Laurel & Hardy - This Is Your Life (12.01.1954) (Laurel & Hardy) FOR 65 YEARS

this is your life america's most talked about program now here he is mister this is your life himself ralph edward [Applause] [Music] don't go away tonight i warn you don't leave the set this is going to be terrific hello everybody thanks for joining us again on this is your life now tonight we have a startling surprise in store for you now listen to this we're going to recreate not one but two lives will you see who they are now right now our two subjects are in room 205 of the hollywood knickerbocker hotel that's just a short block from here just behind our theater as a matter of fact and they're talking to a friend of theirs one of england's most prominent producers mr bernard delfont of london whom we've brought here to hollywood just to make our surprise work now listen we have a television camera hidden behind french doors in the kitchenette you see of the hotel suite over there now on my signal the door uh will fly opens the doors will go open the lights will go on the uh speaker will go on so they can hear and well you'll see what happens i think all right now everything ready boys here we go take it away camera number five in the kitchenette of suite 205 at the hollywood knickerbocker hotel here we go open mr stan laurel mr oliver this hardy this is ralph edwards speaking to you from the el capitan theater on vine street here in hollywood you're very good friends there mr bernard delfont mr delfont hello where yeah there you are and mr ben shipman hello mr shipman yes they have joined with us in this surprise tribute to one of the greatest comedy teams of our time two heads two bodies but one big laugh for over 30 years tonight this is your life i should say these are your lives stan laurel and oliver hardy laurel [Applause] we have a wonderful evening planned for you please hurry downstairs and come over to our theater stage uh mr delphi how you doing boys 50 million of your fans are eager to see your lives unfold wives that have brought the blessing of laughter to a to a travel world for some 35 years now this is the first time ladies and gentlemen we've ever brought you two lives at once whether we're going to bring them to you or not tonight we don't know because they're uh they're due to arrive any second from the hollywood knickerbocker right behind us here uh the lives of stan laurel and oliver hardy and if you've just tuned in stick around because from what's going on beforehand this is liable to be the greatest night that we've ever spent on this is your life we've had more fun preparing this program i believe then we have any of the programs that we've done we even went to the trouble of bringing mr bernard delfont all the way from london new york here just to surprise these two boys because uh mr ben shipman their manager and long time friend said look there's only one person i think who who will fool these two fellows or who's going to command enough interest for them to get away from their home their wives long enough of course they brought their wives down with them you saw them there and you're going to see them a little later to get them away and to fool them that would be mr delphon and uh so that's what we did and i'm still talking i'd like to say too a few words about texas you know i may have to talk for two minutes before these guys get here no seriously uh we have received more cooperation on this program than we have on practically any program that we have done uh we receive cooperation on everyone but on this everybody loves oliver and uh uh stan laurel and oliver hardy for myself this is sort of uh oh i don't know a little personal thing because i think those of us who are in the uh in certain lines of comedy uh go back to another show that i have why maybe some of the things we learned pretty much from watching these fellas i can remember in knee pants going down to the grand lake theater in oakland and watching they uh took a taxi did they boys they in we timed this out before and i said i can go they're here oh thank goodness because that was my last ad-lib here they come now our two principal subjects stan laurel and oliver hardy i think i have been told oh my this is morning two realers here they come is a great wonderful thrill for us boys let them get a look at you coast to coast you don't mind this trick we pulled on you because boy this guy del font and uh and shipping sit down over here i think uh you sit right over we had to go sit over there uh mr hardy over there stan laurel right here if you will pl yeah no right right here that's it no that's it's snuggle are you gonna be room for all three of you two of you there yes i i guess that's gonna be fine okay you know we had it worked out we thought we'd better put you in a car to get you around but uh then i know we run into a lot of trouble that way we should have had you run it or maybe you did boys you did all right these are your lives [Music] well that's familiar it said that laughter is the highest gift of the gods well sometime near the start of the 20th century it came time for you to be born stan and oliver so laughter rolled down from the blue vault of the skies and broke into two parts you stan laurel are the first half you're born at alverston in