Today is the natal anniversary of Oliver "Babe" Hardy, half of our all-time favorite comedy team.
Oliver Hardy was a singularly brilliant comic actor who stands atop our list of all-time favorite movie comedians.
By far the most profiled funmaker of any on this blog, Oliver Norvell Hardy was born on this day in 1892.
Where does a lifelong L&H fan even start?
With this footage from the set of Should Married Men Go Home shot by George Mann of the comedic dance act Barto and Mann. Thanks, George and thanks, Bob Smith for posting!
For more than a decade before he was teamed with Stan Laurel, Babe Hardy was an extremely prolific supporting player.
Appearing in a slew of films from 1913-1917, Hardy was a stock company stalwart at Lubin and other production companies in Jacksonville, FLA.
This includes a stretch at Vim Comedies, where Hardy co-starred in the Plump & Runt series with Billy Ruge and also was a supporting player in the Pokes & Jabbs series starring Bobby Burns and Walter Stull.
After the Vim company disbanded, Babe Hardy worked with Charlie Chaplin imitator Billy West at King Bee Comedies.
This brought Hardy together with future Hal Roach Studios headliner and director/writer Charley Chase.
As an all-purpose heavy, to some degree the Eric Campbell equivalent at Vitagraph Pictures, Hardy co-starred in numerous 2-reelers and a few feature films.
Most starred the ultra-wacky Larry Semon (1889-1928) and even more over-the-top former Fred Karno comic Jimmy Aubrey.
Hardy appears as a key cast member in numerous films headlined by Larry Semon, who specialized in larger than life comedies featuring epic, spectacular sight gags. Larry's comedy in some respects was a predecessor of the super-cartoony slapstick of The Three Stooges and the kind of humor that turned up 40 years later in such attempts to rekindle the extravagant visual comedy approach as Blake Edwards' The Great Race and the films of Jerry Lewis (some of which were directed by Norman Taurog, who worked with Larry Semon).
Once at the Hal Roach Studios, Oliver Hardy had memorable turns as a supporting player in such Charley Chase comedies as Isn't Life Terrible and Fluttering Hearts.
The vintage comedy fans at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog enthusiastically extol a new addition to the restorers and celebrators of classic movies and silent comedy rarities, Split Reel.
The ace film historians at Split Reel have been doing a superlative job excavating the silent comedy universe's numerous nooks and crannies. These include Rob Stone, author of Laurel Or Hardy and stalwart preservationist from the Library Of Congress. There are both Blu-rays and books available on the Split Reel website, including tomes by silent film experts Rob Farr, Thomas Reeder and Steve Massa.
As well as the following compilations of L&H silents.
We tip our battered brown derbies to Babe and note that nearly 100 years after their first teaming at Hal Roach Studios, Laurel & Hardy emphatically and spectacularly deliver the laughs!
The favorite film festival that the writer of this blog didn't personally schlep reels to is back. That would be Noir City, which shall bring big screen fun to Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre starting on Friday.
Which has been the product of unending hard work from the preservationists, authors, historians and event maestros of the Film Noir Foundation.
The press release notes: The joint will be jumping when the venerable NOIR CITY film festival kicks out the jams at the Grand Lake Theatre, January 16–25, 2026, with an exciting 10-day program of crime and mystery films featuring . . . musicians!
From early examples of Hollywood noir like Blues in the Night (1941) to jazz-fueled sixties’ gems like All Night Long (1962) and A Man Called Adam (1966), the movies feature genuine musical legends performing alongside film noir favorites including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Kirk Douglas, Ann Sheridan, and Robert Mitchum.
Among the real-life musicians appearing onscreen at NOIR CITY 23: Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Louis Armstrong, Keely Smith, Dexter Gordon, Ella Fitzgerald, Hoagy Carmichael, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peggy Lee, Oscar Levant, Dave Brubeck, Charlie Mingus, and many more.
“Back in the 1940s, nightclubs and jazz played a significant role in creating the noir vibe,” explains festival founder and host Eddie Muller. “So, it was fun to craft a program in which music plays a role in every story, either through the setting or because the characters are musicians.”
As he usually does, Muller balances the roster between established classics (To Have and Have Not (1944), Gilda (1946), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), and seldom-screened titles like The Strip (1951), The Crimson Canary (1945), and Face the Music (aka The Black Glove), a 1954 British rarity that provided the “kicker” for this year’s festival.
