Stan and Ollie
The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy
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Narrated by:
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Shaun Grindell
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By:
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Simon Louvish
About this listen
In this audiobook, Simon Louvish traces the early lives of Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy and the surrounding minstrel and variety theater, which influenced all of their later work. Louvish examines the rarely seen solo films of both our heroes, prior to their serendipitous pairing in 1927, in the long-lost short Duck Soup. The inspired casting teamed them until their last days. Both often married, they found balancing their personal and professional lives a nearly impossible feat.
Between 1927 and 1938, they were able to successfully bridge the gap between silent and sound films, which tripped up most of their prominent colleagues. Their Hal Roach and MGM films were brilliant, but their move in 1941 to Twentieth Century Fox proved disastrous, with the nine films made there ranking as some of the most embarrassing moments of cinematic history.
In spite of this, Laurel and Hardy survived as exemplars of lasting genius, and their influence is seen to this day. The clowns were elusive behind their masks, but now Simon Louvish can finally reveal their full and complex humanity, and their passionate devotion to their art. In Stan and Ollie, Louvish has seamlessly woven tireless and thorough research into an authoritative biography of these two important and influential Hollywood pioneers.
©2001 Simon Louvish (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Los Angeles in the 1960s: riots in Watts and on the Sunset Strip, wild weekends in Malibu, late nights at The Daisy discotheque, openings at the Ferus Gallery, and the convergence of pop art, rock and roll, and the New Hollywood. At the center of it all, one inspired, improbable, and highly combustible couple—Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward—lived out the emblematic love story of ’60s L.A.
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Wonderful!
- By Rob on 06-07-22
By: Mark Rozzo
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Mobituaries
- By: Mo Rocca
- Narrated by: Mo Rocca
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries - reading about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world. But not every notable life has gotten the send-off it deserves. His quest to right that wrong inspired Mobituaries, his number one hit podcast. Now with Mobituaries, the audiobook, he has gone much further, with all new essays on artists, entertainers, sports stars, political pioneers, founding fathers, and more. Even if you know the names, you’ve never understood why they matter...until now.
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Very good, but.....
- By Christopher on 11-15-19
By: Mo Rocca
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Singular Sensation
- The Triumph of Broadway
- By: Michael Riedel
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1990s was a decade of profound change on Broadway. At the dawn of the '90s, the British invasion of Broadway was in full swing, as musical spectacles like Les Miserables, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera dominated the box office. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard soon spelled the end of this era and ushered in a new wave of American musicals, beginning with the ascendance of an unlikely show by a struggling writer who reimagined Puccini’s opera La Bohème as the smash Broadway show Rent
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Why Didn’t Michael Riedel Read This Himself?
- By Tallulah on 01-17-22
By: Michael Riedel
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I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else
- My Life on the Street, on the Stage, and in the Movies
- By: Danny Aiello, Gil Reavill
- Narrated by: Danny Aiello
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved stage and screen actor Danny Aiello’s big-hearted memoir reveals a man of passion, integrity, and guts - and lays bare one of the most unlikely success stories ever told. Danny Aiello admits that he backed into his acting career by mistake. That’s easy to see when you begin at the beginning: Raised by his loving and fiercely resilient mother in the tenements of Manhattan and the South Bronx, and forever haunted by the death of his infant brother, Danny struggled early on to define who he was and who he could be.
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I want to give Danny Aiello a big hug.
- By Mari K. on 01-22-15
By: Danny Aiello, and others
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Steve McQueen
- A Biography
- By: Marc Eliot
- Narrated by: Marc Eliot
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and '70s with now-classics such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullit, Steve McQueen is renowned as one of the most exciting actors ever to come out of Hollywood. Now, in Steve McQueen: A Biography, best-selling author Marc Eliot gives unique insight into McQueen's life, from his films to his three marriages, many affairs, and struggles with addictions.
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Snooze
- By Cill on 10-27-11
By: Marc Eliot
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"The Rest of Us"
- The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews
- By: Stephen Birmingham
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The wave of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who swept into New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by way of Ellis Island were not welcomed by the Jews who had arrived decades before. These refugees from czarist Russia and the Polish shtetls who came to America to escape pogroms and persecution were considered barbaric, uneducated, and too steeped in the traditions of the "old country" to be accepted by the more refined and already well-established German-Jewish community. But the new arrivals were tough, passionate, and determined.
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Book 3 of 3
- By Etoile NEOhio on 11-15-22
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Chasing the Light
- Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game
- By: Oliver Stone
- Narrated by: Oliver Stone
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
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An intimate memoir by the controversial, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his rarefied New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, and Scarface.
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Impressive
- By Merle O. Tanner on 10-07-20
By: Oliver Stone
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100 Things the Simpsons Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
- By: Allie Goertz, Julia Prescott
- Narrated by: Pete Cross, Angie Kane
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Most fans of The Simpsons can distinguish Lenny from Carl without checking their hands. But only real fans recall the Eastern European equivalent of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, know the name of Barney Gumble's submission to the Springfield Film Festival, and have road tripped to the World's Fair in Knoxville. 100 Things The Simpsons Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the ultimate resource for true fans, whether you comprehend at a Ralph Wiggum or Lisa Simpson level.
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BEST BOOK EVER!!😁
- By Kathleen on 11-22-20
By: Allie Goertz, and others
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All About Me!