lancashire england right stan and your stage name is now stan laurel what was your real name stan you want to tell me do you want to tell my real name your real name jefferson jeff that's nice lee was there a name before that arthur stanley [Laughter] when english school masters called the role and came to the name of arthur stanley jefferson they seldom got an answer why was that stan were you there all the time sometimes you used to sort of like to skip school once in a while once in a while and as you what are you laughing at mr hardy over here yeah all right as you grow up father tries hard to get you uh to learn the business end of the theater that's right stan took tickets at the box office but long for the day when he could take a funny fall or say a funny line on the stage there's a voice from your boyhood days stan i don't know if you can guess whose voice it is or not no he was your childhood playmate and he's flown here from england to surprise you from north shields england here's your friend mr roland park and then mr hardy over here yeah so stan long to be a comedian from boyhood did he mr park that's right i i remember his first chance on the stage uh when his father had the metropolitan theater in glasgow i remember that stan and uh stan was there uh dooney stuff and uh while he was parading up and down there's a gentleman sitting right in the front of the stalls and he kept looking at stan and stan thought i seem to know that face yeah who did you see sitting there stan who was that your father yeah yeah yeah you make a fast exit and the tail code got in the act too didn't it mr president yes dan had uh you remember you buried your dad's coat a long tail coat was far too big for him you know trailing along the ground then there was stan walk alone got his coat in there pulled the coat right into and of course later on stand with the tails over one home and then rest over the other had to march home what happened when he got home having known for yours well thank you mr roland park for coming from england to tell us of stan laurel's debut as a boy comedian you'll see him a little later well shortly after you're born stanley a similar event is taking place in the town of harlem georgia usa yes that face is unmistakable isn't it you haven't changed oliver hardy thus on january 18th 1892 a full 10 pounds of good humor and future laughter are born to miss oh i've forgotten the date yes i think it was uh in there pounds oh 14 pounds oh i i see yes that's what your mother said well at any rate uh you were born to mr mrs oliver hardy of harlem georgia now uh mr hardy what is your real first name novel i didn't get it novel n or v dublin norville yes sir you are the youngest of five children after your father's death you adopt his first name now most of your boyhood is spent in the town of millageville georgia and there to support you children your mother manages the baldwin hotel novel and i always walk to school together instead of carrying my books i carried his so that he could sing and dance all the way there can you guess who that is oliver my sister ah now listen she was your first childhood sweetheart in fact another girl mary horn pulled her hair good and hard once over you you knew her as althea miller and you haven't seen each other for 45 years here from macon georgia is your friend this is alfie miller horn come on yes that's mr laurel over there oliver was always happy and always singing as a as a what'd you say i said she's still beautiful isn't she there and uh he was always happy in singing as a boy there in millageville wasn't he always loved to sing but he didn't like his singing lessons oh yeah his mother met his teacher one day and asked how his lessons were coming along and she said he hadn't been in over a week well what else do you remember his boyhood i remember him as a very brave boy in fact he went into the oconee river to save his brother sam from drowning and he pulled him out and he and arthas kind of gave artificial respiration it was too late he's been in the water too long that's a pretty heroic thing for him to have done thinking of others before yourself as a habit you formed in earliest boyhood oliver hardy thank you mrs althea horn you're gonna now down boys we return to your life stan laurel your father encourages you get you an engagement with levien cardwell's juvenile pantomimes you're just 17. 1910 you tour america and here decide to remain to play in your own acts in american voteville one of stan's acts was being a funny burglar he got such howls of laughter he was signed up for his first comedy movies now do you recognize that voice mr laurel you may not he was technical advisor on one of your early movie comedies in 1922. he's now president of pan-american television corporation here's your good friend mr frank [Music] faust look frank you remember a time when uh stan ran for his life in order to get a laugh in a movie don't you well stan had the courage to take the personal risks of it involved a good comedy scene but he encountered a bull one time with no without any sense of humor a bull we were making a comedy takeoff on rudolph valentino's blood and sand and in the scene stan was supposed to let this bull chase him down the street what was his name in the in the rhubarb