Laurel and Hardy buffs often take great pride in correcting anyone who incorrectly quotes Oliver Hardy as saying “Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.” But is this line really incorrect? The actual line is, of course, “Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.”

We all know that there is indeed a Laurel and Hardy film titled Another Fine Mess, and it most certainly paved the way for the oft quoted inaccuracy. But was there ever a time when Ollie actually said “another fine mess”? Was this line ever actually heard in one or more of their 106 films?

Well, yes…and yes. (more…)

You’ve seen people naked. Quite an auspicious opening line, eh? Anyway, you’ve seen people naked. And photos of your favorite celebrities fully clothed are few and far between. But when your favorite celebrity poses nude, there’s always a bit of shock value. It’s the forbidden fruit, the guilty pleasure of seeing the uncommon.

The same might be said for seeing our favorite vintage stars in color. When it comes to Laurel and Hardy, I must admit that there is nothing quite so cool as to see the boys in living color. Probably the simple reason for this is that there are so few photographs and so few reels of film that show them in this fashion. I’ll never forget one time back in the mid-nineties a member of the Sons wrote to me inquiring about my tent newsletter Dante’s Info. He had heard that I had printed color in a couple of issues and was interested in getting copies of these particular volumes. He was not interested in the content of the newsletter, nor of what the color photos in question even were; the fact that I had used color at all was enough for him. (more…)