Muller acknowledges that some of this year’s offerings veer outside the proscribed boundaries of noir, but he offers no apologies: “Jazz is America’s greatest contribution to the twentieth century,” he declares, “and mixing it up with film noir is a perfect way to showcase the music for a younger generation. The stories may be dark and depressing, but the music always soars.”
Many of the films on the schedule are fictions in which music plays a major part; others are based on actual performers, like the 1955 Doris Day vehicle Love Me or Leave Me in which Day gives a scintillating performance as 1920s singing and dancing sensation Ruth Etting.
Kirk Douglas’ Young Man with a Horn from 1950 (also starring Day) is based on the life of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke (with Harry James providing the actual horn work).
Similarly, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dexter Gordon give memorable portrayals in, respectively, A Man Called Adam and Round Midnight (1986), playing composites of real-life jazz artists.
“Jazz may dominate the program,” Muller notes, “but we’ve also got samplings of classical (1946’s Humoresque), country (1958’s Thunder Road), and rock ‘n’ roll (1958’s King Creole) — I finally hit on a theme that accommodates my favorite Elvis movie.”
The classic film and noir-lovin' gang here strongly recommend that all film buffs who can get their derrieres and popcorn to the Grand Lake Theatre do so.
The Noir City festival will help get people together, have a chance to hang out, "face the music" and provide some entertainment during a year that thus far has been unrelentingly horrendous.
No doubt outraged texts from offended dumpster fires seeking an apology are forthcoming.
In the glaring absence of anything remotely resembling good news, we attempt to celebrate the January 8th birthdays of David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey and Little Anthony - and note that January 9 is (drum roll) National Balloon Ascension Day!
I'm not kidding, there is a National Balloon Ascension Day!
Funny, all this writer can think of on National Balloon Ascension Day is Frank Morgan and the ending of The Wizard Of Oz.
And THE RED BALLOON!
In cinematic tribute to National Balloon Ascension Day, here's all-time favorite Buster Keaton!
Buster co-stars with Mack Sennett Studio ingenue and star of the 1927 version of Chicago Phyllis Haver in THE BALLOONATIC (1923), second to last of the Keaton Productions silent short subjects.
Alas, did not find any interviews with Buster about the making of this high-flying comedy short. My guess is the self-effacing Keaton would say it was no big deal and that his talented technical director and prop master Fred Gabourie had everything ready to roll in short order.
Jumping from the early 1920s to the mid-1960's, way back in my elementary school days, many moons ago, loved hearing this catchy tune on the AM radio titled THE YELLOW BALLOON by . . . The Yellow Balloon, an uber-happy sunshine pop group led by actor Don Grady of My Three Sons fame.
If one ever finds a TV performance featuring The Yellow Balloon in which the guys aren't lip synching a la Milli Vannili or Ashlee Simpson (or Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa Simpson, or for that matter current Saturday Night Live stalwart Ashley Padilla), we'd love to see it. Once heard, those ever-bouncy 1960's ditties by such groups as The Yellow Balloon, The Mojo Men and The Left Banke prove most difficult to dislodge from the brain!
Also in 1966-1967, the pop group The 5th Dimension, featuring 5-part vocal harmonies, the equally catchy melodies by songwriter Jimmy Webb and mellifluous musicianship of studio virtuosos The Wrecking Crew, waxed poetic about beautiful balloons in the massive hit Up, Up and Away.
On the topic of balloons, the Charles Mintz Studio, producers of the Krazy Kat, Scrappy and Color Rhapsodies series for Columbia Pictures, made Looney Balloonists, which got run repeatedly on KTVU-TV's Captain Satellite Show in the early 1960's. This oddly charming cartoon features a peppy musical track by Joe DeNat and looks like the handiwork of the crew led by Ben Harrison and Manny Gould. Animators Allen Rose and Harry Love receive screen credit.
A balloony blog post would not be complete without the penultimate entry from the Ub Iwerks Studio's Comicolor series, the otherworldly and downright nightmarish BALLOON LAND.
Also known as THE PIN CUSHION MAN, this fever dream has scared the beejeesus out of numerous kids and their parents.
Thanks to 16mm and 8mm prints of Iwerks' Comicoior series by home movie distributor Castle Films, the evil pin cushion man's uber-villainy has reigned for decades.
