The Lamb
Seena Owen, Douglas Fairbanks in The Lamb
Directed by	Christy Cabanne
Produced by	Fine Arts Film Company
Written by	1.Bronson Howard, 2. Winchell Smith, 3.Victor Mapes (play:The New Henrietta) ----------- Granville Barker Christy Cabanne (screenplay)
Starring	Douglas Fairbanks, Sr Seena Owen
Music by	Joseph Carl Breil
Cinematography	William Fildew
Distributed by	Triangle Film Corporation
Release date(s)	September 23, 1915(premiere) November 7, 1915(nationwide)
Running time	5 reels
Country	United States
Language	Silent film

The Lamb is a 1915 silent film that was Douglas Fairbanks's first starring role in a film. Fairbanks apparently played an extra or warm up part in Martyrs of the Alamo before releasing The Lamb. Surviving stills of The Lamb show Fairbanks at one point as an Indian brave in a near state of nudity. The Lamb was directed by Christy Cabanne and is preserved at the George Eastman House, Rochester New York.^{[1] [2]}

The genesis of this film comes from a popular 1913 Broadway play called The New Henrietta, in which Douglas Fairbanks co starred with William H. Crane, Amelia Bingham and a very young Patricia Collinge. D. W. Griffith, writing as Granville Barker, along with director Christy Cabanne essentially expanded the play beyond the plush nouveau riche apartment setting of the play and provided a western element to the story. This would give Fairbanks a chance to show his physical prowess cinematically and loosen the play from what would be stage bound constraints. Also Griffith altered characters ie Fairbanks in the film is called Gerald with his parent being his mother(Kate Toncray) , whereas in the play he was called Nick with his parent being his father played by Crane.^{[3] [4]}

Cast[link]

• Douglas Fairbanks - Gerald
• Seena Owen - Mary
• William Lowery - Yaqui Indian Chief (*billed William E. Lowery)
• Lillian Langdon - Mary's Monther
• Monroe Salisbury - Mary's Cousin
• Kate Toncray - Gerald's Mother
• Alfred Paget - Bill Cactus
• Eagle Eye - Yaqui Indian Chief

unbilled

• Tom Kennedy - White Hopeless
• Julia Faye - Woman(*uncredited)
• Charles Stevens - Lieutenant(*uncredited)
• Mary Thurman - extra role (*uncredited)

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Lamb at IMDb.com
• The Lamb; allrovi.com/ synopsis

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

"The Lamb" is a poem by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789. Like many of Blake's works, the poem is about Christianity.

Background[link]

Blake's illustration of "The Lamb"

Like the other Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Lamb was intended to be sung; William Blake's original melody is now lost. It was made into a song by Vaughan Williams. It was also set to music by Sir John Tavener, who explained, "The Lamb came to me fully grown and was written in an afternoon and dedicated to my nephew Simon for his 3rd birthday." American poet Allen Ginsberg set the poem to music, along with several other of Blake's poems.^[1]

The Lamb can be compared to a more grandiose Blake poem: The Tyger in Songs of Experience.

The lamb is a common metaphor for Jesus Christ, who is also called the "The Lamb of God" in John 1:29.^[2]

Poetic structure[link]

This poem has a simple rhyme scheme : AA BB CC DD AA AA EF GG FE AA

The layout is set up by two stanzas with the refrain: "Little Lamb who made thee?/Dost thou know who made thee?"

In the first stanza, the speaker wonders who the lamb's creator is; the answer lies at the end of the poem. Here we find a physical description of the lamb, seen as a pure and gentle creature. In the second stanza, the lamb is compared with the infant Jesus, as well as between the lamb and the speaker's soul. In the last two lines the speaker identifies the creator: God.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Songs of Innocence and Experience (which includes The Lamb) at Project Gutenberg

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Lamb

This article related to a poem from the UK is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Joseph Lamb, ca. 1915

"The Top Liner Rag", from 1916.

Joseph Francis Lamb (December 6, 1887 – September 3, 1960) was a noted American composer of ragtime music. Lamb, of Irish descent, was the only non-African American of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime, the other two being Scott Joplin and James Scott.

