Book Review: Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy. by John McCabe.

Did a book ever excite and inspire you as a child?

If not, I feel sorry for you.

When I was 9 I read John McCabe's hagiography of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, entitled "Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy". It changed my life. Up until then I had vague ambitions about comedy and laughter, but once I turned the last page of McCabe's book my life's course crystalized: I would catch laughter and scatter it far and wide.

And, for the most part, I did. First as a circus clown, then as a pantomime artist, and finally, in my old age when physical comedy became awkward and painful, by developing into an artisan of light verse.

I recommend this book, not because of what it did for me, but because it is so plainly and joyously written by a writer who enjoys his subject. I dislike the modern tendency of biographers to dig up all the dirt on their subject and then make a point of disparaging their subject (usually after the man or woman is dead and can't defend themselves). This is the so-called modern scholarship. It's modern malarkey, in my book.

If you can't celebrate someone's life, why write about it at all?

McCabe was a Shakespeare scholar and teacher, and he brings the Bard's rich language to his descriptions of how Stan and Ollie teamed up and operated to produce a unique world-wide belly laugh that is still reverberating in many hearts. His summation of the two is not complex:  Two nice guys who just happened to strike a vein of comic gold. It petered out eventually, and the two men lived in the shadows during their last years. They were unpretentious going up in the world, and they remained that way on their slide down.

I had the great good fortune to correspond with John McCabe for many years. I sent him a fan letter when I first joined Ringling Brothers Circus back in the early 70's, and he was kind enough to reply, asking me all sorts of question about life as a circus clown. My cache of letters from him are a cherished treasure that I dip into occasionally to warm my heart in an increasingly cold and unfunny world. Let me share just one quote with you:

"Although Laurel was the real 'brains' behind the team, thinking up the gags and actually doing most of the directing, it was Babe Hardy that everybody loved on the lot. He kept the team warm and human by occasionally standing up to Stan, when Stan proposed a gag that seemed too cruel or unfeeling. Babe would say something like "That's brilliant, Stan; but it'll scare the kids, not make 'em laugh. Can we change it, just for my sake?" And Laurel would always defer to Hardy, because, in his own words "How can you not love that big heart of his?'"

The book will make you feel good without pandering to bathos or scandal. You can purchase a good used copy on Amazon.com for about a dollar, plus shipping and handling.