Another Fine Megabite The Missing Films of Laurel & Hardy
New L&H Sound Recording L&H in the Forties
FAKE AUTOGRAPHS-WARNING.
We have noticed a number of clear FAKE' Laurel & Hardy' autographs for sale on Internet auction sites; visit our revised Buyer Beware page on our web site (or send me an SAE and I will copy the article for you) for helpful guidance. Personally, I would be very wary of buying autographs from Internet auctions, unless you can be100% sure they are authentic. I personally recommend 'Autographs-Ink' as reputable dealers, who are always at the Movie Fairs we attend. The auction web site QXL had a stand at the recent Birmingham Memorabilia show, so I checked to see if they had anything on Laurel & Hardy. Their site had just one item - a FAKE autograph. Newspapers recently carried a story of a person who paid over $200 for a, 'PLAYSTATION 2 Box and receipt,' and that was what the buyer was sent...an EMPTY BOX and receipt! So take care folks.
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MORE PHONETIC FOOTAGE DISCOVERED!
We are please to announce a major find by Peter Mikkelsen from Denmark. Peter explains how it feels to discover part of the GERMAN PHONETIC 'Pardon US':
"You ask how it feels to be the first person to see such a rarity? Well -it is hard to describe, but in a word thrilling. Let me tell you a little about it from the start: We received these small rolls of nitrate film, and a toy-projector last Thursday, June 17th, and was told that there were some Laurel and Hardy materials among them. This took place just before we closed for the day, so the next morning; I took the first reel and held the first few frames up towards the light in my room, where I work. I had expected some great rarity, but all I could see was Ollie talking to a policeman, at the station. "Well - just some pieces from PARDON US. that's hardly anything special". Still, I did of course want to check the condition of the reels, so I ran the beginning of the first reel silent - and froze! That policeman didn't look like Harry Bernard, and neither like the one we see in the Spanish version.
I figure out that the soundtrack should be heard before I could get any further with this mystery - then it was the German soundtrack! The reels are, as you say, positive prints and in fine shape, with no signs of decomposing at all, thank goodness.
We do hear both of them speak German: Ollie and the cop, and then Stan and Ollie, when they stand by the "wanted" poster, and again Stan in the fire scene. It is surprisingly hard to remember the exact details, as I only ran the reels once (I didn't dare run them again, something could go wrong, somehow!).
The title on the first reel is the original Danish title, which fits in just fine as, surprisingly, the first print to premier over here was in fact a German print. there was no kind of documentation with the reels at all. They were just lying, all of them, in a cardboard box!
The question of preservation came up today. I explained what we now had and what made this footage so special. So, without any hesitation, it was decided that my boss, our director, and I should work on the rather straightforward job of preserving it. What we will in all likelihood do, is to inspect it and repair it (there was a minor problem with the perforation towards the end of the second reel, which stops in the middle of the first close-up of Walter Long). We will then clean the reels, and send them on to a lab. For the purpose of having a new picture negative, a new sound negative (maybe also a master, I believe) and a new positive print made. No doubt, we will all be invited to watch the screening of this new print on one of our editing tables, when the time comes. We don't have an in-house cinema, but would very much like to have one.
Our director suggested that, if this was as rare a material as I described it to be, then it was a potential news-item for out local TV station - if not now, then at least when the new print had been made!" These reels combined can't run more than about 3 minutes at the most, but does give us some glimpses of the film, as it consists of scenes assembled at random.
We are always adding more to our 'Laurel & Hardy' Magazine sites, so do check back from time to time. Have you seen our 'Way out West' page yet? Have you found our Laurel & Hardy Juke Box or our trivia questions? Look at our behind the scenes feature on 'Babes in Toyland' Our latest printed L&H Magazine is now out. Why not subscribe?
Another Fine Megabite The Missing Films of Laurel & Hardy
New L&H Sound Recording L&H in the Forties
MORE INTERESTING PAGES
THE LAUREL & HARDY ONLINE STORE
Behind the Scenes.Towed in a Hole. GERMAN L&H MURDER CASE LAST TRAIN TO POTTSVILLE
The British Tours Laurel & Hardy Visit the R.H & D.R. Railway THE L&H FUN QUIZ.
How to make a 'Laurel and Hardy' Diorama! Oliver Hardy in 'Riding High'
Seeing Double...Hog Wild. Behind the scenes: 'Any Old Port'. Behind the scenes of 'Wrong Again'
Behind the scenes of 'A CHUMP AT OXFORD' Our 'Way out West' Behind the scenes site.
The Music Box Steps. Laurel & Hardy Locations Behind the scenes of 'Perfect Day'.
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