Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel was an English actor, comedian, director and writer who was in the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, and developed his skills in pantomime and music-hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's London Comedians", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. He appeared with his comic partner Oliver Hardy in the film short The Lucky Dog in 1921, although they did not become an official team until late 1927. He then appeared exclusively with Hardy until retiring after his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In April 1961, at the 33rd Academy Awards, Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laurel and Hardy were ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians' Comedian. In 2019, Laurel topped a list of the greatest British comedians compiled by a panel on the television channel Gold. In 2009, a bronze statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurel's hometown of Ulverston.

Early life

Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born on 16 June 1890 in his grandparents' house in Ulverston, Lancashire, to Arthur J. Jefferson, an actor and theatre manager from Bishop Auckland, and Margaret, an actress from Ulverston. He was one of five children. One of them was Edward, an actor who appeared in four of Stan's short films.
His parents were very active in the theatre, frequently travelling around the country. Consequently, Laurel, who was too young to travel, lived in Ulverston with his grandparents, George and Sarah Metcalfe, for the first seven years of his life. He became very familiar with Ulverston. He attended services with his religious grandparents at Holy Trinity Church, which is close to Argyle Street and is where his parents were married. He was fond of Beer's treacle toffee from Gillam's general store on Market Street. Laurel remembered the treat in later life, writing to family in England in January 1950:

I used to go shopping on Market Street with Grandma Metcalfe - that was a big treat for me. Beers Treacle toffee, it sure was good!

Laurel, who had a lifelong love of fishing, used to take a rod to Ulverston's canal, learning from his uncle John Shaw. His favourite place was beyond the old North Lonsdale Iron and Steel Company Ltd, close to his home in Argyle Street. Just behind him was the viaduct carrying the railway from Carnforth. Laurel in later years would recall swinging on a pair of lock gates on the canal as he waited for a bite on his line.
During these fishing expeditions, Laurel would have passed Ulverston's cemetery, where he was impressed by a miniature lighthouse memorial built in memory of Dr Thomas Watkins Wilson. The lighthouse memorial, which is still there today, had a light at the top that was once lit 24 hours a day. The lighthouse memorial was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1996. In 1932, Laurel was being interviewed by a Daily Herald reporter and as they looked up at his name in lights above a theatre in London's Leicester Square, he said:

Looks great but kind of wasteful, but you should see the lighthouse in the graveyard at Ulverston in Lancashire where I was born. They put it up when I was a kid, a tombstone with a light on top. It was the Eighth Wonder of the World to me. Ever since then it's been my ambition to have a tombstone like that.

Laurel went on frequent excursions from Ulverston railway station into the Lake District with his cousins, grandparents and sometimes his parents. They visited his aunt and uncle John and Nant Shaw when they ran grocery shops, first at Flookburgh, and later Sawrey. Another favourite place to visit was the lake at Windermere.
Laurel had his first taste of the theatre in Ulverston. The Hippodrome theatre, known as Spencer's Gaff, was just across the road from his home, in Lightburn Park. The theatre was like a giant tent, made from wood with a canvas roof. Laurel's parents both trod the boards here and his father A. J. developed some of the plays he would later become known for here. The Hippodrome burnt down in 1910, the year Laurel sailed for America with the Fred Karno troupe. Laurel visited Ulverston with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy on Tuesday 27 May 1947 at the invitation of the town's urban council. The comedians were given a civic reception at the Coronation Hall and Laurel was presented with a copy of his birth certificate on the hall's balcony, watched on by hundreds of fans. Laurel and Hardy then visited 3 Argyle Street for a tour of Laurel's former home, posing for the North West Evening Mail's photographer as they emerged from the house, crowded by fans and well-wishers. The comedy duo were appearing at Morecambe's Winter Gardens at the time.
Later, Laurel spent much time living with his maternal grandmother, Sarah Metcalfe in North Shields. He attended school at King James I Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the King's School in Tynemouth, Northumberland.
He moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Queen's Park Secondary School and Rutherglen Academy, now known as Stonelaw High School. Later his father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel first worked. His boyhood hero was Dan Leno, considered one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural affinity for the theatre, Laurel gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow at the age of sixteen, where he polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. It was the music hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat and nonsensical understatement.
Laurel joined music hall impresario Fred Karno's troupe of actors in 1910 with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson"; the troupe, advertised as "Fred Karno's London Comedians", also included a young Charlie Chaplin. Under the tutelage of Karno, the music hall nurtured him, and in England he acted as Chaplin's understudy for some time. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. During the First World War, Laurel registered for military service in America on 5 June 1917, as required under the Selective Service Act. He was not called up; his registration card states his status as resident alien and his deafness as exemptions.
In 1912 Laurel worked together with Ted Desmond on tour in Netherlands and Belgium as a comedy double act known as the Barto Bros. Their act, which involved them dressing as Romans, finished when Laurel was offered a spot in an American touring troupe.
The Karno troupe broke up in the spring of 1914. Stan joined with two other former Karno performers, Edgar Hurley and his wife Ethel to form "The Three Comiques". On the advice of booking agent Gordon Bostock, they called themselves "the Keystone Trio". Stan started to do his character as an imitation of Charlie Chaplin, and the Hurleys began to do their parts as silent comedians Chester Conklin and Mabel Normand. They played successfully from February through October 1915, until the Hurleys and Stan parted ways. Between 1916 and 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became his lifelong friends, to form the Stan Jefferson Trio.
File:Frauds and Frenzies06.jpg|thumb|upright|One year after launching his film career, Laurel became the co-star of Frauds and Frenzies with Larry Semon.
Amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in the silent film short The Lucky Dog, before the two were a team. It was around this time that Laurel met actress Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time, he adopted the stage name of Laurel at Dahlberg's suggestion that his stage name Stan Jefferson was unlucky, due to it having thirteen letters. The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75 a week to star in two-reel comedies. After making his first film Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films in which Dahlberg and Laurel appeared together was the 1922 parody Mud and Sand.
By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had an unusual stipulation: Dahlberg was not to appear in the films. Rock thought her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, she interfered with Laurel's work, and Rock offered her a cash settlement with a one-way ticket to her native Australia, which she accepted. The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up, Detained, Monsieur Don't Care, West of Hot Dog, Somewhere in Wrong, Twins, Pie-Eyed, The Snow Hawk, Navy Blue Days, The Sleuth, Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde and Half a Man. Laurel was credited for directing or co-directing ten silent shorts, but appeared in none of these. Laurel's future partner Hardy, however, did appear in three of the shorts directed by Laurel: Yes, Yes, Nanette!, Wandering Papas and Madame Mystery.