Life and Career[link]

Lamb was born in Montclair, New Jersey. The youngest of four children, he taught himself to play the piano, and was very taken with the early ragtime publications of Scott Joplin. He dropped out of St. Jerome's College in 1904 to work for a dry goods company. In 1907 Lamb was purchasing the latest Joplin and James Scott sheet music in the New York City offices of John Stark & Son when he met his idol Joplin. Joplin was favorably impressed with Lamb's compositions, and recommended him to classical ragtime publisher John Stark. Stark published Lamb's music for the next decade, starting with "Sensation".

Lamb’s twelve rags published by Stark from 1908 to 1919 can be divided into two groups. A) The “heavy” rags which are incorporated with Scott Joplin’s melody –dominated style and James Scott’s expansive use of the keyboard registers. This style of rags includes

• "Ethiopia Rag" (1909)
• "Excelsior Rag" (1909)
• "American Beauty Rag" (1913)
• "Ragtime Nightingale" (1915)
• "The Top Liner Rag" (1916)

B) The “light” rags which have the cakewalk tradition show the narrow-range melodies inspired by Joplin. This style of rags includes

• "Champagne Rag" (1910)
• "Cleopatra Rag" (1915)
• "Reindeer : Ragtime Two Step" (1915)
• "Bohemia Rag" (1919)
• "Contentment Rag" (1915) and "Patricia Rag" (1916) have both characteristics of “heavy” rags and “light” rags.

Lamb’s works show individual stylistic traits. First, he uses sequence for development purposes. Second, he emphasizes on the harmonic sonority of the diminished seventh with upper-neighbor appoggiatura. His contributions to the ragtime literature also show his unique traits. He used a great diversity of texture for all of his rags. In addition, Lamb surpassed ragtime’s usual four-measure phrase structure.^[1]

In 1911, Lamb married Henrietta Schultz and moved to Brooklyn, New York. He worked as an arranger for the J. Fred Helf Music Publishing Company and later, starting in April 1914, as an accountant for L. F. Dommerich & Company.

Henrietta died of influenza in 1920, about the same time that popular music interest shifted from ragtime to jazz. Lamb stopped publishing his music, playing and composing only as a hobby. "Bohemia Rag" was the last Lamb rag published before his death in 1960. That same year, his album, Joseph Lamb: A Study in Classic Ragtime, was released by Folkways Records.^[2]

With the revival of interest in ragtime in the 1950s, Lamb shared his memories of Joplin and other early ragtime figures with music historians. (Many were surprised to find that not only was he still living, but that he was white.) He also composed some new rags, brought out some of his old compositions that had never been published, and made some recordings.

Lamb died in Brooklyn of a heart attack at age 72.

Unpublished Rags During His Lifetime[link]

Rags that remained unpublished at the time of his death included:

• "Alabama Rag"
• "Alaskan Rag"
• "Arctic Sunset"
• "Bee Hive"
• "Bird-Brain Rag"
• "Blue Grass Rag"
• "Chasin' the Chippies"
• "Cottontail Rag"
• "Firefly Rag"
• "Good and Plenty Rag"
• "Greased Lightning"
• "Hot Cinders"
• "Jersey Rag"
• "Joe Lamb's Old Rag"
• "The Old Home Rag"
• "Ragged Rapids Rag"
• "Ragtime Bobolink"
• "Ragtime Special"
• "Rapid Transit Rag"
• "Thoroughbred Rag"
• "Toad Stool Rag"
• "Walper House Rag"

References[link]

• Jasen, David A.; Trebor Jay Tichenor (1978). Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.. pp. 122–133. ISBN 0-486-25922-6. 

