In 1954, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made their one-and-only real TV appearance, quite against their will. They were "surprised" (Laurel later said, "horrified") on the series, This Is Your Life. Each week, some unsuspecting celebrity would be pounced upon by host Ralph Edwards and dragged into his stage for a little surprise party/biography done on live television. The subject's family and friends would be in on the plot and would help arrange it…and the celeb would have to go along with it. Sid Caesar and his crew once famously parodied all this in what I think is either the funniest sketch ever done on television or darn close to it. In fact, before I go any further, let me embed that sketch. This window should play it and then move on to other things but you can stop it after the part you want to see…
Now then. The night This Is Your Life did Laurel and Hardy, the "surprise" was done at a hotel behind the El Capitan Theater, which is where the TV show was done. Then Edwards went to a commercial, during which Stan and Ollie were expected to walk from the hotel to the stage of the El Capitan. When the show resumed after the commercial, they hadn't arrived and Edwards was forced to nervously ad-lib and fill time until they showed.
Laurel was not happy about making his TV debut in this manner. He was a meticulous rehearser who didn't like appearing unprepared before all of America. He also resented something else. At the time, he and Hardy were very much available to make movies and no one was offering them any opportunities. Yet here he was, being tricked into making an appearance for either no money or scale pay. He was gracious during the half-hour telecast but you could tell he wasn't overjoyed. This plus the delay in their arrival led to the assumption by some that the delay was because Stan and Ollie were refusing to participate and had to be talked into going through with it. This is apparently not so. It was merely a long walk to the stage and the This Is Your Life people had misfigured the time.
Anyway, as you might imagine, our video link today is to a video of that show. It's not the greatest picture quality but you probably won't watch the whole thing, anyway…
