It’s separate beds, Stan?
QUESTION
Did Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy make any films independently from one another? STAN and Oliver made many films independently of each other, especially in their early silent films.
Oliver was born Norvell Hardy in Georgia in 1892. As a child he had a very fine singing voice and starred in minstrel shows. At 18 he was working as a cinema manager when he became convinced he could do better than the actors he saw. He embarked on a film career first in Florida and, from 1917, in Los Angeles. His first screen appearance was in Outwitting Dad (1914). He went on to make hundreds of shorts, mostly comics but also westerns and heavies.
From 1914 he made 210 films before being cast with Stan in 1921 in The Lucky Dog. Their next film was 45 Minutes To Hollywood (1926). In between the two films he made another 49 on his own.
In 1939 Oliver made Elephants Never Forget, and later The Fighting Kentuckians (1949) with John Wayne and Riding High (1950) with Bing Crosby. One early solo film was the first Wizard Of Oz, a 1925 silent; he played three characters.
Stan was born in Ulverston, north-west England, in 1890. His parents were in the theatre business and encouraged him to tread the boards. They moved to Glasgow where Stan made his stage debut at 16, honing the bowlerhatted character he would use in Hollywood.
He crossed the Atlantic three times to try his luck; the third time he stayed, working for the king of the silents Hal Roach in LA. Stan did a brilliant take-off of Charlie Chaplin who fostered his career. Stan made 13 solo films from 1917 to 1921, when he shared scenes with Oliver in The Lucky Dog. He made another 49 before their next film in 1926. Some of his early silent films were Dr Pickle And Mr Pryde (1925) where he played both characters and Mud And Sand (1922), a spoof on a Rudolph Valentino movie. He played Rhubarb Vasalino.
From 1927 until 1945, when they made their official last film The Bullfighter, Stan and Oliver costarred in 122 films. In the Fifties they sailed for Europe to undertake a tour, docking first in Cobh where the harbour was full of boats and crowds of cheering wellwishers. When the boat Skippers played their pre-rehearsed Laurel And Hardy theme song on their ship pipes, it moved them to tears. Ollie passed on in 1957 aged 65 and Stan left us in 1965, aged 74. Danny D’Arcy, Reading.
QUESTION
Where does the saying ‘can’t quite cut the mustard’ come from? THE idiom to ‘cut the mustard’ means to reach or surpass the desired standard of performance. ‘Can’t cut the mustard’ is the opposite. Its first recorded use is by US author William Sydney Porter, writing under his pen name O. Henry in The Heart Of The West (1907): ‘I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard.’
As is so often the case, its origins are uncertain. One theory that is sometimes given is that the phrase is a corrupted form of cut the muster, in some way connected with the muster or assembly of troops for inspection. But there is no particular evidence for this. It’s probably a development of the superlative, as in ‘keen as mustard’, first recorded in 1672.
Mustard was used figuratively to mean something that added zest to a situation. O. Henry used the word in the sense of something excellent in Cabbages And Kings in 1904: ‘I’m not headlined in the bills, but I’m the mustard in the salad dressing just the same’. James Cawthorne, Sheffield.
QUESTION
The Nazis used a yellow Star of David to identify Jews. What badges did they use for other groups? THE earlier answer had one omission. As part of the Nazi T4 Adult Euthanasia programme, those regarded as ‘Useless Eaters’ were destined to be killed. The disabled and infirm were regarded as a drain on the finances of the state.
These unfortunate people were marked with the Black Triangle. They were apparently the first group killed by the Nazis. Richard Bruce, by email.