Showing posts with label laurel and hardy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label laurel and hardy. Show all posts

The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood Review

The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood
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The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood ReviewThis surprising little book is not a typical celebrity biography. Rather, it tells of the early years of film comedy legend Stan Laurel and his subsequent struggles to establish his career as a performer. In the process, it also insightfully highlights the correlations between Laurel's boyhood in England and motifs that appear in some of his films produced during his very successful career with Oliver Hardy. The book is well researched and supported with photos and other documents that enliven the narrative of Laurel's early years. Author Danny Lawrence--who was born and raised in Laurel's boyhood home of North Shields--is obviously proud of his hometown's most famous former resident, and his analysis is compelling without being clinical. "The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood" will appeal not only to those interested in the life and career of Stan Laurel, but also to those interested in the history and evolution of the performing arts (theater to vaudeville to motion pictures to television) and most especially to those intrigued by the search for the source of creative and artistic inspiration. By uncovering a new dimension of Stan Laurel through the story of his boyhood and early years as a performer prior to his success in Hollywood, Lawrence deftly proves: "You can take the boy out of North Shields, but you can't take North Shields out of the boy." Ultimately, readers will be reminded of the comic genius of Laurel. And, like me, I suspect most will be prompted to watch a Laurel and Hardy movie (or two)--not just to confirm Lawrence's analysis, but also to enjoy some laughs with a new understanding and appreciation of the North Shields boy who became Stan Laurel, one of Hollywood's most influential and enduring stars.The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood OverviewAs an adult, Stan Laurel (1890-1965) lived in the United States. As a boy, he lived in north-east England, the son of a prominent local theatrical figure. This ground-breaking biography examines Laurel's family background, his formative years and his struggle to establish a show business career. Stan retained the emotional bonds forged in his youth throughout his life and visited his boyhood homes during his UK tours with Oliver Hardy. Describing Stan Laurel's key roles in making his films with his partner Oliver Hardy so successful internationally, the book analyzes how Stan's boyhood experiences are often echoed in those films. It also notes his influence on successive generations of comic actors who, to this day, still pay fulsome tribute to him. Included is a selection of photographs relevant to Laurel's boyhood, some related to themes in the Laurel and Hardy comedies.

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Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy Review

Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy
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Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy ReviewSimon Louvish's epic-length biography Stan and Ollie plays like one of those Laurel & Hardy comedies that were padded to feature-length by the inclusion of romantic leads nobody cares about. Like those movies, one has to wade through a lot of guff to get to the really good stuff.
Louvish has done his research (as he all too eager to convince the reader), and it pays off most admirably when debunking previous tales of the Laurel & Hardy history. The most compelling example is the chapter detailing Oliver Hardy's first marriage. Hardy and film historians have long maintained that he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to pursue a film career, and there was where he met and married first wife Madelyn. Louvish detailingly reveals that Madelyn was in fact Jewish, that Hardy met her in Georgia at the time of an infamous Jewish lynching, and that Hardy and his wife exited Georgia as a result, never to return.
Such dramatic payoffs are alone worth the price of the book. Louvish also often gleans much enlightened insight into Laurel & Hardy's film work (as well he should--Louvish in a part-time film teacher). To cite just one example, his analysis of the finale of L&H's penultimate Hal Roach film A Chump at Oxford is as insightful and moving as the finale itself.
Along the way, though, the reader must endure the obstacle courses that plagued Louvish's previous bios of W.C. Fields and The Marx Brothers (both of which tomes are shamelessly plugged throughout this book). For one thing, Louvish lards his writing with enough precious verbosity to make L&H biographer John McCabe look like an illiterate slacker by comparison. (Prime example: "Babe's inner life has always been a...mystery wrapped in an enigma, hidden behind those folds of flesh.")
My final complaint with the book is that when it gets into Laurel & Hardy at their prime, it quotes other, far superior sources (most notably Randy Skretvedt's) to the point of [being word for word]. And even then, accuracy is not Louvish's strong suit. Louvish quotes a Skretvedt interview with Hal Roach in which Roach, by way of contrasting L&H with other comedy teams, states that "Abbott and Costello worked at our studio, and they used to fight like hell. But with Laurel and Hardy, when I fired Hardy, Laurel cried." This quote has almost as many errors as it has words: A&C never worked for Roach, and Roach never fired Hardy (Roach had Stan and Babe on concurrent, separate contracts and often suspended Laurel or let his contract lapse during certain disputes).
For all of its faults, Louvish's genuine appreciation for Laurel and Hardy's comic artistry makes a considerable amount of Stan and Ollie worthwhile writing for the fervent L&H buff. Just make to sure to avoid Louvish's verbal land mines in order to reach the real meat of the bookStan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy Overview

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