A Laurel and Hardy Miscellany Trivia Quiz

Answer: England

Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson, on June 16, 1890 in Ulverston, Lancashire, England. His father, Arthur J. Jefferson, was an actor and theatre manager and his mother, Margaret (née Metcalfe), an actress.

Answer: Glasgow

Stan Laurel's father was a theatre owner in the north of England and Scotland. The family moved to Glasgow in 1905, and Laurel made his stage debut in a Glasgow music-hall called the Britannia Panopticon a month before his 16th birthday.

Answer: Georgia

Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia. For his stage name he took his father's first name, Oliver.

Answer: The Tin Man

Oliver Hardy played the dual roles of a Kansas farmhand and the Tin Man. The plot of the film differs from that in the books, with the main character in this film being Larry Semon's Scarecrow. Other differences are that the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion are disguises worn by three farm hands who are carried into Oz by a tornado and that Dorothy in the film is 18 years old, considerably older than the Dorothy in the books.

Answer: The Lucky Dog

In 1921, they both appeared in the movie "The Lucky Dog", starring Stan Laurel, with Hardy in a supporting role, playing the part of a robber trying to hold up Stan. The dog of the title is a stray that befriends Laurel and leads him on a series of adventures, culminating in a scene where it fetches a lighted stick of dynamite and lays it at the feet of a thief.

Answer: Putting Pants on Philip

"Putting Pants On Philip", made in 1927, was their first film together as a team, rather than as individual comedians, although they had not yet begun to use their own names for the parts they played. Laurel plays the part of Philip, a kilt wearing Scotsman newly arrived in the United States, and Hardy plays the part of his uncle, Piedmont Mumblethunder, who sets about the task of getting his nephew to wear trousers.

Answer: Hats Off

"Hats Off" was a silent film from 1927. It was last publicly shown in Germany in 1930, after which it disappeared and is considered a lost film.

Answer: The Music Box

"The Music Box" was a short film in which Laurel and Hardy attempt to move a piano up a long flight of steps. In 1997, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The plot revolves around the pair's difficulties in delivering a piano that they have to carry up a long flight of steps.

Answer: The Fighting Kentuckian

"The Fighting Kentuckian" was the only film that Hardy appeared in with John Wayne, although the two had worked together on stage the previous year in a touring charity production of "What Price Glory"? The film is set in 1812, when Wayne's character returns home from the Battle of New Orleans, and falls in love with a woman whose family are the target of a plot to steal the land that they plan to settle on. Wayne, pretending to be a land surveyor, sets out with Oliver Hardy, the pair of them trying to look like they are surveying while trying to foil the villains.

Answer: Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Light Railway

In 1947, Laurel and Hardy attended the reopening of the Dungeness loop of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a 15 inch (381mm) gauge light railway in Kent, England. Laurel and Hardy performed comedy routines to entertain the crowds before riding a train, followed by lunch with dignitaries and tea at the railway's restaurant at Hythe.