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joseph Lamb

• "Patricia Lamb Conn: Connecting with Ragtime's Glory Days" - reminiscences of Lamb's daughter, with family photographs.
• "Perfessor" Bill Edwards plays many Lamb rags, with stories.
• Article: "Joseph Lamb: The Humble Ragtime 'Sensation'" by Ted Tjaden
• Lamb and his compositions on grainger.de
• Photo of Joseph Lamb
• An episode of A Prairie Home Companion featuring the music of Lamb, with a biography as told by Garrison Keillor
• Joseph F. Lamb - A Passion for Ragtime - biography 2012
• Joseph Lamb at Find a Grave
• Free scores by Joseph Lamb at the International Music Score Library Project

Douglas Fairbanks,Sr.
in Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
Born	Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (1883-05-23)May 23, 1883 Denver, Colorado
Died	December 12, 1939(1939-12-12) (aged 56) Santa Monica, California
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1915–1934
Spouse	Anna Beth Sully (m.1907-1919; divorced) Mary Pickford (m.1920-1936; divorced) Sylvia Ashley (m.1936-1939; his death)
Children	Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1909–2000)

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer.^[1] He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro.

An astute businessman, Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood",^[2] a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. His career rapidly declined with the advent of the "talkies".

Early life[link]

Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (spelled "Ulman" by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in his memoirs) in Denver, Colorado, the son of H. Charles Ullman (born September 15, 1833) and Ella Adelaide Marsh (born 1847). He had a half-brother, John Fairbanks, Jr. (born 1873), and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman (March 13, 1882 – February 22, 1948).

Douglas Fairbanks' father, Hezekiah Charles Ullman (1833–1915), was born in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania. but raised in Williamsport. He was the fourth child in a relatively well-to-do Jewish family of six sons and four daughters. Charles' parents, Lazarus Ullman and Lydia Abrahams, had immigrated to the U.S. in 1830 from Baden Germany. When he was 17, Charles started a small publishing business in Philadelphia. Two years later he left for New York to study law. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1856 and began building a substantial practice. At the onset of the Civil War, Charles joined the Union forces. He engaged in several battles, was wounded, and later became a captain of the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves. Charles left the service in 1864 and returned to his law practice. Subsequently he founded the U.S. Law Association, a forerunner of the American Bar Association.

Charles met Ella Adelaide Marsh (1847–1915) after she married his friend and client John Fairbanks, a wealthy New Orleans sugar mill and plantation owner. The Fairbankses had a son, John, and shortly thereafter John Senior died of tuberculosis. Ella, born into a wealthy southern Catholic family, was overprotected and knew little of her husband's business. Consequently, she was swindled out of her fortune by her husband's partners. Even the efforts of Charles Ullman, acting on her behalf, failed to regain any of the family fortune for her. Distraught and lonely, she met and married a courtly Georgian, Edward Wilcox, who turned out to be an alcoholic. After they had a son, Norris, she divorced Wilcox, and Charles acted as her lawyer in the suit. The pretty southern belle soon became romantically involved with Charles and agreed to move to Denver with him to pursue mining investments. They arrived in Denver in 1881 with her son, John. (Norris was left in Georgia with relatives and was never sent for by his mother.) They were married and had a child, Robert, in 1882, and then a second son, Douglas, a year later. Charles purchased several mining interests in the Rocky Mountains and he re-established his law practice. Charles Ullman abandoned the family when Douglas was five years old, however, and he and his older brother Robert were brought up by their mother, who gave them the family name Fairbanks, after her first husband.

Early career[link]

Douglas Fairbanks began acting on the Denver stage at an early age, doing amateur theatre. He was in summer stock at the Elitch Gardens Theatre, becoming a sensation in his teens. He attended Denver East High School, and was once expelled for dressing up the campus statues on St. Patrick's Day. He left during his senior year. He said he attended Colorado School of Mines for a term but no record of attendance has been found. An article on the matter recounts a professor once saying Fairbanks was asked to leave because of a prank not long after he began. It is also claimed he attended Harvard University. Fairbanks moved to New York in the early 1900s to pursue an acting career, joining the acting troupe of British actor Frederick Warde who had discovered Fairbanks performing in Denver. He worked in a hardware store and as a clerk in a Wall Street office before his Broadway debut in 1902.

On July 11, 1907 in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, he married Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of wealthy industrialist, Daniel J. Sully. They had one son, Douglas Elton Fairbanks, who later became known as actor "Douglas Fairbanks Jr.". The family moved to Hollywood, California in 1915.

