Great new Stan Laurel site: Stan Laurel letters

[Mister Levity]

Wonderful new site with many of Stan Laurel's personally written
letters, etc.

www.lettersfromstan.com

[r***@yahoo.com]

This is a fascinating site! Among the nuggets of information to be
mined here are that, in 1928 at least, Stan did not think too highly
of The Finishing Touch and that he considered taking his act to Las
Vegas in 1952 but found the facilities "too small" with not enough
room to hang sets. I guess Vegas was a different kinda place back
then.

Rob Farr
www.slapsticon.org
July 19-22, 2007

Post by Mister Levity
Wonderful new site with many of Stan Laurel's personally written
letters, etc.
www.lettersfromstan.com

[Hal Erickson]

Also fascinating are the glimpses of Stan's offscreen sense of humor, which
could be delightfully ribald and a bit wicked--though never malicious. It
was fun reading his gentle ribbing of the fan who told him "Bonnie Scotland"
was his favorite film (It evidently wasn't Stan's favorite) .

I probably could have done without the information about Lucille Hardy's
drinking problem, however. Leave me some illusions!


--Hal E

[Larc]

On 20 Mar 2007 05:48:18 -0700, "Mister Levity" <***@yahoo.com> wrote:

| Wonderful new site with many of Stan Laurel's personally written
| letters, etc.
|
| www.lettersfromstan.com

Thanks for letting us in on this site.

I love the Stanleyesque line at the bottom of Stan's Jan. 9, 1956, letter to
Betty (Mrs. Ted) Healy:

"I didn't look at the Rose Parade - am allergic to roses!!!"

It's interesting to see how old fashioned Stan's letter writing style is. For
instance, his use of "inst." meaning "in this month" would have been passé in
the 20s and antiquated by the 50s.

Larc



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[Mister Levity]

I was always under the impression Laurel and Hardy never recieved
royalties for the use if their likeness during this time, but the
contract letter dated Jan 6, 1955 clearly states laurel and Hardy did
indeed enter an agreement with the publishers.

Those realtor aggreements are very interesting. Also that Stan would
bring visiting freinds to the 20th Century Fox Studios for a tour
rather than Hal Roach Studios reveals quite a lot.

[Rollo]

For the letter from Aug. of 42' why was it written
from the Roach studio? Was Stan just using up
some old letterhead? And does anyone know who
Suzette Dear is? I'm assuming a family friend.

I liked seeing that letters from the late 40's onward
started including Hardy's name in stating wishes
to the corresponder--showing that the business
partnership was developing into a deeper friendship.

Does anyone know how the friendship with Betty Healy
arose? Was Stan friendly with Ted Healy? I was
amused that he endorsed a life story of Ted as being
filled with sentimental human interest since the only
things I've every read about him was a portrait of a
drunken abusive person.

But then Stan was nothing less than a gentleman.

Gary J.

[Frank J. Lhota]

Post by Rollo
...
Does anyone know how the friendship with Betty Healy
arose? Was Stan friendly with Ted Healy? I was
amused that he endorsed a life story of Ted as being
filled with sentimental human interest since the only
things I've every read about him was a portrait of a
drunken abusive person.

Ted Healy definitely had a softer side. Larry Fine's sister Lydia had
nothing but praise for him. On the other hand, Healy had a serious drinking
problem, of and he could be a mean drunk. In other words, *both* Betty
Healy's sentimental stories and the stories about Healy's abuse are true in
a way.

Post by Rollo
But then Stan was nothing less than a gentleman.

Agreed!

Post by Rollo
Gary J.

[Rollo]

I guess I'll answer my own question.
I was paging thru the L&H Encyclopedia
and I stumbled over Betty's name.
I had forgotten that she played Mrs. Laurel
in "Our Relations." (Or else I never bothered
to commit her name to memory. She wasn't
a stock company member)

So it seems she was Stan's friend because
of their work connection and Ted may never
had any history with Stan at all. For some
reason he didn't strike me as a show biz crony
that Laurel would of spent time with.

Gary J.

[s***@yahoo.com]

Stan directed Ted Healy in WISE GUYS PREFER BRUNETTES, a Hal Roach
comedy from 1926.