Norvell Hardy

He was born Norvell Hardy on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia. He preferred to not stay in school but to go to the vaudeville houses and study the onstage antics of many different groups. His childhood was just a huge fantasy world for him.

At age 18, he began one of his first paying jobs as a manager of a motion picture house. He was the ticket taker, janitor and projectionist. It was during that time frame that he began to exhibit an urge to get into pictures. His size (6 feet tall and 300 pounds) made his roles very limited.

He went to Jacksonville, Florida and did 50 one-reels in a year before heading to New York. His natural ability to sing got him many roles in small clubs throughout the vaudeville circuit when he wasn't filming.

He returned to Florida, where he worked with Charlie Chaplin imitator Billy West. Between 1918 and 1923, he made more than 40 full length films for Vitagraph studios as an onscreen "heavy or bad guy." In 1924, he began to work at Hal Roach Studios. He worked in the Our Gang films and also with comedian Charlie Chase. In

1925, he met a young director by the name of Stanley Jefferson. They formed a friendship that would take the two to stardom as "Laurel and Hardy." During the next two years, they continued to do more films and eventually were in the starting leads of full length features.

Laurel and Hardy began sharing screen time together in Slipping Wives, Duck Soup (no relation to the Marx Brothers film of the same name) and With Love and Hisses. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey had realized the audience reaction to the two and had begun intentionally teaming them together, leading to the start of the Laurel and Hardy series late that year.

With Laurel and Hardy, he had created one of the most famous comedy teams of all time. They began producing a huge body of short movies, including The Battle of the Century (1927) (with one of the largest pie fights ever filmed), Should Married Men Go Home? (1928), Two Tars (1928), Unaccustomed As We Are (1929, marking their transition to talking pictures) Berth Marks (1929), Blotto (1930), Brats (1930) (with Stan and Ollie portraying themselves, as well as their own sons, using oversized furniture to sets for the “young” Laurel and Hardy), Another Fine Mess (1930), Be Big! (1931) and many others.

In 1929, they appeared in their first feature, in one of the revue sequences of Hollywood Revue of 1929, and, the following year, they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-color (in Technicolor) musical feature entitled The Rogue Song. This film marked their first appearance in color.

In 1931, they made their first full length movie (in which they were the actual stars), Pardon Us, although they continued to make features and shorts until 1935. Perhaps their greatest achievement, however, was The Music Box (1932), which won them an Academy Award for best short film - their only such award.

In 1936, while waiting for a contractual issue between Laurel and Hal Roach to be resolved, Hardy made Zenobia with Harry Langdon. Eventually, however, new contracts were agreed to, and the team was loaned out to General Services Studio to make The Flying Deuces. While on the lot, Hardy fell in love with Virginia Lucille Jones, a script girl, whom he married the next year. They enjoyed a happy marriage until his death.

Beginning in 1941, Laurel and Hardy's films began to decline in quality. They left Roach Studios and began making films for 20th Century Fox, and later MGM.

In 1947, Laurel and Hardy went on a six-week tour of Great Britain. Initially unsure of how they would be received, they were mobbed wherever they went. The tour was then lengthened to include engagements in Scandinavia, Belgium and France, as well as a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. They continued to make live appearances in the United Kingdom and France for the next several years.

In 1949, Hardy's friend, John Wayne, asked him to play a supporting role in The Fighting Kentuckian. It was during a time that Stan had begun treatment for diabetes. In 1950, Hardy played a cameo role in Riding High with Bing Crosby.

In 1955, the pair had contracted with Hal Roach Jr. to produce a series of TV shows based on the Mother Goose fables. They would be filmed in color for NBC. However, this was never to be. Laurel suffered a stroke, which required a lengthy convalescence. Hardy had a heart attack and stroke later that year, from which he never physically recovered.

During 1956, Hardy began looking after his health for the first time in his life. During his health watch, he lost more than 150 pounds in a few months. This weight loss completely changed his appearance. However, he suffered a major stroke on September 14, which left him confined to bed and unable to speak for several months. He remained at home, being cared for by his beloved Lucille. He suffered two more strokes in early August 1957 and slipped into a coma from which he never recovered. Oliver Hardy died on August 7, 1957, at age 65. His remains are located in the Masonic Garden of Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.

I can remember going to the old Michigan Theater on South Saginaw Street and watching many of the films that Stan and Ollie did in my early childhood. Their nonstop antics on the silver screen made them both rich and famous. They were able to fulfill their dreams of being the best at what they did.

The one line that Ollie used to use that sticks in my memory bank was "Well … Here's another fine mess ... you have gotten us into." Thank you, Oliver "Babe" Hardy, for making your life available to all on the big screen. Thank you for bringing laughter into a world that needed it.

Rest in peace … Norvell Oliver Hardy.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers

2003 BWC Hall of Fame Inductee
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