Hollywood[link]

D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin (seated) and Douglas Fairbanks at the signing of the contract establishing United Artists motion picture studio in 1919. Lawyers Albert Banzhaf (left) and Dennis F. O'Brien (right) stand in the background.

Fairbanks signed a contract with Triangle Pictures in 1915 and began working under the supervision of D.W. Griffith. His first film was titled The Lamb, and in the film, he debuted his remarkable athletic abilities that would gain wide attention among theatre audiences.^[3]

His athleticism was not appreciated by Griffith, however, and he was brought to the attention of Anita Loos and John Emerson, who wrote and directed many of his early romantic comedies. In 1916, Fairbanks established his own company, the Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation,^[4] and would soon get a job at Paramount.^[4] By 1918, Fairbanks was Hollywood's most popular actor;^[5] within eighteen months of his arrival, Fairbanks' popularity and business acumen raised him up to be the third highest paid.

Fairbanks speaking in front of a crowd at a 1918 war bond drive in New York City

Fairbanks met actress Mary Pickford at a party in 1916 and they began an affair. In 1917, the couple joined Fairbanks' friend Charlie Chaplin^[3] selling war bonds by train across the U.S. Pickford and Chaplin were then the two highest paid film stars in Hollywood. To curtail these stars' astronomical salaries, the large studios attempted to monopolise distributors and exhibitors.

Sully was granted a divorce from Fairbanks in late 1918, the judgement being finalized in early 1919.

To avoid being controlled by the studios and to protect their independence, Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith formed United Artists in 1919, which created their own distributorships and gave them complete artistic control over their films and the profits generated. The company was kept solvent in the years immediately after its formation largely from the success of Fairbanks' films.

The Mark of Zorro

Fairbanks was determined to have Pickford become his wife, but she was still married to actor Owen Moore. He finally gave her an ultimatum. She then obtained a fast divorce in the small Nevada town of Minden, Nevada, on March 2, 1920. Fairbanks leased the Beverly Hills mansion Grayhall and was rumoured to have used it during his courtship of Pickford.

The couple married on March 28, 1920. Pickford's divorce from Moore was contested by Nevada legislators, however, and the dispute was not settled until 1922. Even though the lawmakers objected to the marriage, the public went wild over the idea of "Everybody's Hero" marrying "America's Sweetheart". They were greeted by large crowds in London and Paris during their European honeymoon, becoming Hollywood's first celebrity couple.

During the years they were married, Fairbanks and Pickford were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty," famous for entertaining at their Beverly Hills estate, Pickfair.

Douglas Fairbanks in the title role in Robin Hood (1922).

By 1920, Fairbanks had completed twenty-nine films (twenty-eight features and one two-reel short), which showcased his ebullient screen persona and athletic ability. By 1920, he had the inspiration of staging a new type of adventure-costume picture, a genre that was then out of favor with the public; Fairbanks had previously been a comic in his other films.^[2] In The Mark of Zorro, Fairbanks combined his appealing screen persona with the new adventurous, costume element. It was a smash success and parlayed the actor into the rank of superstar. For the remainder of his career in silent films, he continued to produce and star in ever more elaborate, impressive costume films, such as The Three Musketeers (1921), Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Black Pirate (1926, the first full-length Technicolor film), and The Gaucho (1927). Fairbanks spared no expense and effort in these films, which established the standard for all future swashbuckling films.

In 1921, he, Pickford, Chaplin, and others, helped to organize the Motion Picture Fund to assist those in the industry who could not work, or were unable to meet their bills.

During the first ceremony of its type, he and Pickford placed their hand and foot prints in wet cement at the newly opened Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on April 30, 1927. Fairbanks was elected first President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences that same year, and he presented the first Academy Awards at the Roosevelt Hotel. Fairbanks also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard.