- My Remarkable Life in Show Business
- By: Mel Brooks
- Narrated by: Mel Brooks
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now, for the first time, this EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner shares his story in his own words.
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Wonderful and nostalgic
- By GAT on 12-07-21
By: Mel Brooks
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The Curse of Beauty
- The Scandalous & Tragic Life of Audrey Munson, America's First Supermodel
- By: James Bone
- Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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As America was stepping into the modern era, one great beauty became the artist's model of choice. Her perfect form became the emblem of the Gilded Age and appears on the greatest monuments of New York and the nation. Supermodel, actress, icon - her beauty paved the way for a life of glamour, passion, and ultimately tragedy. Her name is Audrey Munson.
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Fascinating
- By Аmazon Customer on 04-06-17
By: James Bone
What listeners say about Stan and Ollie
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JIM HOWELL
- 08-02-24
Exhaustive… And exhausting… Research
It definitely advertises that it’s going to be comprehensive, so it certainly accomplishes that goal. The problem with that is – unless you are the most diehard Laurel and Hardy fan – getting several chapters in before they even meet each other and/or collaborate winds up being a monotonous slog for most of the readers. in addition, I’m assuming that it’s the normal inflection “across the pond”, but the narrator has one way & one way only to deliver sentences, and he does it for 13 hours in this book. And I don’t have to tell you how old that gets after a while.
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- Krista
- 03-02-22
Imagine 18 hours of listening to William Shatner
Apparently this narrator studied at the same school as Shatner. It gets a bit easier toward the end of the book, but still a bit of work to listen to. The narrator' emphasizes at least' three' words of each' sentence, and it is very' hard to listen to (read the accent marks as emphasized words, and you may get a hint). However, if you want a detailed look at our two favorite comedians, this book definitely provides that. One point in the book that I found fascinating is how Stan's salary is always significantly more than Ollie's.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Wilma608
- 07-09-22
Entertaining and Factual
I would call this more of an educational resource than light reading, but that said, I still found it very enjoyable. It covers the lives of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy fairly comprehensively from birth to death. It also covers their works, both separately and as a team, in detail. Being a history buff and a biography lover, I did find it entertaining, and learned some things too.
Being a lover of the old Hal Roach Laurel & Hardy movies, I also enjoyed the synopses of their works, because the descriptions called the movies up in my imagination while listening to the book.
I did NOT find the narrator to be annoying, as some other readers described. He speaks very precisely & has a bit of a British accent, but I found this to be appropriate.
This is a book I will listen to again.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Paul
- 05-16-21
Quite good, incredibly detailed and thorough.
The perfect kind of book for old movie obsessives. History lessons galore, not just on the families, life, work and times of Stan and Ollie, but an incredible lesson regarding the birth of the movie industry.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Tim Blackburn
- 01-04-22
Love Laurel and Hardy!!
This is the most difficult review for me to-date. I've always loved Laurel and Hardy and some of my earliest memories from the 1960's revolve around their movies. This book is difficult to work through due to it's long length - >17 hours. The actual biographical portrait of the boys is great and I thoroughly enjoyed that. The complete filmography of their work is very tedious to work through. Great reference material but very hard to listen to due to the minute details of each work. Another element of the book is a critique of movies. I also struggled mightily in this part of the book. The author ravaged my two very favorite L&H movies (Flying Dueces and The Big Noise) and I probably took his criticism too personally. Summing up, this book is a magnificent reference work for L&H fans or researchers but not so good as a general read for L&H fans.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Norm
- 12-06-21
What a struggle with narrator!
I think the content of the book is very good, but I work so hard trying to understand the narrator that I can't follow the story. He seems to be like Alfred Hitchcock channeling William Shatner. This might be the only audiobook that has a narrator I dislike more than Lavar Burton's desecration of Carl Sagan's Cosmos audiobook.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mark Bunker
- 08-26-24
Painful and Pointless
I am giving this two stars for its subjects. One star for Stan and one for Ollie but they deserve a much better telling of their story. The author has nothing new to say and the narrator has an annoying cadence, like a bad newscaster with a sing-song rhythm but instead of listening to it for a three minute news story....it goes on for more than 17 hours!
I was hoping to learn some new things about the greatest comedy team ever put on film. What was it like working at Hal Roach as they were united and creating their best material? How painful was it as they lost their independence at FOX? How did their friendship grow in those final years when they were touring on stage in the UK? Instead of insight, this book was cobbled together from newspaper articles, reviews and divorce filings. What little background there is on the making of the films comes directly from quotes from Randy Skretvedt's indispensable Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies.
Instead of new information, we are given blow by blow descriptions of the films by the narrator who sucks the joy out of the material with his painful recitation of bits and dialogue from their best loved movies...and worse, endless descriptions of long forgotten and often lost to time silent films Stan or Ollie appeared in separately with lesser talents like Larry Semon and top Chaplin imitator Billy West. Oh, but even worse are the tedious and unfunny descriptions of various music hall and vaudeville performances prior to the boys getting into the film business. We even get to hear what performances were canceled due to rain.
There are better books about Laurel and Hardy but none on tape. I wish the book showed even a fraction of the love and respect shown to Laurel and Hardy by the makers of the film "Stan and Ollie." I'm sure the author reveres them but he does little to honor them.
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1 person found this helpful