Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind The Movies Fundraiser

Here's the last classic movie related fundraiser we will be plugging for 2015.

The following Kickstarter fundraiser is raising much needed dough-re-me for publication costs associated with the long awaited new edition of Laurel on & Hardy The Magic Behind The Movies.



Classic movie and comedy buffs around the world have worn out previous editions of Randy Skredvedt's book, among the definitive tomes on The Boys, to the point where all the pages have unceremoniously fallen out, so the announcement of the fundraiser is most welcome news.



We fez-wearing L&H aficionados at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog are happy to plug the completely revised, greatly expanded Laurel & Hardy The Magic Behind The Movies - 632 large 8.5 x 11 pages, printed on sturdy, slick paper stock, with over 1,000 photos, most previously unpublished.



The new edition also includes original scripts (including hilarious scenes that never made it to the screen) and quotes from a number of classic comedy luminaries - producer Hal Roach, actresses Anita Garvin and Dorothy Granger, musical director Marvin Hatley, film editors Richard Currier and Bert Jordan.



We wish Randy and Bonaventure Press all the best with this fundraiser, which ends on December 31.



The usual gang of comedy-crazed characters at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog suggest - just in case you happen to be a reader who has forgotten how amazingly funny these guys were - watching the Laurel & Hardy silents You're Darn' Tootin' and Liberty, posted on Hulu.



We add that the intrepid preservationists of UCLA Film & Television Archive launched an ambitious restoration project devoted to Laurel & Hardy awhile back.



To whet a classic comedy buff's appetite further for L&H related stuff, here are some excerpts from Arthur Friedman's August 1957 interview with Stan Laurel. The complete interview has been posted on Ross Owens' Blog.



A great deal more interesting material on the champion of comedy teams can be found on Laurel And Hardy Forum.





The following 1950 "Ship's Reporter" program is among the rare interviews with Oliver Hardy.



We close with a bit of historic footage from the archives of photographer George Mann - and shot on The Lot Of Fun.



Here are Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Slow Burnin' Edgar Kennedy on the set of Should Married Men Come Home, the 2-reeler that culminates in a golf course free-for-all, in March 1928.



Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has posted this footage before but it's so good we had to do it again!



A pre-order of Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies, to be published in April 2016, unquestionably is a far better holiday gift for the classic comedy buff in your life than "hard boiled eggs and nuts".