His last silent film was the lavish The Iron Mask (1929), a sequel to 1921's The Three Musketeers which included an introductory prologue spoken by Fairbanks. While Fairbanks had flourished in the silent genre, the restrictions of early sound films dulled his enthusiasm for film-making. Also, his athletic abilities and general health began to decline, in part due to years of heavy chain-smoking. Hollywood panicked by the impending arrival of the talkies. On 29 March, 1929 at the bungalow of Pickford at United Artists brought together Pickford, Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, D.W. Griffith and Dolores del Rio to speak on the radio show The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove he could meet the challenge of talking movies. ^[6]

He and Pickford chose to make their first talkie as a joint venture, playing Petruchio and Kate in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1929). This film, and his subsequent sound films, were poorly received by Depression era audiences. The last film he acted in was the British production The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), after which he retired from acting.

Final years[link]

Fairbanks' tomb at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Fairbanks and Pickford separated in 1933, after he began an affair with Sylvia, Lady Ashley. They divorced in 1936, with Pickford keeping the Pickfair estate. Within months Fairbanks and Ashley were married in Paris.

He continued to be marginally involved in the film industry and United Artists, but his later years lacked the intense focus of his film years. His health continued to decline, and in his final years he lived at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California, although much of his time was spent traveling abroad with Sylvia.

In December 1939, at 56, Fairbanks had a heart attack in his sleep and died a day later at his home in Santa Monica. By some accounts^{[citation needed]}, he had been obsessively working out against medical advice, trying to regain his once-trim waistline. Fairbanks's famous last words were, "I've never felt better."^[7] His funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery where he was placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum. He was deeply mourned and honored by his colleagues and fans for his contributions to the film industry and Hollywood.

Two years following his death, he was removed from Forest Lawn by his widow, who commissioned an elaborate marble monument for him featuring a long rectangular reflecting pool, raised tomb, and classic Greek architecture in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. The monument was dedicated in a ceremony held in October 1941, with Fairbanks' close friend Charles Chaplin reading a remembrance. The remains of his son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., were also interred here upon his death in 2000.

Legacy[link]

Reissue poster for 1916 cocaine comedy

In 1998, a group of Fairbanks fans started the Douglas Fairbanks Museum in Austin, Texas. The museum building was temporarily closed for mold remediation and repairs in February 2010.^[8] Plans and fundraising efforts are underway to re-open the museum to the public. In the meantime an online virtual museum project makes parts of the collections and past exhibits available for viewing on the museum's website.^[9]

In 2002, AMPAS opened the "Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study" located at 333 S. La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The building houses the Margaret Herrick Library.^[10]

On January 24, 2009, AMPAS opened an exhibition at their Fourth Floor Gallery dedicated to Fairbanks titled, "Douglas Fairbanks: The First King of Hollywood". The exhibit featured costumes, props, pictures, and documents from his career and personal life. The exhibit ran until April 2009.^[11] In addition to the exhibit, AMPAS screened Thief of Bagdad and The Iron Mask in March 2009. Recently, due to his involvement with the USC Fencing Club, a bronze statue of Fairbanks was erected in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Courtyard of the new School of Cinematic Arts building on the University of Southern California campus. Fairbanks was a key figure in the film school's founding in 1929, and in its curriculum development.

The 2011 film The Artist was loosely based on Fairbanks, with the film's lead portraying Zorro in a silent movie featuring a scene from the Fairbanks version. While thanking the audience in 2012 for a Golden Globe award as Best Actor for his performance in the film, actor Jean Dujardin added, "As Douglas Fairbanks would say," then moved his lips silently as a comedic homage. When Dujardin accepted the 2012 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Fairbanks was cited at length as the main inspiration for Dujardin's performance in The Artist.

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Takeichi Nishi

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Douglas Fairbanks

• Douglas Fairbanks at the Internet Movie Database
• Douglas Fairbanks at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Douglas Fairbanks Museum
• AFI Catalog Silent Films entry for Douglas Fairbanks
• Works by Douglas Fairbanks at Project Gutenberg
• Douglas Fairbanks(exclusively a stage star in 1910); PeriodPaper.com

Oliver Hardy
File:Oliver hardy.png
Born	Norvell Hardy (1892-01-18)January 18, 1892 Harlem, Georgia
Died	August 7, 1957(1957-08-07) (aged 65) North Hollywood, California
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1914-1955
Spouse	Madelyn Saloshin (m.1913-1921; divorced) Myrtle Reeves (m.1921-1937; divorced) Virginia Lucille Jones (m.1940-1957; his death)
Signature

Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892 - August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.

