Not long ago here, I mentioned the fine work the UCLA Film and Television Archive has been doing in preserving and refurbishing The Shari Lewis Show. Even more blessed is what they're doing to preserve the legacy of my favorite performers in the world, a certain Mr. Stanley Laurel and his partner, Mr. Oliver Norvell Hardy. The Hal Roach studio, where they teamed and did most of their wonderful work was a fine venue for the flourishing of comic talent…but not so good at film preservation.
I could go into details but you can read about it over at this page, especially the piece by Richard W. Bann, who has done superhuman things to protect those classic films…but it's too big a job for one man. Also read Randy Skretvedt as he writes about something we've covered here in the past — the intriguing foreign versions that Stan and Ollie made of many of their movies, speaking tongues they didn't understand and adding new scenes for the overseas market.
It's amazing in this era of DVDs and "new media" that any library of great films is neglected or allowed to rot. So much that was previously written-off with the casual dismissal of "No one will ever want to see that junk" is now valuable…and there are studios scrambling to find decent copies of material they once neglected. These days, even if there's no current demand for a certain old movie or a certain old TV show, no one dares say there never will be. But studio execs, many of whom regard themselves as well-paid temps, often don't see the value in spending money now to preserve something they might not market for five years. It's kind of like, "Yeah, we should do it…but it'll make this year's balance sheets look less wonderful and that might affect my raise or bonus…and anyway, I won't be here in five years." That kind of thinking.
I've watched Laurel and Hardy's best films dozens of times and even their worst ones a lot. At some point, I became aware that what we can see today is often not the complete or best possible version of a movie. It's an edited, third-generation TV print where someone futzed with the main titles and the music. It would be a shame if the surviving negatives and film elements were allowed to decompose in an era where digital restoration (and therefore, eternal preservation) is possible.