Stan and Ollie: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy (Hardcover)

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Review
Over half a century since their high-water mark in the public consciousness, Stan Laurel (b. 1890) and Oliver Hardy (b. 1892) seem so unthinkable in isolation from one another that it comes as something of a surprise to find that they weren't childhood playmates. In fact the pair didn't meet until their mid-30s - both had 20-year professional careers behind them - when a Hollywood casting director had the bright idea of putting them together on film. They came, too, from wildly differing backgrounds - Hardy the son of a plantation overseer in the American South, Cumbrian-born Laurel (real name Stanley Jefferson) the progeny of a successful north-of-England theatre owner-cum-impresario. As Simon Louvish's entertaining and thoroughly exhaustive biography shows, the coupling realised a 20th-century comedy archetype: big fat man and short thin man embarked on slapstick misadventure. Like most major-league double acts, though, Laurel and Hardy managed to rise above the traditional idea of funny man and stooge: sketched in with unusual subtlety, their screen relationship was always capable of breaking out in unexpected ways. Even at an early stage it had the inherent dynamism necessary to survive the advent of the 'talkies' - their act had begun in the twilight of the silent era - which ended the careers of so many of their competitors. Always working at a terrific rate - a legacy of their apprenticeship in Hollywood's early antheap days - they spent a couple of decades at the top of the pile before failing health and changing comic styles brought a gentle decline in the 1950s. By this time they had entered into legend, and Louvish notes the enthusiastic crowds that greeted their farewell tours to the UK and Eire. Slightly on the long side, and occasionally overdoing the plot summaries, Stan and Ollie is nonetheless a warm, perceptive and highly readable study. Review by D J Taylor (Kirkus UK)

Product Description
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy both passed away almost 40 years ago, yet their films still have the power to reduce audiences old and new to helpless laughter. There has been no comprehensive account of their lives and work, until now. The roots of their comic greatness lay in nineteenth-century variety theatre. Lancashire-born Stan Laurel was steeped in the traditions of the music hall, and found himself touring the USA in the 1910s as Charlie Chaplin's understudy. American Oliver Hardy had established himself as a 'fat funny man' by the time he and Laurel were first paired in 1927. Laurel inspired Hardy to forge their famous double act, in which Laurel played the eternal comic fool, Hardy his temperamental master. Both men were devoted to their professional partnership, which outlasted multiple marriages. Stan and Ollie completes Louvish's trilogy of definitive biographies of the great clowns of screen comedy, following his books on W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers.