Early life[link]

Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia. His father, Oliver, was a Confederate veteran wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. After his demobilization as a recruiting officer for Company K, 16th Georgia Regiment, the elder Oliver Hardy assisted his father in running the vestiges of the family cotton plantation, bought a share in a retail business and was elected full-time Tax Collector for Columbia County. His mother, Emily Norvell, the daughter of Thomas Benjamin Norvell and Mary Freeman, was descended from Captain Hugh Norvell of Williamsburg, Virginia. Her family arrived in Virginia before 1635. Their marriage took place on March 12, 1890; it was the second marriage for the widow Emily, and the third for Oliver. He was of paternal English American descent and maternal Scottish American descent.

The family moved to Madison in 1891, before Norvell’s birth. Norvell’s mother owned a house in Harlem, which was either empty or tenanted by her mother. It is probable that Norvell was born in Harlem, though some sources say it was in his mother’s home town, Covington. His father died less than a year after his birth. Hardy was the youngest of five children. A traumatic moment in his life was the death of his brother Sam Hardy in a drowning accident in the Oconee River. Hardy pulled his brother from the river but was unable to resuscitate him.^[1] As a child, Hardy was sometimes difficult. He was sent to Georgia Military College in Milledgeville as a youngster. In the 1905/1906 school year, fall semester (September–January), when he was 13, Hardy was sent to Young Harris College in north Georgia. However, he was in the junior high component of that institution (the equivalent of high school today), not the two-year college which exists today.

He had little interest in education, although he acquired an early interest in music and theater, possibly from his mother’s tenants. He joined a theatrical group, and later ran away from a boarding school near Atlanta to sing with the group. His mother recognized his talent for singing, and sent him to Atlanta to study music and voice with singing teacher Adolf Dahm-Petersen, but Hardy skipped some of his lessons to sing in the Alcazar Theater, a cinema, for US$3.50 a week. He subsequently decided to go back to Milledgeville.

Sometime prior to 1910, Hardy began styling himself "Oliver Norvell Hardy", with the first name “Oliver” being added as a tribute to his father. He appeared as “Oliver N. Hardy” in the 1910 U.S. census,^{[N 1]} and in all subsequent legal records, marriage announcements, etc., Hardy used “Oliver” as his first name.

Hardy’s mother wanted him to attend the University of Georgia in the fall of 1912, to study law, but there is no evidence as to whether he did.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

In 1910, a movie theater opened in Hardy’s home town of Milledgeville, Georgia, and he became the projectionist, ticket taker, janitor and manager. He soon became obsessed with the new motion picture industry, and became convinced that he could do a better job than the actors he saw on the screen. A friend suggested that he move to Jacksonville, Florida, where some films were being made. In 1913, he did just that, where he worked as a cabaret and vaudeville singer at night, and at the Lubin Manufacturing Company during the day. It was at this time that he met and married his first wife, pianist Madelyn Saloshin.

The next year he made his first movie, Outwitting Dad, for the Lubin studio. He was billed as O. N. Hardy, taking his father’s name as a memorial. In his personal life, he was known as “Babe” Hardy, a nickname that he was given by an Italian barber, who would apply talcum powder to Oliver’s cheeks and say, “nice-a-bab-y.” In many of his later films at Lubin, he was billed as “Babe Hardy.” Hardy was a big man at six feet, one inch tall and weighed up to 300 pounds. His size placed limitations on the roles he could play. He was most often cast as “the heavy” or the villain. He also frequently had roles in comedy shorts, his size complementing the character.

