8mm Forum: L & H Changing Tyre

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Topic: L & H Changing Tyre

Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted September 10, 2019 05:38 AM

A question.
Just been watching Laurel & Hardy in the 1929 "Perfect Day". Their car suffers a puncture. They replace the tyre with its spare.
But the wheel stays on the car's axle.
The spare tyre is just that. Not on a wheel.
Was this just for the film?

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Maurice

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted September 10, 2019 09:11 AM

This was a Model T Ford thing, and generally a very old car thing.

Quite often when you see an early car with the spare hanging on the outside, you just see a tire on a rim and not the whole wheel.

1926 Dodge

Given the roads back then, how frail the tires were and how often drivers had to change them it must have been interesting loosening all those bolts around the edge of the wheel without getting muddy!

-pays to remember people tended to be more dressed up back then too!

In my house every so often we lapse into "G'bye!, G'bye!, So lonnnng! Seeeyahhhh!" because of this film!

(We have NEVER thrown a jack through a neighbor's window!)

Trivia: This is the only L&H film to have an obscenity in it!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted September 10, 2019 10:32 AM

Stan had the jack on the nearside, thus preventing him removing the faulty tyre from the wheel, but Uncle suggested pulling hard, this resulted with the wheel falling on his gouty foot.
As with you, when my daughter leaves my house in her car it's "Good-Byyyyyye, Good-Byyyyyye, Good-Byyyyyye." [Big Grin]

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Maurice

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted September 10, 2019 10:44 AM

Yes, they are are eminently quotable:

When my son was maybe 4 years old, we'd be out driving in the neighborhood and pass a house with a steep lawn:

"That's the house up there....."

"-Right on top of the stoop!"

If I remember right, they never really fixed that tire. Then again driving on the flat was nothing compared to immersing the whole car in muddy water.

Sometimes I think if it wasn't for Laurel and Hardy, there would still be Model T Fords all over the place these days: they definitely thinned the herd!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Leon Norris
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 958
From: Elkins Park, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 2012

posted September 15, 2019 11:43 AM

This is a great Laurel and Hardy short! And it does popup for sale from time to time! A must have! The model T is the star!

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted September 15, 2019 10:45 PM

Henry Ford was not a particularly funny man, but probably without even meaning it, the Model T was perfect for Laurel and Hardy comedy.

For example: many of them had no driver's door. There was actually the outline of one stamped into the sheet metal, but it didn't open.

This is just ready-made for Laurel and Hardy. Ollie is at the wheel and Stan is sitting next to him. Something goes wrong and driver Ollie has to deal with it. Basically any other car ever made, the driver opens his door and steps out with ease and dignity, but not with the Model T! Now Stan has to get out and Ollie has to climb across and exit on the passenger side. There are wonderful opportunities for the two of them to tangle and fall and then slap at each other in frustration!

(-of course they have to get back in too!)

You look at the mileage this pair could get out of a salt shaker or a pair of hats and an obstacle like this is just too good to pass up!

Years ago when my son was in Cub Scouts, at Pinewood Derby the adults were allowed to make our own cars and we raced them after the boys were done.

I based my own on that neat little Model T pickup Stan, Ollie and Mr. Finlayson utterly destroyed in Big Business.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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