Autographs - Laurel and Hardy

I belong to the age of children who grew up watching comedy films and comics of the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. Yesterday while trying to dispose off the conetnts of my junk box, I came across a torn magazine carrying a photo of Laurel and Hardy, duly autographed. So I thought sharing the same with the autograph collecters with this prized possession and someting about the duo.

Laurel and Hardy made us laugh during our childhood, although they had started making films as early as 1919. Stan Laurel was an english comedian, while the heavyweight Oliver Hardy was an american. The two Alif and Noon (a similar duo of Pakistan TV) of the Hollywood made people laugh across the globe for as long as they lived. Their first film was The Luck Dog that was screened just after the WW-I, when people torn with grief of losing loved ones in the horrific war of the 20th century needed their smiles back on their faces.

The duo continued to act together and made many movies; Sons of the Desert, Way out West, Block Heads, Big Business and others. Their Music Box was an academy Award winning film of 1932.

Laurel and Hardy dance to the Gap Band

Their last public appearnce was on BBC in 1955. Thereafter, Hardy, in a bid to reduce his weight fell seriously sick and died of heartstroke on 7th August 1957. Incidently 7th August also happens to be my birthday. Doctors attributed his rapid wight loss as one of the major causes of his death. Hardy's death made Laurel lonely and retracted and he refused to appear in films anymore. He even turned down an offer to work in the famous film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. However, Laurel was given a special Academy Award for his contributions to film comedy in 1960. He died on February 23, 1965 in Santa Monica, and was buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.