Lobby card for The Lucky Dog (1921) Laurel sits as Hardy holds him down, with Jack Lloyd (right)

By 1915, he had made 50 short one-reeler films at Lubin. He later moved to New York and made films for the Pathé, Casino and Edison Studios. He then returned to Jacksonville and made films for the Vim Comedy Company, until that studio closed its doors after Hardy discovered the owners were stealing from the payroll.^[2] He then worked for the King Bee studio after they bought Vim. He worked with Charlie Chaplin imitator Billy West and comedic actress Ethel Burton Palmer during this time. (Hardy continued playing the “heavy” for West well into the early 1920s, often imitating Eric Campbell to West’s Chaplin.) In 1917, Oliver Hardy moved to Los Angeles, working freelance for several Hollywood studios. Later that year, he appeared in the movie The Lucky Dog, produced by G.M. (“Broncho Billy”) Anderson and starring a young British comedian named Stan Laurel.^[3] Oliver Hardy played the part of a robber, trying to stick up Stan’s character. They did not work together again for several years.

Between 1918 and 1923, Oliver Hardy made more than forty films for Vitagraph, mostly playing the “heavy” for Larry Semon. In 1919, he separated from his wife, ending with a divorce in 1920, allegedly due to Hardy’s infidelity. The very next year, on November 24, 1921, Hardy married again, to actress Myrtle Reeves. This marriage was also unhappy and Myrtle eventually became an alcoholic.^{[citation needed]}

In 1924, Hardy began working at Hal Roach Studios working with the Our Gang films and Charley Chase. In 1925, he starred as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Also that year he was in the film, Yes, Yes, Nanette!, starring Jimmy Finlayson, who in later years would be a recurring actor in the Laurel and Hardy film series. The film was directed by Stan Laurel.^[4] He also continued playing supporting roles in films featuring Clyde Cooke and Bobby Ray.

In 1926, Hardy was scheduled to appear in Get ’Em Young but was unexpectedly hospitalized after being burned by a hot leg of lamb. Laurel, who had been working as a gag man and director at Roach Studios, was recruited to fill in.^[5] Laurel kept appearing in front of the camera rather than behind it, and later that year appeared in the same movie as Hardy, 45 Minutes from Hollywood, although they didn’t share any scenes together.

With Stan Laurel[link]

In 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing screen time together in Slipping Wives, Duck Soup (no relation to the 1933 Marx Brothers’ film of the same name) and With Love and Hisses. Roach Studios’ supervising director Leo McCarey, realizing the audience reaction to the two, began intentionally teaming them together, leading to the start of a Laurel and Hardy series later that year. With this pairing, he created arguably the most famous double act in movie history. They began producing a huge body of short movies, including The Battle of the Century (1927) (with one of the largest pie fights ever filmed), Should Married Men Go Home? (1928), Two Tars (1928), Unaccustomed As We Are (1929, marking their transition to talking pictures) Berth Marks (1929), Blotto (1930), Brats (1930) (with Stan and Ollie portraying themselves, as well as their own sons, using oversized furniture sets for the ‘young’ Laurel and Hardy), Another Fine Mess (1930), Be Big! (1931), and many others. In 1929, they appeared in their first feature, in one of the revue sequences of Hollywood Revue of 1929 and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-color (in Technicolor) musical feature entitled The Rogue Song. This film marked their first appearance in color. In 1931, they made their first full length movie (in which they were the actual stars), Pardon Us although they continued to make features and shorts until 1935. The Music Box, a 1932 short, won them an Academy Award for best short film — their only such award.

In 1936, Hardy’s personal life suffered a blow as he and Myrtle divorced. While waiting for a contractual issue between Laurel and Hal Roach to be resolved, Hardy made Zenobia with Harry Langdon. Eventually, however, new contracts were agreed and the team was loaned out to producer Boris Morros at General Service Studios to make The Flying Deuces (1939). While on the lot, Hardy fell in love with Virginia Lucille Jones, a script girl, whom he married the next year. They enjoyed a happy, successful marriage until his death.

In the early 1940s, Laurel and Hardy made A Chump at Oxford (1940) (which features a moment of role reversal, with Oliver becoming a subordinate to a temporarily concussed Stan) and Saps at Sea (1940) before leaving Roach Studios. They began performing for the USO, supporting the Allied troops during World War II, and teamed up to make films for 20th Century Fox, and later MGM. Although they were financially better off, they had very little artistic control at the large studios, and hence the films lack the very qualities that had made Laurel and Hardy worldwide names. Their last Fox feature was The Bullfighters (1945), after which they declined to extend their contract with the studio.