vassalino oh yeah and as it turned out why by the time the camera started grinding why this the bull caught up the stand and almost killed him after the real scare was over we gave him another fright just as a joke how was that well uh we told him that the camera didn't get the picture and at the scene would have to be shot over again thank you frank foss thank you very much thank you thank you in a moment we'll find out what you were doing at this same period of time oliver harding and we'll learn that you two might never have gotten together at all if it hadn't been for a leg of lamb you know uh uh oliver hardy just said the most wonderful thing is the funny thing i never miss your show here and to think he says it sort of fills you up you bet it does back to these are your lives stan laurel and oliver hardy [Music] during your teenage years you sing to illustrated slides and movie theaters oliver this leads to forming a quartet with three other round and hefty fellas what name did you call your quartet the 20th century four yes and uh 20th century was that the poundage or the no oh i see the combination yes did you have another name like half ton of harmony or something was it yeah called that 1913 finds you in jacksonville florida here his friends called him bay because he never smoked drank nor said oh me well do you recognize that voice babe she she used to be a vocalist too used to sing duets with you at the old burbridge hotel in jacksonville hear from her homies in cincinnati ohio as your friend of long ago margaret o'connor now miss is james errata here [Music] well now margaret mr hardy made these first movies right there how's the family they're swell huh yeah uh uh she's telling me how many uh seven eight grandchildren eighteen grand he's not one mr hardy made his first movies right there in jacksonville florida didn't he mr rodriguez yes and they were so new then mr edwards that uh babe was called upon to do an intoxicated scene in a street scene and a couple of his mason friends from the masonic lodge saw him reeling down the street of course i didn't know it was a movie the next day they had poor babe up on the carpet and he had an awful lot of explaining well thank you miss james errata of cincinnati ohio i know they did you said everybody loved you there well by the mid-1920s both of you are in hollywood your paths destined soon to cross at the hal roach studio as oliver norvel hardy tells it a leg of lamb brought them together i don't know if you recognize that voice mr laurel or mr hardy you should at the time he was production supervisor at the hal wrote studios and later he worked on your pictures now known the world over is the famous writer director of going my way bells of saint mary's my son john many many more great hits your good friend director leo mccarry oh look leo how did a leg of lamb sit down oliver and we're going to get that a boy instead how did a leg of lamb bring laurel and hardy together eh well um it seems that babe was uh cooking a leg of lamb and uh for some reason um he left his arm in the oven too long or something and uh he got it so badly blistered that uh we had to cut down his part in the next picture so we decided to put stan in the picture too to bolster up the comedy and uh so when we saw the two of them on the screen together we decided there's a real team and from that time on um they really they really went places all in a kind of hardy had a little lamb and that was the beginning of these famous hats leo you know how to work these better than i give them to the boys uh uh oliver stand up please and just put it up mr hardy yeah do they get the right ones i'm not just no oh no that is that is that the right no no that's it no i think there's a [Applause] oh my look in your pictures uh babe stan always uh gets you in trouble isn't that right mr hardy now is there any parallel in real life leo well um yes i remember once when oliver got in trouble without any help from stan yeah well how's that well uh we were shooting uh a picture up on um on uh the two of them were were building a uh skyscraper and uh and they were up about uh 40 feet from the ground and uh stan was looked down standing up in this girder and he got quite panicky and uh babe tried to quiet him and he said look you don't have to worry there's a safety platform about 15 feet under the scaffolding and stan looked down he said well even the safety platform doesn't look safe to me they try to quiet him he says look to show you that it's perfectly all right he said i'll i'll show you and he jumped off well it wasn't safe and uh the platform slowed him down a little but he fell 20 and then 20 more feet to the ground what well uh i i know that uh those boys showed a great deal of courage though to do some of the stunts they used to you know um as as a matter of fact i i felt that babe seemed to show more courage than stan but he got hurt more thank you leo mccarry thank you very much [Music] films that are still to the light of all of us now on television even more new york credits you're just as much love behind the scenes by all your associates i can truthfully say that it was as much fun to work on a laurel hearty picture as it was to see one now another important voice from your past do you recognize it boys there's