Laurel and Hardy

Left: Arthur Stanley Jefferson (“Stan Laurel”) – b. 06/16/1890; d. 02/23/1965

Right: Oliver Norvell Hardy (“Ollie”) – b. 01/18/1892; d. 08/07/1957

Theme Song (“The Cuckoo”)

Early years

The Lucky Dog - 1919 - 1921 (?)
45 Minutes From Hollywood – 12/26/1926

1927

Duck Soup – 03/13/1927
Slipping Wives -04/03/1927
Love 'Em and Weep – 06/12/1927
Why Girls Love Sailors – 07/17/1927
With Love and Hisses – 08/28/1927
Sugar Daddies – 09/10/1927
Sailors Beware – 09/25/1927
The Second Hundred Years – 10/08/1927
Now I'll Tell One – 10/09/1927
Call of the Cuckoo – 10/15/1927
Hats Off – 11/05/1927
Do Detectives Think? – 11/20/1927
Putting Pants on Phillip – 12/03/1927
The Battle of the Century – 12/31/1927

1928

Leave 'Em Laughing – 01/28/1928
Flying Elephants – 02/12/1928
The Finishing Touch – 02/25/1928
From Soup to Nuts – 03/24/1928
You're Darn Tootin' – 04/21/1928
Their Purple Moment – 05/19/1928
Should Married Men Go Home? – 08/08/1928
Early to Bed – 10/06/1928
Two Tars – 11/03/1928
Habeas Corpus – 12/01/1928
We Faw Down – 12/29/1928

1929

Liberty – 01/26/1929
Wrong Again – 02/23/1929
That's My Wife – 03/23/1929
Big Business – 04/20/1929
Unaccustomed as We Are – 05/04/1929
Double Whoopee – 05/18/1929
Berth Marks – 06/01/1929
Men 'O War – 06/29/1929
A Perfect Day – 08/10/1929
They Go Boom – 09/21/1929
Bacon Grabbers – 10/19/1929
Hoosegow – 11/16/1929
Hollywood Review of 1929 – 11/23/1929
Angora Love – 12/14/1929

1930

Night Owls – 01/04/1930
Blotto – 02/08/1930
Brats – 03/22/1930
Below Zero – 04/26/1930
Rogue Song – 05/10/1930
Hog Wild – 05/31/1930
The Laurel & Hardy Murder Case – 09/06/1930
Another Fine Mess – 11/29/1930

1931

Be Big – 02/07/1931
Chickens Come Home – 02/21/1931
Laughing Gravy – 04/04/1931
The Stolen Jools – 04/?/1931
Our Wife – 05/16/1931
Pardon Us – 08/15/1931
Come Clean – 09/19/1931
One Good Turn – 10/31/1931
Beau Hunks – 12/12/1931
On the Loose – 12/26/1931

1932

Helpmates – 01/23/1932
Any Old Port – 03/05/1932
The Music Box – 04/16/1932
The Chimp – 05/21/1932
County Hospital – 06/25/1932
Scram – 09/10/1932
Pack Up Your Troubles – 09/17/1932
Their First Mistake – 11/05/1932
Towed in a Hole – 12/31/1932

1933

Twice Two – 02/25/1933
Me and My Pal – 04/22/1933
Fra Diavolo – 05/05/1933
The Midnight Patrol – 08/03/1933
Busy Bodies – 10/07/1933
Wild Poses – 10/28/1933
Dirty Work – 11/25/1933
Sons of the Desert – 12/29/1933

1934

Oliver the Eighth – 02/?/1934
Hollywood Party – 06/01/1934
Going Bye Bye – 06/23/1934
Them Thar Hills – 07/21/1934
Babes in Toyland – 11/30/1934
The Live Ghost – 12/08/1934

1935

Tit For Tat – 01/5/1935
The Fixer Uppers – 02/09/1935
Thicker Than Water – 03/16/1935
Bonnie Scotland – 08/23/1935

1936

The Bohemian Girl -02/14/1936
On the Wrong Trek – 04/18/1936
Our Relations – 10/30/1936

1937

Way Out West – 04/16/1937
Pick a Star – 05/21/1937

1938

Swiss Miss – 05/20/1938
Block-Heads – 08/19/1938

1939

The Flying Deuces – 10/20/1939

1940

A Chump at Oxford – 02/16/1940
Saps at Sea – 05/03/1940

The Fox Years

Great Guns – 10/10/1941
A-Haunting We Will Go – 08/7/1942
Air Raid Wardens – 04/?/1943
The Tree in a Test Tube - 1943
Jitterbugs – 06/11/1943
The Dancing Masters – 11/19/1943
The Big Noise – 09/?/1944
Nothing But Trouble – 03/?/1945
The Bullfighters – 05/19/1945

Atoll K – 1952

My Favorite Laurel and Hardy Movie

March of the Wooden Soldiers – 11/30/1934

Originally entitled “Babes in Toyland,” but re-released as “March of the Wooden Soldiers” -- Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) are well-meaning but brainless toymakers in Toyland. They misinterpret an order from Santa Claus for 600 one foot high toy soldiers and come up instead with 100 six foot high soldiers. But their toy army comes in handy when the evil Barnaby (Henry Brandon) and his furry Bogeymen invade Toyland, and the boys end up as heroes when they save the Widow Peep’s daughter Bo (Charlotte Henry) from his clutches.

Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee do their best to keep Mother Peep from being evicted by the evil Silas Barnaby. When that fails, Bo Peep reluctantly agrees to marry Barnaby to save Mother Peep. Thanks to Stan and Ollie's trickery, the marriage is botched and Mother Peep's overdue mortgage is ripped up. Barnaby takes out his revenge by rounding up the Bogeymen to finish off Toyland. The boys and the Wooden Soldiers come to the rescue and save the day.

This priceless nine reel comedy from veteran Laurel and Hardy producer Hal Roach, was the personal favorite of Oliver Hardy. Better known as ‘Babes In Toyland’, the film was the best of their feature-length operettas and certainly had the most lavish fantasy sets. It was rarely seen in public after a poor Walt Disney remake in 1961 and, when it was shown, the censors had often butchered it.

TV stations considered some scenes in Bogey-land too grim for young children and snipped them out. Early cinema screenings were often without some of the film’s charming songs because it was thought that people would only want to see Laurel and Hardy going through their comedy paces. Roach originally wanted Laurel and Hardy to play Simple Simon and The Pie Man, parts they did in fact ‘play’ in a 1938 Walt Disney cartoon - “Mother Goose Goes To Hollywood” - which was nominated for an Academy Award. Brooklyn-born Charlotte Henry, a popular child star of the 1930s, and the star of the 1933 film ‘Alice In Wonderland’, has the lead role of Bo Peep.

In the film, Stan plays a game called Pee-Wee. He uses a stick to hit a small, round piece of wood that is tapered at both ends. By placing the Pee-Wee on the ground and hitting one of the tapered ends, it will fly up into the air. At that point you hit the Pee-Wee like a baseball. In the film, the Pee-Wee returns, like a boomerang.

The film is based on the Victor Herbert operetta of 1903 and includes much of the original score throughout the film. However, the operetta consisted entirely of a musical revue, without an actual story. Of course, this would not play on the big screen. So a plot, involving many of the classic fairy tales characters, was developed specifically for the film.