In 1947, Laurel and Hardy went on a six week tour of the United Kingdom. Initially unsure of how they would be received, they were mobbed wherever they went. The tour was then lengthened to include engagements in Scandinavia, Belgium, France, as well as a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Biographer John McCabe said they continued to make live appearances in the United Kingdom and France for the next several years, until 1954, often using new sketches and material that Laurel had written for them.

Oliver Hardy in The Fighting Kentuckian, 1949

In 1949, Hardy’s friend, John Wayne, asked him to play a supporting role in The Fighting Kentuckian. Hardy had previously worked with Wayne and John Ford in a charity production of the play What Price Glory? while Laurel began treatment for his diabetes a few years previously. Initially hesitant, Hardy accepted the role at the insistence of his comedy partner. Frank Capra later invited Hardy to play a cameo role in Riding High with Bing Crosby in 1950.

During 1950–51, Laurel and Hardy made their final film. Atoll K (also known as Utopia) was a simple concept; Laurel inherits an island, and the boys set out to sea, where they encounter a storm and discover a brand new island, rich in uranium, making them powerful and wealthy. However, it was produced by a consortium of European interests, with an international cast and crew that could not speak to each other.^[6] In addition, the script needed to be rewritten by Stan to make it fit the comedy team’s style, and both suffered serious physical illness during the filming.

In 1955, the pair had contracted with Hal Roach, Jr., to produce a series of TV shows based on the Mother Goose fables. They would be filmed in color for NBC.^{[citation needed]} However, this was never to be. Laurel suffered a stroke, which required a lengthy convalescence. Hardy had a heart attack and stroke later that year, from which he never physically recovered.

Death[link]

In May 1954, Hardy suffered a mild heart attack. During 1956, Hardy began looking after his health for the first time in his life. He lost more than 150 pounds in a few months which completely changed his appearance. Letters written by Stan Laurel, however, mention that Hardy had terminal cancer,^[7] which has caused some to suspect that this was the real reason for Hardy’s rapid weight loss. Hardy was a heavy smoker, as was Stan Laurel. Hal Roach made the statement they were a couple of "freight train smoke stacks".^{[citation needed] [8]} Hardy suffered a major stroke on September 14, which left him confined to bed and unable to speak for several months. He remained at home, in the care of his beloved Lucille. He suffered two more strokes in early August 1957, and slipped into a coma from which he never recovered. Oliver Hardy died on August 7, 1957, at the age of 65.^{[9][N 2]} His remains are located in the Masonic Garden of Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood. ^[10]

Stan Laurel was too ill to go to his film partner and friend's funeral. He stated, "Babe would understand."^{[citation needed]}

Legacy[link]

Statue of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy outside the Coronation Hall Theatre, Ulverston, Cumbria, England

• Hardy’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 1500 Vine Street, Hollywood, California.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show episode The Sam Pomerantz Scandals, Dick van Dyke's character, Rob Petrie, and Sam Pomerantz, one of Rob's old army buddies played by Henry Calvin do their own impression of a Laurel and Hardy sketch.
• In 1999, merchandiser Larry Harmon produced the direct-to-video film The All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy starring Bronson Pinchot and Gailard Sartain as the comedy duo.
• There is a small Laurel and Hardy Museum in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia, which opened on July 15, 2000. Every year, the first Saturday in October, Oliver Hardy is celebrated and remembered with the Oliver Hardy Festival in this town.
• Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Filmography[link]

• For Oliver Hardy’s films without Stan Laurel, see: Filmography of Oliver Hardy
• For his films with Laurel, see: Laurel and Hardy films

See also[link]

• Laurel and Hardy music

References[link]

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Oliver Hardy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oliver Hardy

• Oliver Hardy at the Internet Movie Database
• The Laurel and Hardy Magazine Website
• Official Laurel and Hardy Website
• The Laurel and Hardy Forum
• Oliver Hardy at Find a Grave
• Free clip from Bouncing Baby (1916), made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida

• Oliver Hardy's obituaries in the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Mirror-News