On November 23, 1965, several months after Stan Laurel died, a very odd thing turned up on CBS in the time slot for The Red Skelton Show. It was produced by many of the same folks who did Mr. Skelton's program and it was advertised as a tribute to Mr. Laurel…and I guess it was. But it was a misguided tribute that obviously started out with good intentions before turning into a very sloppy variety show. It had a stellar guest list that included, of course, Dick Van Dyke…and also, Buster Keaton in what may have been his last TV appearance.
Those two men, at least, knew Stan and had some connection with him. Many of the others were there because, one supposes, they liked Laurel and Hardy, and were available (see "Romero, Cesar") and the "available" part seemed to be the more relevant. They performed material with little or no connection to Stan or Ollie and…well, a lot of us just stared at the screen with what I now call the "Springtime for Hitler" look. I was thirteen years old and I thought, "Hey, I could do a better Stan Laurel Tribute Show than this and I could do it in 8mm in my back yard and without Tina Louise."
Grainy tapes of A Salute to Stan Laurel make the rounds of Laurel and Hardy collectors and are usually watched once, not always all the way through. Someone has chopped the hour-long special in two and a week ago, they put the second half up on Google Video. I can't find Part One there but that's okay. You're not going to watch the whole thing, anyway. You're not even going to get all the way through Part Two…