so many fellas in your past we could parade all of hollywood and all the world by here he was general manager of the hall road studio when you both came there and during the early years of your great success here from his home in santa maria california your friend mr warren doane mr doan can you tell us whether or not stan and babe were as funny fellas off camera as they were on yes they were and that's why they were so well liked by all their crews once we were hard at work making a in a very dangerous situation they were working with a making a scene with a lion and the trainer told them that when a lion is about to give trouble the color of his eyes will change from yellow to green one of the boys asked him by the way why is your leg bandage there the trainer had to admit that the same line a couple of days before had chewed it up we all admired them because they went ahead and made that scene even though it was actually dangerous well you've been a team in fact as well as name no one knows that story better than your long time manager and partner mr ben shipman ben come on out here right here [Music] mr shipman stan and oliver yes well thank you for all your help and fooling these boys they've been together longer than any comedy team in movies isn't it something like three hundred films together that they make that's right and the most enjoyable and most wonderful part about working with them has been to observe that extreme loyalty to one another and the desire to please one another and the desire to make each other successful it's been a wonderful experience thank you mr ben shipman and mr warren doane thank you so much well the years roll along the 1930s the 1940s you keep turning out your clean wholesome comedies and during this time neither of you realizes what an impact you're having on millions of people overseas until you undertake a tour of england in europe in 1947 stan and oliver were completely unprepared for the explosion of joy and welcome that greeted them everywhere overseas crowds blocked the streets to catch just one itsy bitsy side of them someone you helped get started movies uh today she's a great star in her own right and movies on the stage radio television now in hollywood making the sam goldwyn movie version of guys and dolls here is your grateful friend lovely vivian blaine vivian blaine ladies and gentlemen well vivian you were in london last year uh playing in guys and dolls when stan and oliver uh made their what was it third tour the british isles i think it was not how did the people show their affection for stan and babe well ralph they had a most astonishing way of showing their great love for stan and ollie as we all have yeah as a matter of fact uh as the word got out that their ship was about to dock at colb ireland the signal went around all the schools were closed and thousands of people were at the dock to meet them and then a most unusual and wonderful thing happened the great carolyn bells of the cold cathedral began ringing this time it had nothing to do with a hymn or an anthem this time those wonderful old bells were ringing the cuckoo song how about that thank you vivian blaine thanks vivian blaine all your success would have been meaningless without someone to share it with you so let's bring to your sides the two ladies who really knew how to keep our secrets your wives first your wife lucille oliver mrs hardy [Music] and your wife oh and another happy surprise stan your daughter lois mrs randy brooks and here [Music] that's the daughter these are your lives you sit here stan mrs laurel you sit right up there and daughter besides you and you uh yeah mrs hardy's a room dear he could sit on his lap maybe well you're past gathering around you here your fun and humor have been a tonic for a troubled world let's look into your future stan laurel oliver hardy uh tonight it'll hold the happiness you deserve at a party in your honor at the hollywood roosevelt hotel where you out of town friends have been staying now each of you will receive a 16 millimeter sound film of tonight's program and a bell and howl sound projector uh for re-running the film to mrs hardy and mrs laurel we have these uh very beautiful uh charm bracelets 14 karat gold charm bracelets from uh marshall jewelers fifth avenue new york one for each of you and cufflinks commemorating this night and other nights in your life for you fellas now stan and oliver hazel bishop uh wants is a lasting honor to your lives uh arrange a bronze tablet placed beside the famed old water pool where you were in and out of so much at the hall road studio naming it lake laurel and hardy and here to accept this plaque is your uh good friend president of hal roach productions mr hal roach jr come on with the memories of the wonderful comedies you fellows have done it'll be a pleasure to put up a permanent plaque to as a tribute to your genius thanks now fellas all of uh your friends were flown here by twa luxurious constellation they fly the finest on twa the airline that flies three quarters of the way around the world thanks till next week good night [Music]

Channel: Laurel & Hardy

Views: 2,178,485

Keywords: This Is Your Life, laurel, Ralpf, hardy, Edwards

Id: ZisHJguKKhw

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 02 2019