Message Board
July, 29th 2009
Hello my fellow North American Laurel & Hardy fans! You will be pleased to know that a complete collection similar to the 21 disk collection in Europe will be released in the states. I've received an email response back from the public relations department over at Genius Products, currently holding the North American rights. A collection is on Genius's slate for next fall!! This is going to be a very long wait indeed. But for now I'm just ecstatic to know that it's in the works.
Best Regards,
Chris
July, 24th 2009
Does anyone know how I can find "Excuse Us Please". I believe it was an add on to another movie. It has sound and is absolutely HYSTERICAL.
chuck brown (clarksville, tn)
We're thrilled. On Wednesday 9 September we're staging Laurel and Hardy's Comedy Mayhem at Colston Hall, Bristol, UK, to mark the 80th anniversary of the duo's successful switch from silent film to talkies. The line-up of films, music and guests was already terrific. But now Jean Darling, the former Our Gang member who also co-starred with Stan and Ollie has agreed to join us to reprise some of their best-loved songs. So if anyone out there fancies being able to tell their grandchildren that they've sungalong with someone who sangalong with the legends, this is the chance. For more info, see www.bristolsilents.org.uk
Chris Daniels (Bristol, UK)
July, 23rd 2009
just i have to say they were amazing and wonderful
javad (iran tabriz)
July, 22nd 2009
I've been a Laurel & Hardy fan ever since I was a little girl. They used to show shorts on television when I was growing up and there are two episodes that have stuck to my mind in particular. Unfortunately I can't remember the titles. In the first one Laurel & Hardy went camping in a caravan right next to a cabin. The water well outside this cabin was full of dumped alcohol. A couple also had their caravan parked next to this cabin. The more they drank out of this well, the more drunk they all became. The short ended with the caravans being turned nearly upside down.
The other short involves the same couple from the above mentioned short. Laurel & Hardy had a store right next to the couple who also had a store. I can remember an elevator scene out in the street, light bulbs crashing and marshmallows.
Does anybody know what these two shorts are called. I would so much love to be able to see these shorts again. They are part of my happiest and funniest memories as a child.
Marion Nilsson (Sweden)
Marion, you're thinking of "Them Thar Hills" (1934) and "Tit For Tat" (1935). Both films co-starred Mae Busch and Charlie Hall. The 1935 entry marked the first and only time Laurel and Hardy created a sequel to an earlier film.
Mike (Cleveland, Ohio)
July, 19th 2009
LOVE Laurel and Hardy and have been a L & H addict since I was 8 years old! (1954). I've written two mini-research papers on them, the most recent being "Stan Laurel And Oliver Hardy;My Personal Tribute To The Boys", August 2007, and published in the Hudson Valley NY-area magazine "Going With the Flow".
This is a wonderful website and I'll be back often! Probably in Septober, Octember or Nowonder (tee hee)
Bob Van (Monroe NY 10950)
I just acquired the Spanish DVD of "De Bote en Bote" (Pardon Us), and I'm curious. Including this, there seems to be four different edits of "Pardon Us". The original 1931 release, a preview print that ended up in colorized form on the UK Universal disc, an even longer preview print with added material (fire sequence) from the Spanish version, and the Spanish version.
Can anyone elaborate on all these versions?
Chris (Toronto, Canada)
Dear Chris,
When we did our restoration and preservation work on PARDON US we were lucky to find several versions of the subject. I have yet to do the essay for PARDON US, but it will all be explained there. You can imagine when I first wound through nitrate on a flatbed editor and saw the main title reading THEIR FIRST MISTAKE! One lesson we learn, or at least I did, in meeting and interviewing over a hundred people who worked at Hal Roach Studios is that it is human nature to take our own life experiences for granted. So many of these people did, on both sides of the camera. Creating these films, they were just doing their jobs, producing a form of disposable entertainment. That was how everyone regarded motion pictures at the time. People never imagined these films would live on as the object of much interest and scrutiny by scholars, not only as entertainment but as a means of time travel and studying the changing cultural and moral values from era to era. So we can look back and wonder why filmmakers at the movie studios did not treasure and save every version, every artifact, every still photo, every prop, every poster, every script, every call sheet, every out-take, every trailer, every scrap of film, every document, every everything. But in view of how, back then, as now, all of us just take our own life experiences for granted, isn't it a wonder anything survives? So we are lucky to have so many different versions of a film like PARDON US. It is almost a miracle that they have survived this long for all of us to puzzle over, and enjoy.
Regards, Richard
Read Richard W. Bann's essay on DE BOTE EN BOTE
July, 12th 2009
I love laurel and hardy, they make a dull day bright! They were true stars...and i know they shine somewhere else, now. THANK you stan and olie, for giving us so many laughs!
janie (lancaster)
July, 7th 2009
Excellent website for our comedians duo, the greatest of all ages. Good job.
Hugh Lapeyre (Broward, FL)
July, 1st 2009
I have a signed picture of Laurel & Hardy, not in brilliant condition. What do you think it would be worth?
Janet Mooney (Southampton)
Hello Janet, you have a picture of Laurel & Hardy, do you want to sell it. Im a long time a fan and im interesting in the picture. Can you send me a email. thanks Rinus Joosen (Holland/Etten-leur)