QFT.
Laurel and Hardy aren’t great, but they don’t make me seethe.
I wonder if the 2 famous pairs ever met in person?
A young Lou Costello can be seen as an extra in the Laurel & Hardy silent short The Battle of the Century, which is mostly a lost film, but the first reel (in which Costello appears) does still exist. It was on YouTube, but it seems to have been taken down.
This would have been in 1927, before Costello teamed with Abbott, and I don’t know how much contact a random extra would have had with Stan & Ollie–probably not much. But their paths did cross at least to that extent.
Interesting story, MrAtoz. I had never heard that. Thanks.
Your link actually says that the second reel has been found (in 2015); since it was a two-reeler, it’s no longer a lost film.
And that’s probably also why the youtube video has been taken down - if someone holds the copyright, and they’ve got the whole film, including the greatest pie fight in the history of slapstick, they’ve got something worth defending the rights for.
Thanks for pointing that out. Obviously there’s been a new discovery since the last time that I looked into it; I didn’t really read the wikipedia article beyond confirming that it mentioned Costello.
I’m not surprised that it was taken off YouTube, even if the complete film hadn’t been rediscovered. That happens all the time with films and TV shows that people don’t really have the legal right to upload.
When I was younger, it was A&C. However, there movies were played so much that I kind of burned out on them. It’s only recently I have started watching some of their movies and shows again and am really enjoying them.
L&H I saw much less frequently and because of that they may rank a bit higher.
As for which I prefer, I have to say it depends on my mood. I can say that in most cases, I’d take either rather than most of the comedy movies that come out these days.
Your right that they showed a lot more A&C on tv while L&H were pretty rare.
Other than March of the Wooden Soldiers every Thanksgiving local TV didn’t play much Laurel and Hardy. There was a lot of Abbott and Costello on and not much choice so I watched a lot of A&C. Looking back and with an eye towards the context of the time I would have to say Laurel & Hardy were vastly superior.
No contest. I loathe A&C. I grew up on L&H, and my dad did a perfect Stan Laurel imitation. *The Music Box *still cracks me up.
Oliver Hardy did get to make a movie with John Wayne…“The Fighting Kentuckian” in 1949.
Jackie Gleason said he used to drink with “Babe” Hardy and Hardy drank exactly like his movie character…exaggerated motion with his pinkie finger curled away from the glass.
Here’s a bit of a different angle - inspired by this thread, I searched around a bit, and found on YouTube a number of Abbot & Costello **radio *broadcasts from the 1940s (WWII era and a bit later). Their “Christmas Shopping” broadcast, for example, was actually pretty funny, maybe not ROFL level but still good for a decent number of chuckles (after remembering to adjust for gender stereotypes of the era - yes, A&C did encourage ladies to become army nurses in a PSA spot).
One recurring theme I noticed (and it may just be WWII-era meta humor), was their inability to keep their place in the script (often one of the duo would flub a line and the other would explicitly ask “lost your place” or equivalent - sometimes both of them would lose their places and have to wing it.).
Not sure if Laurel & Hardy did a regular radio show…well, I just checked, and apparently they made one pilot episode in 1944 called “Mr. Slater’s Poultry Market”. As one site stated “The premise of the series is a good one: each week, Stan and Ollie muck up a new job. But the plot of the only episode ever recorded, “Mr. Slater’s Poultry Market”, is pure Abbott & Costello” :smack:
*sponsored by Camels, who will send 400,000 cigarettes a week to our boys fighting overseas! I bet by the 1980s and 1990s when lots of those Vets developed lung cancer they weren’t too thrilled by that promotion.