The rest is history.ĭuring the well-publicised 1932 visit, Laurel told the local press on Tyneside: "I'm glad to have the chance of making a return visit to the North Shields area where I grew up. The classic film was released just months before their visit to Tyneside.īack In 1912, at the age of 20, Stan had travelled to the United States with the Fred Karno troupe alongside a young Charlie Chaplin, and eventually met his comedy partner Oliver Hardy.
#LAUREL AND HARDY MOVIES ON VIDEO EBAY MOVIE#
It has been said that the narrow flight of 52 steps down to North Shields Fish Quay was the inspiration for one of the greatest comedy scenes in cinema history when, in the Oscar-winning movie The Music Box, Stan and Ollie attempt to shift a piano up countless steps to a Los Angeles house at the top of a painfully high hill. Local children flocked to see Laurel and Hardy when the comedy duo visited Tynemouth Longsands Beach during the summer of 1932 (Image: North East Film Archive.) His father would run the town’s Theatre Royal and Borough Theatre, as well as a host of other venues across Tyneside.
The family moved to 8, Dockray Square in North Shields when Stan was a young boy. Stan Jefferson, later to become Stan Laurel, was born in Ulverston, Cumbria into a theatrical family. Though Hardy hailed from Georgia in the United States, Laurel was a local lad. There was a heatwave in the late July of 1932 and thousands of fans gathered outside Tynemouth’s Grand Hotel to see the two cinema comedy geniuses in the flesh.
READ MORE: A last glimpse inside the former Newcastle Co-op store before it became a hotel Captured for posterity, the local newsreel was shot by enthusiast Arthur G Greaves, a member of Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association.
#LAUREL AND HARDY MOVIES ON VIDEO EBAY ARCHIVE#
The local connections of Stan Laurel have been well-documented, and this wonderful piece of footage from the North East Film Archive recalls the famous pair's visit to Tynemouth. There were few bigger Hollywood stars 90 years ago than comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.Īt a time when the burgeoning new 'talky' movies were still in their infancy, Stan and Ollie were on the crest of a wave when they stopped off on Tyneside during a high-profile publicity tour of the UK in the summer of 1932.
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