Doll-A-Day 2023 #115: Oliver Hardy

   Yes, I missed a day again. By the time I got the book post up last night I was too tired to do the regular post. The book post was farther behind, so it had priority. Now I'm EIGHT days behind for the year! I'll catch up some day. Hopefully I'll at least get this week's late post up in a few days.

  Emma is still in the hospital. She has a drain in her side because she has a tear in her liver, and bile would otherwise be draining into her body. She also has an antibiotic IV drip. She is supposed to be transferred to another, bigger hospital where they can put a stent in her side to drain the bile, while her liver heals. She is feeling better though, other than some leftover pain from all she's been through. They have no idea when they'll be moving her, as they have to wait until there is a bed free at the other hospital. Good thing she didn't have to go there to get the gall bladder out!

  Today's doll is Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy.

"Chin up! No,no, no! Both of them!": Stan, (who thinks he is 'Lord Paddington', and Oliver is his butler), to Ollie, in "A Chump at Oxford". 

  As you may have guessed from the multiple Laurel and Hardy dolls I've posted HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, I do love me some Laurel and Hardy. This guy was found at a yard sale or thrift store years ago. I had never washed him, even though I love to wash any second hand thing I can, because I was always afraid he would fall apart. His insides are at least partially styrofoam I think, so I was worried that wasn't going to stand up to the washing machine. Well, poor Ollie was in the Room of Water, so when he came here to be rehabilitated, a trip in the washing machine was his only recourse. He survived quite well, and looks wonderful.

  He's about 22 inches tall, but that's just eyeballing it.

Either he has unnaturally pale hands, or he's wearing white gloves, neither of which Oliver Hardy was known for.

  He's made by a company called  Toy Network. I think he's like a claw machine toy or fair prize. That type of thing.

He was made in 2004. 

To answer the question as to why Laurel and Hardy's likenesses are owned by something called Larry Harmon Pictures Corporation, well, allow me to rant. Larry Harmon was best known for, (other than his various Laurel and Hardy projects), playing Bozo the Clown, which he began doing in the late 1940's. He bought the rights to that too. (He's the guy to blame for all the local Bozo TV shows in the 60's. I hate that guy.) Heck, let me quote myself, from a previous Laurel and Hardy post:

 If you ever check the copyright on a Laurel and Hardy item made from the 60's onward, you'll notice that it says   'Copyright Larry Harmon". Larry Harmon obtained the rights to Laurel and Hardy's images from Stan and his wife, and Oliver Hardy's widow Lucille. Harmon was a friend of Stan's, and was known as the owner and portrayer of Bozo the Clown. (In spite of Harmon's frequent claims to have invented Bozo, Bozo was created by Alan W. Livingston in the 1940's,and was first portrayed by Pinto Colvig. Bozo even served as the mascot for Capitol Records, before Harmon bought the rights from Capitol in 1956.) 

And to complete that thought, here is my answer to a comment on the same post: 

  Oliver Hardy never had any children. Stan had a daughter, Lois Laurel Hawes, who is still alive.(She has passed since that post.) I'm not sure if Lois gets anything, but probably not, since Harmon owned the rights to the names and images. Sad really. Harmon was a friend of Stan's, but I kind of always felt he pulled a fast one on him somehow, getting those rights that way. Why would they sell them? It's like Jim Henson selling the Muppets. I know he sold them because he wanted to (so they would carry on after he was gone.), but it still irritates me when I hear "Disney's Muppets". They're not Disney's, and they never will be to me. Same with Star Wars. That and the Harmon thing reminds me of the scene in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum's character tells 'John Hammond', "...it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Well..." It irks me that 'Bozo' made, and Disney is making, a fortune on the hard work of others, and all they had to do was buy someone else's legend.

  I still stand by that opinion of Larry Harmon and the whole situation. I think Harmon took advantage of his friendship with Stan, and the whole opportunity to befriend Stan in the first place. Stan left his number and address in the phone book until he died, so a lot of people made their way to his door, including Dick Van Dyke, who became a good friend and gave the eulogy at Stan's funeral, and Jerry Lewis, who considered himself a comic genius and wanted to probably discuss comedy with Stan, who was much better at it than he was. (Personal opinion!) Larry Harmon was one of those people who trekked to Stan's door, and ingratiated themselves. Oliver had already  passed away, so it was undoubtedly Stan's influence that allowed Harmon to buy the rights from Oliver's widow, Lucille.

  I'm sorry, but Larry Harmon really, to quote my dad, "Gripes my a**"! 

  And now back to Oliver! He has his classic tie, for 'twiddling'...

The famous 'tie twiddle'.

...and bowler hat...

  and of course, his little bangs and tiny mustache.

  Sorry he's very cat hairy. The culprit is this gentleman right here:

The long arm of the Cowboy.

His name is Cowboy, and he keeps me company most of the time. I think a lot of that is to get away from his stepbrother, Arthur, who loves to annoy him, more than a desire to hang out with me. But I'll take what I can get. He does leave his calling cards behind though, and they are hair.

For being cheaply made, and a bit cartoony, this doll does resemble Oliver quite a bit. 