Post-1965 audiences have seen this surreal masterpiece on the big screen as a direct result of it falling into the public domain long ago.
Respectful hat tips go to those godsends of pre-Turner Classic Movies times, repertory cinema and ragtag film collectors who rented cheap venues for the purpose of presenting classic movies and cartoons.
Happily for animation buffs, we hear a Blu-ray collection of Ub Iwerks' Comicolor cartoons is forthcoming. Until then, honor National Balloon Ascension Day by attending a Hot Air Balloon Festival and watching the following bits from Pixar's Up (2009) and Blake Edwards' wacky 1965 opus The Great Race.
Along with standup comedy by Jim Gaffigan.
In closing, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog regret not finding a video clip of the bit from Charley Chase's hilarious 1928 film THE FAMILY GROUP which features a spectacular sight gag centered on balloons and hope we'll have it for the 2027 National Balloon Ascension Day post. RE: The Lot Of Fun, we extend thanks and a Max Linder top hat tip to Dave Lord Heath, a source of detailed Hal Roach Studios history.
Wishing all a happy new year! This Blogmeister has two takes on the first day of 2026: happy to be here and good riddance, 2025! Rang in the new year this morning by watching musical sketches concocted for Saturday Night Live by John Mulaney and Colin Jost. Do we love Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon as singing lobsters? Yes.
Following the Diner Lobster extravaganza: the Subway Churro sketch. Again, the performances by the Saturday Night Live cast, especially Cecily Strong and the aforementioned Kenan Thompson, are stellar. Watching this creates a strong impression that John Mulaney yearned to star in West Side Story.
The last John Mulaney mini-musical was the Airport Sushi at LaGuardia sketch. Is Mulaney an avid fan of musical theater first, comedy writer/actor/comic second? Very likely the answer to that question is an emphatic YES.
Looks like the new year will be kind to incurable animation buffs.
First and foremost, the restoration of Ed Graham's funny, unique, clever and unusual mid-1960's Saturday morning cartoon series Linus The Lionhearted (featuring excellent voice work by Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner, Ruth Buzzi, Jonathan Winters, Stiller & Meara and more) is progressing nicely.
Tommy Stathes' latest Cartoon Roots Blu-ray, a tribute to Fleischer Studios and Ko-ko The Clown, is now available.
Time and space-bending adventures in this Out Of The Inkwell compilation include:
THE CLOWN'S PUP (1919)
THE BOXING KANGAROO (1920)
THE CHINAMAN (1920)
THE CLOWN'S LITTLE BROTHER (1920)
PERPETUAL MOTION (1920
THE RESTAURANT (1920)
THE AUTOMOBILE RIDE (1921)
MODELING (1921)
FISHING (1921)
MECHANICAL DOLL (1922)
BUBBLES (1922)
FLIES (1922)
SPARRING PARTNER (1922)
BIRTHDAY (1922)
REUNION (1922)
While it would be quite the understatement to designate 2025 as one seriously lousy year, at least animation fans could cheer up somewhat thanks to the long-awaited release of classic cartoons to Blu-ray on Looney Tunes Collector's Vault volume 1, released last June. Volume 2 of the Looney Tunes Collector's Vault Blu-ray series will be released in March.
Looney Tunes Collector's Vault volume 2 is quite a treasure trove of classic cartoon goodness, as was volume 1.
Been many moons since this blogger has seen the Bill Hanna & Joe Barbera Tom & Jerry cartoons, so it will be fun to revisit them.
The debut of the series, Puss Gets The Boot (1939) reflects the deliberate, Disney-esque Rudy Ising school of cartoonmaking rather than the fastier, brassier and outrageous slapstick-oriented approach that dominates the subsequent Hanna-Barbera and Tex Avery MGM cartoons.
In our view, the series hit its peak in the mid-to-late 1940's.
Here are a bunch of clips from Tom & Jerry cartoons. While tending to be partial to Avery's MGM cartoons over the Tom & Jerry series, must admit to laughing loudly and often during this compilation.
Author, animation historian and restoration expert Thad Komorowski has reviewed volume 1 and volume 2 and volume 3 of the Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era series in detail.
The gang at Way Too Lazy To Write A Blog extend big time thanks, kudos, bravos and huzzahs to everyone involved in these restorations and shall now make an earnest effort to find a modicum of optimism to begin the new year!
