Selling Laughter: Laurel and Hardy’s Forgotten Fame
Inside "Promotional Pandemonium," a book packed with rare images, film history, and merchandising gold
Written by Mark SladePromotional Pandemonium! – Selling Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to Depression-Era America Book One – The Hal Roach Studios Features by Richard S. Greene.
How many people remember Laurel and Hardy?
If you asked that question to anyone under thirty, chances are no one that age would know. Authors like Richard S. Greene is out to remedy the cultural divide. Greene has gifted the public a treasure trove of information on the legendary comic duo.
There’s a profusion of photos, lobby card art, posters, advertising for different products, behind the scenes images from their features, etc. so much information, it’s overwhelming, in a good way. Along the way, Greene also clears up some misgivings about Laurel and Hardy’s relationship. Apparently, they got along swimmingly. It was Hal Roach and Stan Laurel that butted heads over many things, money, production of the films, scripts…you name it, they fought over it.
When it came to “Babe” (Hardy’s nickname) and Stan’s relationship, it was more than business. The two really enjoyed working together. And Hardy never minded taking a backseat to Laurel’s creativity. Laurel was a workaholic. Whereas Babe loved to play golf. Laurel definitely took control of things, had a hand in scripts, stories, costumes, how the films should be shot, and the casting. He worked closely with their writers coming up with gags.
In Greene’s book, we also get a film guide of sorts. He reviews each film with essays, gives behind the scenes look. He discusses the duo’s costars, directors, locations, and Roach’s approach to production. Just because Greene was a super fan of the Duo, doesn’t mean he let’s off the hook for poor quality films, or letting the audience know certain stories and gags were borrowed from previous short films.
The book is divided into sections, and each chapter is an essay on the films. My favorite part of the book is the Merchandise section. Who knew that Laurel and Hardy were one of the first celebrities to promote Nestle Crunch bar for the film “The Chump at Oxford”?
There’s photos of Laurel and Hardy salt and pepper shakers, the puzzle from Nineteen thirty-four “The Movie Moods game” with the tagline: “An Animated Game for Everybody”. There were trading cards, Postcards, Magazines, and of course the Comic books.
As wonderful and informative as Greene’s writing is, the real star of this book are the multitudes of photographs and art the Author had collected or borrowed. More than seven hundred and fifty images.
Believe or not, this four hundred page book is only volume one. As Greene promises throughout the book, volume two will focus more on the Dou’s short films and comic books. It’s an astounding bit of nostalgia collected in a precise factual account of one of comedy’s greatest teams. A piece of American cinematic history that should not be forgotten, and hopefully, and in thanks to Richard S. Greene, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy won’t be lost to coming generations.
