Collecting Laurel and Hardy!

[Osi Osgood]

Thanks Micheal, a discussion of the Lads on any forum is s good thing!

[Osi Osgood]

There was a really interesting piece of info on that 16mm page, that I never knew and explains why some shorts like "Brats" are soft focus on super 8 (and possibly 16mm as well )... " All the pre 1931 sound on disc talkie shorts are soft focus due to reframing when re-issue negs were assigned optical tracks ", therefore, if anyone ever runs into a 35mm "Brats" that came with sound on disc, could do new prints with a sharp focus!

[Gary Sayers]

There can't be many projector owners who haven't owned a film of the boys at some point. I've had quite a few in my collection over the years but I now only own just two Walton standard 8 sound 200ft releases ('Hog Wild' and The Hoosegow'), having sold off most of my films as I use video projection these days.

I never had any Blackhawk prints (even though I used to receive their regular catalogues in the 1970s). All my prints were generally either Walton or Mountain/Portland/Starline from here in the UK. I always found the prints from all of these places to be, on the whole, good quality.

I had a Mountain 400ft sound print of 'Babes in Toyland' which was a little bit on the dark side and I had two prints of 'The Live Ghost' standard 8 sound by Walton but one was considerably darker than the other and I think I recall that one was slightly less edited, having a tiny bit more footage in one or two scenes.

My copy of 'Come Clean' was, I think, a Derann print but had a blue cast to it, so I presume it was printed on colour stock (although, when I sold it some years later, the blue cast had gone - colour fade I guess).

'Tit for Tat' was mentioned earlier up thread and I can confirm that mine was also an excellent print from Walton, as was 'The Music Box', 'County Hospital' and 'Towed in a Hole'. On the other hand, my Walton print of 'Going Bye Bye' was incorrectly printed, meaning no amount of adjusting could get the frame line out of the projected image.

My 3 x 400ft standard 8 sound print of 'Pack up your Troubles' from Walton and 'Flying Deuces' 4 x 400ft from Mountain were also great quality. Same goes for 'Saps at Sea' 400ft sound from Mountain.

I think my tolerance of picture and sound quality on Laurel and Hardy films is much wider than, say, my 400ft Superman or Alien. These had to look pin sharp and have sound that was crystal clear. With my Laurel and Hardy films, I never particularly worried about the quality in the same way as the modern films. Scratches and marks and sound pops are something most of us in the UK were used to from when the boys' films were shown on the TV. I was just happy to see and hear them on my own big screen.


For anyone wanting some reference material for Blackhawk, Walton and Mountain/Portland/Starline, I've attached some pages from old catalogues (1976 for Blackhawk and Walton but I'm not sure of the year for the Mountain films as it doesn't have all the L & H features that I know they sold at some point). It lists only two of the boys' features, 'Laurel and Hardy in Toyland' and 'Flying Deuces' and doesn't include the other features that they released, which from memory were, 'Way out West', 'Fraternally Yours' ('Sons of the Desert'), 'Blockheads', 'A Chump at Oxford', 'Sons of the Desert', 'Bohemian Girl' and 'Saps at Sea'.

There were also numerous different extracts of various lengths with many and varied titles, both sound and silent, from these features. It can be quite a challenge to match the invented titles with the actual feature they were taken from.

These are obviously not exhaustive lists (far from it) and there were several other companies releasing Laurel and Hardy on 8mm but they may help anyone when searching ebay.


Just on the subject of Blackhawk prints, I don't know if it's a typo or if things changed at some point but it appears that they only released 'Night Owls' on 16mm. All these years I thought they released every film of the boys on 8mm?





Blackhawk July 1976






Walton Films 1976







Mountain Films 1970s

[Joe Caruso]

Excellent comments, Gary and most-welcome attachments...for other titles on some features and a nice write-up on the 8mm/16mm story, I suggest Scott MacGillivray's LAUREL AND HARDY; FROM THE FORTIES FORWARD (Vestal Press)...and yes, NIGHT OWLS was available in Super 8mm as well...Fraternally, Shorty

[Gary Sayers]

Thanks Shorty. I have few other L & H books (including the updated Randy Skretvedt 'bible') on my 'wish list' so I'll add the Scott MacGillivray one to the list for sure.

[Maurice Leakey]

I have a small pocket book which I can highly recommend. I find it very useful. It's called "The Films of Laurel & Hardy".
What Was the Film When...?: The Movies of Laurel and Hardy: Amazon.co.uk: Potts, Mark, Shephard, Dave: 9780952876021: Books

[Gary Sayers]

Thanks Maurice. Looks good, will check it out.

[Joseph Banfield]

Gary, thanks for posting those catalog pages. I remember way back when I lived in the US and receiving those Blackhawk catalogs in the mail as a teenager and just drooling over the pages!

[Gary Sayers]

You're very welcome Joseph. I like to browse my few old catalogues once in while and I still drool over the contents forty odd years or so Later!

[Michael O’Regan]

I have a 200ft silent S8 extract from A Chump at Oxford entitled ”Din at Dinner”. The box is unlabelled but the cover picture resembles the Mountain releases.

[Osi Osgood]

Speaking of those wonderful little extras, Blackhawk left some dandies on they're releases. On a few of my Mutual releases, these short comedies, after the end titles, will have a little commercial from back then, for about five or ten seconds, with a clock with it's hands spinning out of control and it states, "Time flies with Mutuals"! It's such a neat little extra that I have always admired. Sorry about getting slightly off topic.

[Joe Caruso]

About those early boxes...the first ones were simply cardboard holding 2x200' with the title stamped and a code number...The Boys then appeared with box covers that were dark violet, light mustard and medium brown (again, 2x200') from 1952 through 1953 when these then heralded a photo cover on half the boxtop...Notice if you will, YOUR DARN TOOTIN', BIG BUSINESS, THE FINISHING TOUCH and a few others...now...the first 400' boxes, I do not know when they first appeared though a fair guess is 1958, since there was an upswing to their work thanks in part to the 1st Youngson compilation and frequent showings on TV then....early Blackhawk Bulletins announced 400' available, and these lasted through the 1970s in generic and pink until about late 1975, followed with olive green and finally by 1979, the noted silver-medallion remained until the last in 1986...yet, one could order a film and get singularly fortunate in obtaining an earlier color box...Collectors have a variety of them. I asked the company back when if they had any empty extras and was shipped a dozen, at twenty cents each...crazy right? Anyway, similar creations were outlined also for Chaplin, Our Gang and others, but interesting enough ONLY The Boys and Chaplin had specialty boxes with their likenesses....says alot, big sellers for many years...a testament to pure artistry...Well, enough rambling from Shorty

[Osi Osgood]

Shorty, I have a 2x200ft "standard 8mm "Double Whoopee" in a light green box, with a photo of the lads with Jean Harlow (with little dress), when did this one come out?

[Joe Caruso]

Same frame 1953-4

[Ali Hipperson]

Gary - great pictures of the catalogues 😊

I have several old catalogues too and I like to flick through them every now and then - takes me right back to the late '70s when I would have been earmarking my very first purchases from: Portland; Perry's; Derann et Al 😊