We're featuring obscure film clips of my all-time favorite performers, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The one we have for you today is probably the last time the two of them ever appeared in front of a camera together. It's a home movie camera and the footage is silent…but it's also in color, which is a treat.
It's nice to see them and their families socializing off the set but it's also sad. Laurel was recovering from a stroke…though one might note he's still smoking. This was 1956. Hardy's doctor had ordered him to lose weight and as you can see, he'd lost around a hundred pounds. At the time of this filming, they were planning some television projects — a series of fairy tales with their characters inserted into the storylines — but then Hardy suffered a stroke from which he never recovered.
Beyond that, it pretty much speaks for itself. Here's one last look at the two men I consider the most glorious entertainers of the previous century. I'm skeptical that anyone will top them in this one, either.