From the moment they teamed up fort he first time, it was pretty obvious that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were something special. Seventy-six years later, and audiences are still laughing at their antics, as proven by the MAC's self-explanatory Laurel & Hardy Day on Sunday 12 October (from 12pm), a celebration of the lives and work of the finest double act of all time. Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in June 1890 in Ulverston, England while Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in January 1892 in Harlem, Georgia, USA. While Stan, the son of a showman, had Music Hall in his blood, Oli was initially destined for a military career before heading towards Hollywood, lured by the glamour of the silent screen. Signing up to the Hal Roach studio, Stan and Oli first worked together in 1926 and by the following year, they were being touted as a comedy duo. Incidentally Ulverston, in picturesque Cumbria, is now the site of the Laurel and Hardy Museum (www.laurel-and-hardy-museum.co.uk) The first stop-off point for information on the twosome should be their official website (www.laurel-and-hardy.com), and although updates have sadly been "suspended" for the time being, the site nonetheless has countless pages of "goodies", from details of their many film appearances, to screensavers and a couple of pages of movie clips. For more on the duo, also see The Los Angeles Chapter of the International Laurel & Hardy Society (www.wayoutwest.org), Leave 'Em Laughing (www.stanandollie.co.uk), Doug Overton's Tribute Page (www.laurelnhardy.co.uk), Laurel & Hardy Central (http://laurelandhardycentral.com) and Laurel & Hardy Magazine (www.laurelandhardy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk), which details their 1955 appearance on This Is Your Life, rare candid wartime photos and behind the scenes snaps. Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the sites feature any reference to the forgotten Laurel & Hardy TV series! Oli passed away in 1957 while Stan died in 1965, but the following year a series of short cartoons appeared on US TV which tried - in vain - to recapture the magic. For more on the forgotten annex to their career, visit Toon Tracker: Home of the Lost Cartoons (www.toontracker.com/lh-ac/lh-ac.htm) * The MAC's Laurel & Hardy Day takes place on Sunday 12 October 2003 with three programmes of silent & talkie features, rare clips and surprises with screenings beginning at noon, 2pm and 4pm. Tickets for the event, which is part of the Evening Mail Birmingham Comedy Festival, are £3.50/ £2.50 per programme or £9/ £6 for all three. Call 0121 440 3838 for more details.
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Comedy Festival 
