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ven before composer famous Windmill Theatre
Leoncavallo, in his (their catchcry: “We Never
Eopera Pagliacci wrote When Silents Were Golden Closed” during the war) in
of a clown whose white A Memory of Yesteryear’s Stars London’s Soho, remembers
make-up hid a face of sorrow, of the Pre-sound Era Laurel and Hardy well.
it was traditional for clowns Following his engage-
to be consumed by sadness ment at the Windmill, Alan
behind their laughter. landed for himself a contract
If you can remember back “The Sadness as the main supporting artist
to the 30s and 40s, you should with Laurel and Hardy on
remember songs in that vein, Of The Clown” their third English stage tour.
like ‘Broken Hearted Clown’ The engagement lasted five
and ‘Laugh Clown, Laugh!’ By Denzil Howson months and ended only when
In the history of the Hardy fell ill.
cinema, when silents were When I interviewed Alan
golden, perhaps the saddest clown was, Harry Langdon. some time ago for Radio Australia, this is how he recalled the
His ‘baby-face’ persona aroused the maternal instincts of two legends of comedy:
many of the female members of the audience.
According to film historian Kalton C Lahue, Langdon seri- “I Joined the show in January and went right through to May,
ously challenged the Kings of Comedy — Chaplin, Keaton when Hardy fell ill in Plymouth, and that was the end of
and Lloyd in the late twenties — and was one of the true Laurel and Hardy as a pair of comedians. They retired, and
comic geniuses of the screen. went back to America.
One of the funniest and most poignant snippets of silent By this time they were in their late sixties.
comedy that I have ever seen featured Harry Langdon on a They were really marvellous to work with. I always
bicycle and a dis-interested girl seated in a parked car. remember the first thing that happened when I arrived down at
It’s a scene from his feature-length comedy Long Pants. Portsmouth, that’s where we began the tour, I was unpacking
Langdon’s genius shines through as he tries to my case — there was a knock on the dressing-room door,
impress the girl with his remarkable ‘two wheeled’ and this very attractive, very well dressed American
skills — to no avail! lady came in and it was Hardy’s wife.
But in real life, in later years, Langdon She said ‘Welcome Mr Rowe. It’s nice to
found himself playing out the ‘sad clown’ have you on the show, we do welcome you
role. When the fickle public tired of his inno- and Ollie wants to say he’s glad you’re here.’
cent, perplexed and puzzled screen charac- Then she said, ‘Have you got a photo of
ter, he was reduced to taking any odd jobs yourself, an autographed photo?’
around the studios. They kept a scrapbook for Ollie —
He took on one job too many. Oliver Hardy — “Babe” as they used to call
As assistant to a director at Columbia him. That book had all the people that they’d
Studios, at sixty years of age, he exhausted him- worked with, right throughout their lives.
Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel
self conducting a rehearsal for a scene from a musi- Their routines were still fresh. They were very
cal comedy. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and shrewd. On their stage shows, they looked just like
died on 22 September 1944. they looked in the films, and they didn’t try to do stand-up
His passing was mourned by those who could remember comedy acts, they just acted out a sketch. They had three or
his halcyon years in the film capital, and by his five wives, to four people with them on the show. I wasn’t one of them. I had
whom he was paying a fortune in alimony. my own separate act.
Mack Sennett summed up Langdon’s life succinctly when he They did exactly what they did in their films, and they were
said, “He was a quaint artist who had no business in business.” very successful. We played two houses a night. Packed theatres.
Ask anybody today who they can recollect as a sad screen They were very nice people. They had both come up the
comic, and the chances are they will name Stanley Arthur hard way, and they never forgot that. While the first house was
Jefferson — Stan Laurel as the movie-going public knew him. playing, the people in the audience for the first show were
Stan Laurel, with his trembling bottom lip which always encouraged to bring their autograph albums, and leave them at
preceded an outpouring of tears was the perfect foil, the perfect the stage door, and for the first half hour of the show, both of
contrast to the ‘tie-twiddling’ gentlemanly Oliver “Babe” them would sign all the books and put little stickers in them.
Hardy — he with the lovely tenor voice which was heard all too They loved children. They
seldom. (As a young man Oliver were wonderful people, and it
Hardy had studied singing, and was a privilege and a joy to
had sung with a provincial work with them”.
opera company.)
We are all familiar with their Australian comedian, Alan
screen persona, but what were Rowe’s recollections of the
they like away from the spot- world’s best loved comedy
light, the glamour and the task of duo, Stan Laurel and Oliver
making people laugh? “Babe” Hardy, whose success-
The late Alan Rowe,an ful partnership began in the
Australian comedian who, in 1920s — When Silents Were
Harry Langdon
Alan Rowe
Harry Langdon Golden! ★ Alan Rowe
the early fifties appeared at the
CINEMARECORD Autumn 2001 23