On This Day – 7th March

On 7th March 1940, Oliver Hardy married film assistant Virginia Lucille Jones, with whom he enjoyed a happy marriage until his death in 1957.

Hardy began sharing screen time together with Stan Laurel in 1927 with Slipping Wives, Duck Soup (no relation to the 1933 Marx Brothers' film of the same name) and With Love and Hisses. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey, realising the audience reaction to the two, began intentionally teaming them together.

This led to the start of a Laurel and Hardy series later that year.

They began producing short movies, including The Battle of the Century (1927) (with one of the largest pie fights ever filmed), Should Married Men Go Home? (1928), Two Tars (1928), Unaccustomed As We Are (1929, marking their transition to talking pictures) Berth Marks (1929), Blotto (1930), Brats (1930) (with Stan and Ollie portraying themselves, as well as their own "sons", using oversized furniture sets for the "young" Laurel and Hardy); Another Fine Mess (1930), Be Big! (1931), and many others throughout the thirties and forties.

In 1947, Laurel and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom. Unsure of how they would be received, they were mobbed wherever they went. The tour was lengthened to include engagements in Scandinavia, Belgium, France, as well as a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Biographer John McCabe said they continued to make live appearances in the United Kingdom and France for the next several years, until 1954, often using new sketches and material that Laurel had written for them.

Their career together as Laurel & Hardy continued until 1951 with the release of their final film, Atoll K.

Today's question is – how many Laurel; & Hardy films were produced over the years?

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