Laurel and Hardy Bio

July 29, 2007 7:26 AM

Is there a good biography of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy? Please recommend.
posted by spicynuts to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Silent Clowns by Walter Kerr is a classic on the whole silent era; truly fantastic and loving with lots of pictures. It has two chapters on Laurel and Hardy, and is just a great read overall.

Parade's Gone By by Kevin Brownlow is another classic book about the era generally.

(Neither is a Laurel and Hardy bio, but they're good starting points for research).
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:02 AM on July 29, 2007

Seconding The Parade's Gone By.

The Way Out West Tent of the Sons of the Desert has this list of L&H biographies.
posted by SPrintF at 10:48 AM on July 29, 2007

Response by poster: Please, no more recs for books about the era. I appreciate the effort, but I'm not interested in the ear in general, only L&H specifically. Thanks!
posted by spicynuts at 10:55 AM on July 29, 2007

There appear to be three fairly recent biographies of Laurel and Hardy that have been well-reviewed.

• The Art of Laurel And Hardy: Graceful Calamity in the Films
• Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy This one definately gives you the most subtitles for your dollar.
• Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy.  This is the only one that I've actually read, and it is a fabulous read. It this isn't enough to sate your newfound obsession, the same author also wrote a book on Oliver Hardy which is on my list of books to read someday.

That should definitely be enough to get you started.
posted by curtm at 9:06 AM on July 30, 2007