SIDE ONE

1. Towed in a Hole (1933)

2_ The Private Life of Oliver the Eighth (1934)

3. One Good Tum (1931)

4. Scram (1932)

5. The Live Ghost (1934)

6. The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case (1930)

7. Pardon Us (1931)

8. Swiss Miss (1938)

9. The Fixer Uppers (1935)

10. Brats (1930)

11. The Private Life of Oliver the Eighth (1934)

SIDE TWO

1. Men '0 War (1929)

2. Come Clean (1931)

3. Twice Two (1933)

4. Their First Mistake (1932)

5. Beau Hunks (1931)

Edited by George M. Perrin

It is one of the blessings of our age that when Laurel and

Hardy, master pantomimists of the silent screen, came

into the world of sound movies in 1929, they made the

transition without strain - indeed with a sense of grace

utterly typical of their abilities as great clowns.

The sound track destroyed a number of Hollywood

careers almost overnight because the then amplification

of the human voice was merciless in its candor. Laurel

and Hardy (so Stan told me) didn't give the coming of

sound a thought. "We were just too busy making

pictures," he explained. In fact, both men had been using

their voices professionally from childhood . Stan

Laurel made his first appearance in English vaudeville

at the age of 16, and for twenty years thereafter he

toured many countries as a singer-comedian. Oliver

Norvell Hardy, Georgia-born, appeared on Southern

minstrel stages at the age of eight as a singer, and

throughout his long film career (which began in 1913)

he sang "straight" and comedy ballads in his pleasantly

resonant tenor.

By 1925 both Laurel and Hardy were employed at the

Hal Roach studios in California - Laurel as a director

and gag man, Hardy as a comic villain or "heavy", Laurel

had given up performing - the rigors of vaudeville

having left their scars. Hardy was regarded at the studio

as a good if not inspired performer. It was Leo

McCarey, then production head for Hal Roach, who

first conceived of teaming thin , red-haired Stan and rotund,

oracular Ollie, with the result in 1926 of the first

official Laurel and Hardy film, Putting Pants on Philip.

The team broke up only at Hardy's death in 1957.

In this well-crafted recording, you will hear a variegated

selection of typical Laurel and Hardy nonsense from

some of their best films. It is a tribute to their essential

genius that these two highly visual comedians are able

to delight us with just the sound of their voices. Just

another deep debt we owe Mr. Edison.

JOHN McCABE

Author of “Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy", and author-in-residence at Lake

Superior State College. Sault Ste. Marie. Michigan.