On his birthday, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog pays tribute to arguably the single funniest comedian of the 20th century, the great Stan Laurel. Yes, Chaplin was the most graceful and elegant, Langdon (who influenced Stan) the most original and Keaton downright brilliant but nobody could get laughs like Stan.
Born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16, 1890, Stan Laurel was the son of an actor and theater manager. Stan made his show business debut at Pickard’s Museum, Glasgow in 1906, and would later be part of the celebrated Fred Karno theatrical troupe, kings of the music halls known as Fred Karno’s Army. At one point, Stan was the understudy of Charlie Chaplin.
After the Karno tours to America in 1910 and 1913, Laurel toured in vaudeville with his first wife, Mae Dahlberg, and headlined comedy short subjects as early as 1917. The characters Stan plays in the 1917-1924 comedy shorts he appeared in - at times rather aggressive, at other times meek - are far afield from the extremely dunderheaded yet good-hearted and well-meaning “Stanley” from the Laurel & Hardy films.
Stan headlined short films for Bernstein Productions, the Hal Roach Studio, Gilbert M. Anderson (a.k.a. Broncho Billy) and Joe Rock Productions. Among his first appearances in movies would be roles as a supporting player in three breathless comedy short subjects starring ultra-wacky Vitagraph Pictures slapstick-meister Larry Semon (1889-1928), an extremely popular and prolific comic in the teens and early 1920's.
The first response watching these 1918 short subjects is that the extremely goofy supporting player, Stan, is exponentially funnier than the headliner. Oliver Hardy was also a frequent co-star, often serving as the "Eric Campbell" uber-heavy in Larry's Vitagraph series (and later in the notorious 1925 version of The Wizard Of Oz). Stan and Babe, as far as we know, were not supporting players in the same Larry Semon Vitagraph comedy.
Note: Larry Semon, whose gags and routines remind this writer of The Benny Hill Show 55 years later, may be the single most rampantly politically incorrect of all silent movie comics. It's one of several reasons the cartoony comedian, as imaginative as he and his way-out gags and elaborate set pieces could be, remains not as well remembered as his contemporaries. That said, he and Stan work extremely well together in the following 2-reeler, FRAUDS & FRENZIES, and there are very funny gags throughout.
Even early on in his solo series, it was apparent that Stan was a very funny guy.
Most successful among Stan's solo starring vehicles were a series of movie parodies.
The best of Stan's solo comedies would be DR. PYCKLE & MR. PRIDE (1925), a very funny short in which an uber-dastardly Mr. Hyde wreaks a reign of terror with deeds which are definitely not dastardly.
After completing HALF A MAN (1925), the last of the Joe Rock Productions starring series, Stan switched to a behind-the-camera role, writing and directing films in his second stint with the Hal Roach Studio in 1926. Some starred Oliver Hardy and future L&H nemesis Jimmie Finlayson.
Stan would continue as a writer-director-gagman (credited or uncredited) through the team’s 14 years making movies for Hal Roach.
Stan was a fellow who enjoyed the craft of molding comedy for movies, in the editing room and behind the camera.
He even gets "A Stan Laurel Production" credit on their features, Our Relations (1936) and Way Out West (1937).
After Laurel and Hardy signed with Fox, Stan would be treated more as a contract player than comedy creator, much as Buster Keaton was at MGM - and much to his chagrin.
Closing this tribute, we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog could not recommend Randy Skredtvedt's tome on L&H more highly. It is outstanding and includes many interviews with the team's collaborators and co-stars.
Can finish this post with some good news; a new release of L&H talkies on Blu-ray and DVD shall be officially released at the end of this month.
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