Lost Hardy lost no longer!

Today FedEx delivered four barrels of nitrate purchased by the Library of Congress from a private collector in Suffolk, United Kingdom.  Included in the shipment was the previously thought to be lost Oliver Hardy film, AN EXPENSIVE VISIT (Lubin, 1915).  Always a good day to be able to add back onto the extant list any film, but it is always a bit more special when it features Babe Hardy.

It should be noted that the purchase was made possible due to the work of leading Laurel & Hardy solo film expert David Wyatt.  He made us aware of the potential sale, and when the deal was made he transported the films to the British Film Institute (who helped facilitate the shipment to the U.S.).

More on this title in the near future...

The Head Waiter

Thanks to the cooperation of the Filmoteca Espanola and the Eye Institute Netherlands, the Library of Congress - Packard Campus for Audio Visual Preservation will be restoring the THE HEAD WAITER which stars Larry Semon and Babe Hardy.  Released in December 1919 the film is only Babe's second appearance with Semon.  In one of those cases where things work out right it happened that the folks in Madrid had reel one while the people in Amsterdam held reel two.  Hopefully just the first in a series of such cooperative projects.

THE ARTFUL ANTICS OF BABE HARDY

Been some time, huh?

With this post I again make the assertion that Oliver Hardy was a star comedian before his teaming with Stan Laurel.  Certainly not a major star but he did have his own series for a time with Vim around late 1916 into early 1917, and also starred in his own comic page in the Kinema Comic magazine published in the United Kingdom.  THE ARTFUL ANTICS OF BABE HARDY first appeared July 17, 1920 during the latter part of Babe's tenure with Jimmy Aubrey and ran just short of a year with the last appearance of the page published on June 25, 1921.  Here are the first two installments, with more to come:

FRECKLED FISH FOUND

Steve Massa, Ben Model and other assorted cinegoons keep poking around the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and those Cruel and Unusual Comedy Boys keep making my day!  Just heard that they have found a fragment of a rare LKO comedy that features Babe Hardy.  FRECKLED FISH was one of the "Charlie of the Orient" films.  Can't wait to see it!!

More of Mr. Hardy

Babe with Buck Jones in THE GENTLE CYCLONE (1926)

Babe in the middle of the fight from

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF J. RUFUS WALLINGFORD (1915)

With Larry Semon from THE AGENT (1922)... I think, you tell me?

Babe and Jimmy Aubrey in THE NUISANCE (1921). 

Guess which of the two is the title character.  If you chose Mr. Hardy you are dead wrong!

HER BOY FRIEND pressbook

Here is the pressbook for HER BOY FRIEND (Educational, 1924) Larry Semon's first short after leaving Vitagraph. Babe, billed as Oliver N. Hardy, is in this one but not highlighted much in the pressbook. Enjoy:

Stan Lobby Cards

So why stop with Babe? Here are some lobby cards of films starring the comedian formerly known as Stan Jefferson.

WHEN KNIGHTS WERE COLD (Metro, 1923)

By the time this film was released Stan had left G.M. Anderson and was over at the Hal Roach Studios filming UNDER TWO JAGS. I really like the Amalgamated comedies and it was this series, not the soon to follow series at Roach, that really established Stan as a viable star film comedian.

RUPERT OF HEE-HAW (Roach, 1924)

Stan's next to last film for Hal Roach during his second tenure at the studio. A "travesty" of RUPERT OF HENTZAU (the sequel story to THE PRISONER OF ZENDA) with Stan playing a dual role.

DR. PYCKLE AND MR. PRIDE (Joe Rock, 1925)

Stan's next to last film for Joe Rock is probably his best solo film ever. Watching the films he made between 1922 and 1925 for G.M. Anderson, Hal Roach and Joe Rock show that Stan would have been a star with or without Oliver Hardy (but yes, not likely to the great degree the Boys obtained together). But by the time this film was released Stan had already directed three comedies for Hal Roach beginning his intended career as solely a behind-the-camera talent.