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-- Rare L&H Footage Found --
-- New L&H CD --
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Harry Hoppe, Grand Sheik of the Two Tars tent in Germany, brought a little bit of rare L&H footage with him to the recent Sons of the Desert UK Convention held in Rotherham. The footage comprises two short scenes and originated from a special trailer which M-G-M sent out to cinema owners only.
In this trailer M-G-M presented their new releases for the 1934 season with specially filmed Laurel & Hardy scenes. The first scene shows Laurel & Hardy dusting a telescope (as only they can) and Harry thinks this was probably the beginning of the trailer - "a look at the new stars in the M-G-M sky". The second was at the end. Jimmy Finlayson chases the boys. He then tells them (in French) "Go away and don't come back!" Hardy interrupts and says "One moment please," then turns to the camera with "Dear friends, I hope you liked our little journey to the stars. See you again and goodbye ..........." Ollie then steps into the empty space where a lift recently was. Fin peers down the lift shaft as Ollie plummets to the bottom. Fin gives his frustrated "beady-eye" look as the scene fades out. The two rare scenes were on the French/German culture TV channel ARTE in December 1998 and were part of a documentary about comedians. Between them the two scenes only last 47 seconds altogether and so the audience at Rotherham were definitely left wanting more. Even though this footage is brief it is so great to discover something new from Laurel & Hardy. Despite the short amount of elapsed time of these scenes the boys (and Fin) manage to pack in plenty of laughs. Thanks to Harry Hoppe, members of The Live Ghost tent had the opportunity to view this footage at our tent meeting on May 29th 1999. |
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In this millenium year, EMI are launching a new series of CDs to celebrate some of the historic talents who have helped to shape the cultural landscape of the century. The series will be entitled 'LEGENDS OF THE 20th CENTURY'. They have had the good sense to include Stan and Ollie among this celebrated group of legends. The fifth and final phase of these releases will include the boys and this is due on 20th September 1999.
Author Randy Skretvedt has written the extensive booklet notes which includes photos and chronology of the artists' lives. The CD will include 26 tracks; most of them are from L&H films, but the final two tracks are both sides of Laurel & Hardy's one and only 78pm record which was made in England during their 1932 tour. These two sides have been issued on other LPs and CDs, but always in altered and edited form. This new CD will include both sides in their entirety. The soundtrack items will also have superb sound quality, having been transferred from 35mm materials. So this is certainly something worth looking out for. Well done EMI! |
©2000 "The Live Ghost"