A collection of original Laurel and Hardy scenarios and scripts from the files of the Hal Roach studio. by LAUREL, Stan (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) - 1927-35

[Los Angeles:] , 1927-35. Original Laurel and Hardy scripts from their golden age A superb collection of original script material from the golden age of the most successful comic partnership in film history. In 1926, under contract to Hal Roach Studios for the third time, the English-born comedian Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) reworked an old sketch of his father's into a two-reel comedy, Home from the Honeymoon, featuring a pair of hobos posing as a respectable homeowner and a maid. Laurel himself was to drag up as the maid and Roach regular Syd Crossley was typed in to play the homeowner. Before filming was complete, Crossley was replaced by another Roach player, Oliver "Babe" Hardy, whom Laurel had known since the early 1920s. The resulting film, now titled Duck Soup, was not an official "Laurel and Hardy" short, but it suggested the comic potential of the fortuitous pairing. (The version of the scenario in this collection, docketed S-14, has its original title and still names Crossley in the lead role.) A few more joint appearances followed before their official inaugural short, The Second Hundred Years, released 8 October 1927 (the script here dated 10 June 1927, docketed S-2). From that point they were to make over 100 films together, some 30 of them silent, and almost all of them produced by Roach. Their golden age was between 1929 and 1935, when they created a prolific stream of 20-minute shorts, coming to a close with the classic Thicker Than Water, the last script present here. In the 1930s they began to make feature films, and in 1940 they left Roach. The subsequent features they made are widely considered a falling-off from the earlier high standards. Laurel and Hardy scripts or scenarios from their golden age are exceptionally rare; we can trace no other example of comparable material ever having appeared in commerce. Hal Roach retired from active production in 1955, leaving the business to his son, who lacked his father's business acumen and soon lost the studio to creditors. It was finally shut down in 1961, and physically demolished in 1963 to make way for a car showroom. The company's remaining furniture was auctioned off, including filing cabinets containing original working copies of scripts, the source of the present collection. These had survived as company file copies, retrieved by Hal Roach immediately after filming from the small number of participants in the making of these classic shorts. Doubtless most other copies perished. Some of the later scripts here are accompanied by lists of copies distributed to members of the cast, production team and crew, showing that typically only two dozen or so copies were made. Even fewer copies would have been made of the early silent scripts, filmed as they were with minimal cast and crew. The early silent scripts are numbered S-1 to S-21 (nos. S-13, S-15, S-16 and S-20 missing from the sequence). This numbering sequence is not in strict order of the composition of the scripts, and it seems to represent an effort, begun in June 1927, to keep retrospective track of writing work done by Stan Laurel in his final period under contract with the studio from 1926 onwards. Roach had let him go twice before because of his poor commercial record, but once the hits started coming, it must have seemed worthwhile to keep a proper record of his work on file. The earliest script is Madame Mystery, a comic vehicle for faded sex symbol Theda Bara, co-directed by Laurel, with Hardy in the part of Captain Schmaltz, released 12 March 1926. As film historians have noted, these scenarios are much shorter than fully composed screenplays. "In constructing their films, Laurel and Hardy used a simple modus operandi, depending far more on situation than on plot... Scenarios as such were almost nonexistent on many of their shorts" (William K. Everson, The Films of Laurel and Hardy, 1967). The scenarios in the present collection are, however, more substantial than Everson implies - perhaps he had not been able to inspect any. Though the seven earliest scripts are evidently typed up retrospectively, they are not transcripts from the films, but authentic copies of the original scenarios from which the films were constructed. This can be inferred from the manner in which the scripts show Laurel and Roach leaving details vague ahead of filming, with plenty of leeway for improvised business on set ("We go into a 'wow' finish and FADE OUT") or even deferred casting decisions ("We may use a nice looking maid.") Notable films in this early sequence include Sugar Daddies, the last film in which they appeared together before their official teaming; Hats Off, the second official Laurel and Hardy film (of which no print now survives), in which they attempt to deliver a washing machine up a huge flight of steps, the prototype of their 1932 short The Music Box; and The Battle of the Century, which is accompanied by eight call sheets for filming at various locations, a film famous in cinema history for its climactic pie fight. The later sequence of 22 short films made after the coming of sound is arranged in order of release date, from Come Clean (released 19 September 1931) to the final Laurel and Hardy short, Thicker than Water (16 March 1935), the sequence docketed L1 to L23 (L6 missing from the collection). It is not clear why these particular scripts have been thus designated. These later scripts come in three basic variants: a) the original scenario from which the film was created; b) H. M. Walker's dialogue only, presumably made as a record of what payment he was due; and c) a full transcript of the completed film, including titles, annotated in the left margin with numbers of reels, feet of film, and frames shot. Of the 22 short films in this later sequence, two films, One Good Turn and Any Old Port are represented in all three versions; two films have original scenario and Walker's dialogue; ten films have original scenario and final transcript; one film has Walker's dialogue and final transcript; five films have original scenario only; and two films have final transcript only. In a few cases, variant original scenarios are present. These will be of enormous interest to film historians, showing how the original scenario or scenarios (present here in all but three films) differed from the final produced version. For example the original scenario of their last film, Thicker Than Water, notably lacks its famous sight-gag ending, in which Laurel and Hardy swap bodies. Most of the scripts are marked in pencil with the names of one or other of the Hal Roach Studio production crew, and include most of the significant figures: Roach himself; H. M. "Beanie" Walker, writer of the title cards on the silent shorts and dialogue writer on the later sound shorts; Richard Currier, film editor; Warren Doane, props; Bert Jordan, editor; Henry Ginsberg, unpopular financial overseer brought in when the studio was in trouble in 1933; Al French, production manager; and James W. Horne, director. The final script in the collection is the full-length shooting script (marked "final script") of Babes in Toyland, dated 28 July 1934. This is script number 13, with the inscription in blue pencil of Bob Sanders, props, on the front page, the script marked throughout with notes for props required in every scene, and with other related marks (deleted scenes etc). Re-titled March of the Wooden Soldiers, Babes in Toyland in later years became a Thanksgiving Day fixture in the US television schedules, but the film is more famous in the Laurel and Hardy filmography for precipitating the row between Stan Laurel and Hal Roach (who had written the original script only to have Laurel reject it) which ultimately led to the dissolution of their successful working relationship. Carbon copy or mimeograph typescripts of 40 Laurel and Hardy films (39 short films, of which 17 are silent; Babes in Toyland full-length), several scripts with alternative scenarios or dialogue; with related ephemera, call-sheets, lists of props, etc.; together 61 different versions of scripts, plus additional production material as noted below. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Front page of Babes in Toyland screenplay detached and somewhat chipped and stained, the other scripts in the collection each attached to a card file protector with metal ring fasteners, the ephemeral material loosely inserted, the condition overall good.