  That's the doll for today. Hopefully we'll see you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #59: Oscar Week: Laurel and Hardy

  With the recent release of the movie "Stan and Ollie" there has been a renewed interest in Laurel and Hardy lately. They've always been favourites of mine.  Today's Oscar Week dolls are these two guys.

They are obviously Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy,otherwise known as Laurel and Hardy.

They were made by Premiere in 1997,and were Target stores exclusives.

The backs of their boxes contain an pretty accurate account of their pairing.

The back of the box has a flap that opens to show photos of the team.

The inside of the flap is a bit less accurate, although not surprisingly so. The actual quote Ollie frequently used on Stan is, "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.", in spite of the title of their 1930 short, "Another Fine Mess". For proof, you can watch a compilation of Oliver saying the famous line HERE. As for the rest of the phrases, none of them are quotes Laurel and Hardy are really known for. I would have gone more for, "You make me tired!", "Why don't you do something to help me?!","You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be led.", and "Yes, I never did."

The likenesses are pretty good. Oliver has his spit curl bangs and his tiny mustache.

I'm not so sure it isn't a little too tiny though.

Stan has his stretched smile and tiny eyes.

For films Stan lined his inner eyelids to make his eyes appear smaller. It was all part of his efforts to "look stupider", as was in keeping with the character of  'Stan'.

Their look is instantly recognizable, even if the faces aren't exactly right.

This is one of the few REAL colour pictures of Laurel and Hardy taken in their heyday. Taken by New York Daily News photographer Harry Warneke in 1938, during the shooting of "Blockheads", it hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian.

 The dolls were a limited edition, numbered series and were called '70th Anniversary' editions on their packaging.

That's because 1997 was the 70th anniversary of their first official movie as a team, "Putting Pants on Phillip". They had both appeared in 1921's "Lucky Dog", but not as a team. "Lucky Dog" was a Stan Laurel vehicle, but Oliver Hardy appeared as a thief who robs him. (You can watch "Lucky Dog" HERE.) "Putting Pants on Phillip"  starred them both, but their usual characters weren't set yet. Oliver played a man whose nephew, Phillip, arrives from Scotland wearing a kilt, much to his uncle's embarrassment. Stan played Phillip. (You can watch "Putting Pants on Phillip" HERE.)

  The dolls come with accessories, including display stands decorated with facsimiles of their actual signatures.

Both have umbrellas

Molded ones that don't open.

  Stan comes with a suitcase.

 Oliver comes with a pie.

 

The fact that Laurel and Hardy dolls frequently come with pies kind of ticks me off. I realize Laurel and Hardy may be best known to some for their movie "The Battle of the Century", which contains a pie fight that the Guinness Book of World Records says as many as 10,000 pies were used in, (although 3000 is generally considered to be the real amount.).  But pie fights were more Mack Sennett comedies and the Three Stooges. Laurel and Hardy weren't known for their pie fights. Just saying. (If you want to read the full story of "The Battle of the Century", you can check out my post on my Stan Laurel figure HERE.) You can watch the reconstructed "Battle of the Century", which was thought to be lost for years, HERE.
  They share a hand sculpt.

"Hold my beer."

  I should note here that they are NOT the exact same hands as the Premiere Ingrid Bergman doll which I posted the other day. Hers are a different sculpt, and not nearly as big as these guys' hands. That puts to rest my theory that Premiere used the same hands for both it's male and female figures. The girls still have 'man hands' though.
  The dolls are 9" tall. Their clothes are removable, and have some nice detail.

Oliver's stand-up collar has disappeared down his jacket, and I'm not sure about that tie fabric either. Polka dots yes, plaid, no.

 Meanwhile, Stan's collar is swallowing his head.

 The little buttons and pockets are nice, but as with other Premiere dolls, the fabric used for the clothes is too heavy and bulky.

Definitely too much collar.

The hats are part of the heads, and do not come off.

  Stan was known to have very pale blue eyes, and this doll definitely doesn't. In fact, Stan's eyes were so pale that one studio turned him down as an actor because they thought his eyes wouldn't photograph well. (Certain types of early film photographed the light blue eyes as white!) His early films show Stan with huge black circles around his eyes, in an attempt to make his eyes show up!

There was another set of Laurel and Hardy dolls made by Premiere. That set of dolls was dressed in white shirts and overalls, as the team appeared in several shorts,(short subject films, that is.), including "The Finishing Touch"(1928),"Towed in a Hole"(1932),"Busy Bodies"(1933),and their Oscar winning short, "The Music Box"(1932). See? There is an Oscar connection to these dolls.

"The Music Box" concerns Stan and Ollie delivering a piano to a house that sits atop a very tall hill. The short won the first Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film (Comedy). For the whole story on "The Music Box" and biographies of Stan and Oliver, see my Oscar Week post on my Hamilton Laurel and Hardy dolls HERE. You can watch Laurel and Hardy's Oscar winning short HERE. The other Oscar connection to Laurel and Hardy is Stan's Lifetime Achievement Oscar, which was awarded to him in 1961. Unfortunately, Oliver had passed away in 1957. Stan passed away in 1965.

  Tomorrow we'll see another Oscar doll.