January Meeting 2026 January 16, 2026

This month is  Oliver Norvell Hardy’s birthday,  born 18th Jan 1892.  So, we’ll be celebrating the 134th university of his birth…now 134 years ago!  So, as the tradition, we have prepared a strong programme of Hal Roach Studio short film subjects  which are all very Ollie-eccentric.

You may be aware that this year marks the beginnings of Laurel & Hardy at the Hal Roach studio 100 years ago.  In reality, though Stan & Ollie were starting to work together in 1925 and in 1926 in various roles, it wasn’t until 1927 when they were becoming “Laurel and Hardy” as we know them. As I mentioned at the Christmas meeting, this year I want to track through what was happening at the studios exactly 100 years ago and then next year to start showing the Laurel & Hardy silents, in date order, to the month that they were released exactly 100 years ago.  It’s wonderful that we now have ALL the extant silents in a restored state and on Blu-ray HD.  Laurel & Hardy’s first film where they appear in the same film at the Hal Roach studio was “45 minutes from Hollywood”.  This was released December 26th 1926…so we will show this in January 2027…then we will show all the 1926/7 films in 2027, all 1928 films in 2028 and so forth.  Indeed it’s great to have a long term plan, though I’m not sure I’ll be still here to show the 1951 Atoll K in 2051!!  We have seen many of the 1927/8 silents in the last couple of years with the release of the restorations on Blu-ray.  So, this year we will concentrate on the 1929 silents which have recently been restored and issued on Blu-ray.  One of these silents is the brilliant sky-scraper thrills film “Liberty (1929)”  We will still however aim to show just one but at most two silents per show!

Exactly 100 years ago, at the start of 1926 both Stan & Babe were at the Roach studios…Babe was acting in front of the camera but due to contractural issues, Stan was writing comedy and behind the camera directing short comedy films.  This month, as it’s Babe’s birthday, I’m taking the opportunity to show a Babe Hardy solo silent film entitled “Wandering Papas (1926)”.   Stan is directing.  Though the lead is Clyde Cook, he exhibits many traits that are similar to Stan’s acting and if Stan wasn’t prevented from acting, this film could well have been the first  Laurel & Hardy film.   This film is taken from yet another fine US HD Blu-ray boxset entitled “Laurel or Hardy”.  This boxset  was released just a few years ago with restored material.

I’ve selected three talkie shorts we haven’t seen in quite a while…“Another Fine Mess (1930)”,  “Busy Bodies (1933)” and “Me and My Pal(1933)”.    I’m pleased to also announce that this will be our 2nd meeting where all of the films have been recently restored and will be shown in HD.

I’ll also be showing yet more Another Fine L&H based cartoons in the intermission – this will be  “Goofer upper golfers” (Ollie loved his golf) and “Skyscraper scape” (based on the film Liberty) from the Larry Harmon series of “Laurel & Hardy Show” cartoons created by Hanna Barbera in 1967.   Also, if time permits I have a short 10 min documentary on the Big Business and Liberty film locations in Culver City and Los Angeles.