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10 Reviews 5 star:  (2) 4 star:  (5) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 3.8 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   21 of 21 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Laurel & Hardy biography a mixed bag, 2 Jan 2002 By  Steven Bailey "Cinemaven" (Jacksonville Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Simon Louvish's epic-length biography Stan and Ollie plays like one of those Laurel & Hardy comedies that were padded to feature-length by the inclusion of romantic leads nobody cares about. Like those movies, one has to wade through a lot of guff to get to the really good stuff. Louvish has done his research (as he all too eager to convince the reader), and it pays off most admirably when debunking previous tales of the Laurel & Hardy history. The most compelling example is the chapter detailing Oliver Hardy's first marriage. Hardy and film historians have long maintained that he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to pursue a film career, and there was where he met and married first wife Madelyn. Louvish detailingly reveals that Madelyn was in fact Jewish, that Hardy met her in Georgia at the time of an infamous Jewish lynching, and that Hardy and his wife exited Georgia as a result, never to return. Such dramatic payoffs are alone worth the price of the book. Louvish also often gleans much enlightened insight into Laurel & Hardy's film work (as well he should--Louvish in a part-time film teacher). To cite just one example, his analysis of the finale of L&H's penultimate Hal Roach film A Chump at Oxford is as insightful and moving as the finale itself. Along the way, though, the reader must endure the obstacle courses that plagued Louvish's previous bios of W.C. Fields and The Marx Brothers (both of which tomes are shamelessly plugged throughout this book)... For one thing, Louvish lards his writing with precious verbosity... My final complaint with the book is that when it gets into Laurel & Hardy at their prime, it quotes other, far superior sources (most notably Randy Skretvedt's) to the point of plagiarism. And even then, accuracy is not Louvish's strong suit. Louvish quotes a Skretvedt interview with Hal Roach in which Roach, by way of contrasting L&H with other comedy teams, states that "Abbott and Costello worked at our studio, and they used to fight like hell. But with Laurel and Hardy, when I fired Hardy, Laurel cried." This quote has almost as many errors as it has words: A&C *never* worked for Roach, and Roach *never* fired Hardy (Roach had Stan and Babe on concurrent, separate contracts and often suspended Laurel or let his contract lapse during certain disputes). For all of its faults, Louvish's genuine appreciation for Laurel and Hardy's comic artistry makes a considerable amount of Stan and Ollie worthwhile writing for the fervent L&H buff. Just make to sure to avoid Louvish's verbal land mines in order to reach the real meat of the book. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   14 of 15 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars absolute gem, 13 Sep 2003 By  Dennis E. Sisterson (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy (Paperback) I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't feel that the retelling of the plots of Stan and Ollie's movies was 'padding' at all; these were always interesting to read, especially those that covered films I hadn't seen for many years, or at all. When I finished the book I went straight back and re-read the first chapter on the history of clowns and music-hall, and enjoyed it twice as much having learnt where it led. It's unfortunate that there wasn't more anecdotal stuff about Stan and Ollie as people to make us feel a little closer to them; most of the biographical details cover their endless divorces and remarriages - but I shouldn't complain- it must have been far more tiresome for THEM. Of course Louvish speculates on parallels between the boys' films and their private lives but he is never tempted to over-intellectualise. His affection for his subject shines through and is contagious, and I left this book wanting to go back and re-view their films in a new light. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   14 of 15 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and informative but somewhat padded, 5 Mar 2003 By  Mr. D. Hazel "davidhazel" (Fareham, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy (Paperback) Simon Louvish has obviously done his homework when researching this book, and there is a lot of background information about the famous duo that I, as a big fan of theirs, found very interesting. However, I felt that there was no real need for the author to spend so much time re-telling the plots of so many of their films. There isn't much point doing this, except for films that have been lost; the films themselves outdo any re-telling by about a million light-years. I also felt that the author had a tendency to do a lot of psycho-analysis of the duo based on the films. I was not wholly convinced that the conclusions he came to when doing this were justified. Sometimes it seemed as though he was trying to detract from the duo (Stan in particular) in the way he slanted the analysis. This is an interesting and informative book, but the endless re-telling of plots makes it seem over-padded and slows the pace considerably, and the psycho-analysis often seems to say more about the author than it does about Stan or Ollie. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 10 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars The roots of comedy Once again bought for my Father at Xmas, excellent value, and again he's thoroughly enjoying reading about the duo. Published 5 months ago by Mrs. J. Haigh 4.0 out of 5 stars Dancing to the Ku-Ku Song By the time I was old enough to appreciate adult comedies shown on TV, i.e. in the late 50's, Oliver "Babe" Hardy was already dead (1957) and Stan Laurel was on the final... Read more Published on 22 April 2007 by Joseph Haschka 2.0 out of 5 stars A hollow account This book gave me some idea about the peaks and troughs in Laurel and Hardy's careers, but it felt a little hollow. Read more Published on 21 Mar 2007 by J. S. Dixon 4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable read With depressing regularity, there continues to be biographies hitting the market that appear to be more interested in sensationally demolishing deceased heroes than actually give... Read more Published on 12 Dec 2006 by A son of the desert. 4.0 out of 5 stars on the trail of the lonesome mimes The achievement of this book is to appreciate the cultural significance of L&H. Louvish sees that they are archetypes, true clowns or `imps of the perverse' as he puts it. Read more Published on 29 Sep 2006 by Gille Liath 3.0 out of 5 stars Contains some interesting bits but wait for the paperback Simon Louvish does gleen some interesting points about the duo, particularly their early years, but his writing style come across like a heavy lecture. Read more Published on 28 Jan 2002 4.0 out of 5 stars The best biography of the duo so far Louvish can be an irritating and somewhat self-congratulatory writer at times,but there's no doubting his enthusiasm for his subject(s),and he's produced a thorough and vivid... Read more Published on 30 Nov 2001 by Dale Mahrer(dalemahrer@hotmail... Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 10 customer reviews...

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