Stan was the creative force, rewriting scripts, making props, working late in the editing suites.

Neither had received a cent in residuals from the old Roach shorts that were constantly playing on American television.ДЄt the height of their fame Laurel and Hardy rarely socialised together. As film artists, Laurel and Hardy were washed up: their glory days with Roach studios in the 1930s far behind and even the inferior Fox and MGM movies of the 1940s just bad memories.ДЄged around 60, they embarked on three very long tours of Britain and Ireland, in 1947, 19-54 вЂ“ their main source of income during those years. Stan & Ollie: A great Hardy and an even better LaurelДЇorty years later, Stan Laurel was back in Britain, touring some of the same theatres he had appeared in before the first World War.Exclusive: Steve Coogan and John C Reilly on playing Laurel and Hardy.He was hired by Karno in 1909 and left Britain for a career in the US three years later, changing his surname because Stan Jefferson had 13 letters and he thought it might be unlucky. He broke away to go solo as Young Stan Jefferson, вЂњHe of the Funny WaysвЂќ, mimicking music hall surrealist Dan Leno, who also liked bizarre wordplay (you can see this influence in many of the daft exchanges between Laurel and Hardy). AJ anticipated a career as an actor, and Stan joined his fatherвЂ™s resident company as soon as he was old enough, playing straight roles in melodramas while secretly longing to clown. The little boy spent his time and pocket money making toy theatres and puppet shows. His father, AJ Jefferson, was a playwright, actor-manager and, later, lessee of the Metropole in Glasgow, the Theatre Royal in North Shields and other venues, and after a childhood in the Lancashire town of Ulverston, Stan moved with his family to the Tyneside area on the Scottish border.

For anyone even slightly skilled, performing was a viable career option. Every town in Britain and Ireland had a variety theatre, and most cities had two or three. I was about 10 when he died, and he left me the bayonet heвЂ™d fought with in the war and his make-up case, which had compartments for greasepaint sticks and a selection of wigs and other bits and pieces.ДЇrom this distance itвЂ™s hard to appreciate just how potent a phenomenon music hall and variety was in the early years of the last century вЂ“ the largest mass live entertainment until rock music came along in the 1950s. вЂњAfter what heвЂ™d seen he felt he couldnвЂ™t go on and try to be funny,вЂќ my nan told me. He came back much changed, and never again set foot on stage. War broke out and Freddie went to fight in France. It was only later, on variety tours, that the comedians got to know each other properlyД¬harlie and Stan went to the US with Karno and didnвЂ™t come back. Chaplin was nice enough, he said, but had вЂњnotionsвЂќ and held himself aloof from such frivolity.ДЄt the height of their fame Laurel and Hardy rarely socialised together. Stan Jefferson вЂ“ often called Ginger because of his hair вЂ“ was a great lad, Freddie told me, popular and easygoing, fond of a drink or two and with an eye for the ladies, and together they often rambled around the pubs of Dudley, FreddieвЂ™s home town, after a show. Freddie wasnвЂ™t a member of the troupe, but he performed at local theatres, way down the bill among the wines and spirits, and when a Karno show was touring the British midlands he and his comedy partner, Jack Dutton, would be drafted in to do a knockabout front-cloth parody strongman act while scenery was being changed, then join the others for the riotous finale. Chaplin was KarnoвЂ™s star В a 20-year-old Stan Jefferson (his real name) was second banana and CharlieвЂ™s understudy. My old pal Stan.вЂќД«efore the first World War Freddie had worked with Stan вЂ“ and Charlie Chaplin, too вЂ“ on music hall bills topped by the impresario Fred KarnoвЂ™s touring company of slapstick comedians. When a Laurel and Hardy film came on television my grandadВ Freddie ElcockВ would sit me on his knee and point excitedly at the screen.

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