" The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe — which also included Stan Laurel of later Laurel and Hardy fame — returned to England in June 1912.

The concept of mixing pathos with comedy was likely learnt from Karno: Stan Laurel, Chaplin's co-performer at the company, remembered that Karno's sketches regularly inserted " a bit of sentiment right in the middle of a funny music hall turn ".

: — Stan Laurel

* 1890 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian ( d. 1965 )

Rumors abounded that Sennett would be returning to film production ( a 1938 publicity release indicated that he would be working with Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy ), but apart from Sennett reissuing a couple of his Bing Crosby two-reelers to theaters, nothing happened.

Highlights of the film are a comedy routine starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as inept magicians, and a variety of musical performances.

Niven joined what became known as the Hollywood Raj, a group of British actors in Hollywood which included Rex Harrison, Errol Flynn, Boris Karloff, Stan Laurel, Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, Leslie Howard and C. Aubrey Smith.

* Stan Laurel ( 1890 – 1965 ), half of the comic duo Laurel and Hardy

* Oliver Hardy ( 1892-1957 ), American comic actor best known for his partnership with Stan Laurel

* Stan Laurel as Stan Laurel

Ray Bradbury's short story The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair from the collection The Toynbee Convector features the stairs prominently as the catalyst for the beginning of a love affair between a couple who affectionately refer to each other as ' Stan ' and ' Ollie '.

While at Roach, McCarey cast Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy together and guided development of their onscreen characters, thus creating one of the most enduring comedy teams of all time.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy Statue

Famous Ulverstonians include Norman Birkett, who represented Britain at the Nuremberg Trials ; Maude Green, the mother of Rock and Roll music legend, Bill Haley ; Norman Gifford, an England test cricketer ; Francis Arthur Jefferson, a soldier awarded with the Victoria Cross ; and comedian Stan Laurel, of Laurel and Hardy fame.

* Stan Laurel

* Stan Laurel often used malapropisms in the Laurel and Hardy films:

Noteworthy performers included: Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Gil Evans, Stan Kenton, Johnny Richards, Sun Ra, Gary MacFarland, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Carla Bley, Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Big Band, Sam Rivers, Don Ellis, Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Anthony Braxton.

In this scene, there is a storm and a tent is blown away revealing Stan and Oliver.

Stan and Oliver decide to seek shelter in the cave and, because it is so dark, they can't see the bear.

Oliver thinks Stan is wearing a fur coat.

Stan and Oliver flee.

* November 12-The musical Babes in Toyland debuts, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as comic relief.

Notable performers include James Booker, Duke Ellington, Kermit Ruffins, King Oliver, Jerry Reed, Artie Shaw, Lead Belly, Big Mama Thornton, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Cassandra Wilson, Stan Kenton, Josh White, Lou Rawls, Bobby Bland, Ramblin ' Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Van Ronk, " Spider " John Koerner, Janis Joplin, The Doors, Paul Butterfield, The Animals, The Standells, and more recently The White Stripes, the Stray Cats, the Tarbox Ramblers, Snooks Eaglin, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, and Tom Jones with Jools Holland.

It is also possible to randomly meet Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the savannah, as French Foreign Legion soldiers.

The pie fight scene paid homage to the early Mack Sennett practice of using a single thrown pie as comedic punctuation, but to a greater degree it was a celebration of classic movie pie fights such as Charlie Chaplin's Behind the Screen ( 1916 ), The Battle of the Century ( 1927 ) starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and The Three Stooges ' In the Sweet Pie and Pie from 1941.

with Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel.

The film begins at a meeting of the Sons of the Desert, a fraternal lodge ( styled to resemble the Shriners ) of which both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are members.

Stan is reluctant to take the oath, but Oliver goads him into it.

Later, on the way home, Stan explains to Oliver his reluctance to take the oath ; he is worried that his wife will not let him go to the convention.

Oliver tries to reassure Stan his wife has no choice but to let him go because he took a sacred oath.

When they get home and Stan accidentally brings up the subject of the convention, however, it turns out Oliver's wife will not let him go as they had already arranged a mountain trip together ( which Oliver had forgotten about ).

Stan arranges for a doctor ( actually a veterinarian ) to prescribe an ocean voyage to Honolulu, with their wives staying home ( Oliver is well aware how much ocean voyages disagree with his wife ).

Stan wants to go back home and confess to his wife but Oliver threatens, " If you go downstairs and spill the beans, I'll tell Betty that I caught you smoking a cigarette!

Stannie Dum ( Stan Laurel ) and Ollie Dee ( Oliver Hardy ), live in a shoe ( as in the nursery rhyme There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe ), along with Mother Peep ( the Old Woman ), Bo Peep ( Charlotte Henry ), a mouse resembling Mickey Mouse ( and actually played by a live monkey in a costume ), and many other children.

Released in 1934, Babes in Toyland was one of many feature films with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

* Comedic actors Curly Howard, Shemp Howard, Roscoe Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were well known for their bowler hats.

The 1930 Laurel and Hardy movie Brats used forced perspective to depict Stan and Ollie simultaneously as adults and as their own sons.

By the mid-1930s his work was spotty: Stan Laurel used him sporadically to contribute gags to the Laurel and Hardy features, and he would direct an Our Gang short in 1934, plus several acceptable entries in Thelma Todd-Patsy Kelly series.

Its most famous old boy is Stan Laurel, one half of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy was angered by being " tricked " into what would be the team's only American television appearance, on December 1, 1954.

* It is claimed that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy once performed at the music hall that is now Holmes Place / Virgin Gym and that they stayed at the Queen's Hotel.

Before meeting, the pair had never worked together on stage ( they did as of 1940 ), though both had worked in vaudeville — Stan Laurel with Charlie Chaplin as part of Fred Karno's Army and Oliver Hardy as a singer.