Britney Spears. Johnny Cash sang it with Emmylou Harris on TV too. My favorite performance, though, is by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who always lit up the screen during one of their musical performances. Check out Laurel & Hardy singing “Shine On, Harvest Moon” below from the film The Flying Deuces (1939).