Quercus
May 2018
On Sale: May 1, 2018
Featuring: Stan Laurel; Oliver Hardy; Hal Roach
464 pages ISBN: 1635060575 EAN: 9781635060577 Kindle: B076ZFTQCY Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
When Stan Laurel was paired with Oliver Hardy,
affectionately known as Babe, the history of comedy--not
to mention their personal and professional lives--would be
altered forever.
Laurel followed in the wake of Charlie Chaplin, who blazed
a trail from the vaudeville stages of England to the
dynamic, if often seedy and highly volatile, movie studios
of Los Angeles in the early 20th century. Awed like
everyone else by Chaplin's genius (and ambition and
cruelty), Laurel despaired of ever finding his own path to
success--or happiness.
But success and happiness did find Laurel, following the
inspired decision by impresario Hal Roach to put him and
Oliver Hardy together on screen. Initially a calculated
marriage of opposites in an era of highly disposable short
films, the partnership bloomed into a professional and
personal relationship of lifelong depth.
Eventually, Laurel became one of the greatest screen
comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both
adoration and humiliation; who loved, and was loved in
turn; who betrayed, and was betrayed; who never sought to
cause pain to anyone else, yet left a trail of affairs and
broken marriages in his wake.
And whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship
of such astonishing tenderness and devotion that only
death could sever their profound connection.
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