On this Day Stan Laurel was born, 16 June 1890, 130 years ago.
The famous comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy topped the bill at Cardiff’s New Theatre in 1952 and received a tumultuous reception.
After making 100 films together the comedy pair came to Cardiff as part of a UK tour aimed at reviving their stardom.
By the time they came to the UK, they were considered old men back in the USA as audiences turned to newer stars and television drew in millions
But in 1952 in Cardiff, Laurel and Hardy still had the magic to make grown men run down the street after them and make eating a bag of chips funny.
One south Wales man in particular was not to be outdone. He was a builder’s labourer, standing in the back of a swaying lorry with all his home- ward-bound labouring mates crushed round him.
The lorry was going down Park Place, then a through-road. It slowed down as it reached the Queen Street intersection and suddenly a brickie's mate called Haydn let out a howl. “Stan,” he bellowed. “Ollie.” And yes, miraculously, it was them - ambling up Park Place towards the New Theatre, disappointingly bereft of Bowler hats but still unmistakeable.
And at that point Haydn launched himself from the lorry, bounced down the road, and fetched up clinging to the right trouser leg of Mr. Norvell Hardy, Mr. Arthur Stanley Jefferson looking on, manfully restraining the urge to scrabble his fingers through his thinning thatch in that famous gesture which suggested total incomprehension.
The next day Haydn boarded the lorry for its trip to Llanbradach . He was bruised, his knees creaked, but he was euphoric. “I touched ‘em. They talked to me. Stan an’ Ollie, they talked to me.”
Hundreds of thousands of words have been written about the greatest comedy team ever, but no tribute to their genius can ever have been more relevant than Haydn’s launch from the back of a lorry because he simply could not bear to let Stan and Ollie pass without paying homage.
In the history section of its website, the New Theatre records how: "In 1952, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, despite both being in their sixties, receive a wonderful reception from several generations of fans for their unique brand of slapstick comedy."
And the press still wanted to speak to them in Cardiff. Asked the secret of their comic genius by a South Wales Echo reporter who visited them in their New Theatre dressing room in 1952, Stan said: “People are fed up with looking at stuffed shirts on the stage. They like action and human characters.
“Too many would-be comedians today want to take the easy way. They don’t want funny clothes or dirty faces. They want to throw away the tramp’s outfit and walk on stage in evening dress and talk. Words, words - no action, no characters.”
