Ward's Book of Days.
Pages of interesting anniversaries.
What happened on this day in history.
JUNE 16th
On this day in history in 1890, was born Stan Laurel.
Stan Laurel was an actor turned comedian who became the funny half of comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy.
Arthur Stanley Jefferson, known as Stan, was born in Ulverston, Cumbria, the son of a theatre manager, Arthur Jefferson and actress, Margaret Jefferson. His parents travelled extensively due the nature of their business and therefore their son was often left with his grandparents in Ulverston. Laurel received a rudimentary education at various locations including Gainford, Bishop Auckland, North Shields and Glasgow, after which he took up employment with his father as a box office clerk.
When aged sixteen, Laurel asked one of his father’s colleagues for a trial in the theatre. He was moderately successful but the family disapproved and could not be reconciled with the idea. Laurel left the family and joined a troupe of actors, where he was, for a time, understudy to Charlie Chaplin. When the troupe toured America in 1916, he met actress, Mae Dahlberg, with whom he lived until 1925. They were unable to marry as Dahlberg had a husband in her native Australia. Dahlberg pointed out that the name, Stan Jefferson, contained an unlucky thirteen letters and that he should take the name ‘Laurel’, an accolade given to actors.
Laurel was offered sporadic employment in Hollywood appearing in several ‘two-reel’ (brief) productions. In 1925, he was offered a part in a comedy film of which Dahlberg disapproved, preferring him to stick to straight parts. The studio, upon hearing this, bribed Dahlberg with a sum of dollars and a one-way ticket to Australia.
In 1926, Laurel was, by chance, teamed with Oliver Hardy in a slapstick comedy, Putting Pants on Phillip, in which their rapport became abundantly obvious. At this time, talking pictures were coming into fashion. Many actors failed to make the transition as their routines were based totally on performance and they had no verbal skill. Laurel and Hardy were able to make the transition perfectly due to their unique combination of dialogue and stage presentation, which no other actors could emulate. Laurel would twist his sentences so as to be misunderstood by hardy. Hardy would speak clearly yet pompously and his words would be misinterpreted by Laurel. The combination of verbal misunderstanding and inept physical dexterity brought their routines to the peak of popularity.
Laurel and Hardy made ninety comic films in their career, which ended in 1957, when Hardy died. Laurel was ill at the time and too distraught to attend the funeral. Laurel never fully recovered from Hardy’s death. He tried to work on his own but not successfully. His accomplishments had depended on the relationship between two partners and that had now gone. Laurel retired from comedy but kept up his humour until his death in 1965. His last words were “If anyone has a long face at my funeral, I’ll never speak to them again!”
There is a museum of Laurel and Hardy at Laurel’s birthplace in Ulverston. [4c Upper Brook Street, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7BQ] and a statue of him, near a former home in North Shields. [Dockwray Square, North Shields, NE30 1JZ]
Recommended reading.
Louvish, Simon. Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy.
McCabe, John. The Comedy World of Stan Laurel. (Paperback edition)
Buy it here at Amazon
©2006 Ward’s Book of Days
