Laurel & Hardy Silent Shorts

Not yet a team, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy first appeared together in the independent film THE LUCKY DOG, which we now believe was shot in early 1921. During the 1920s they appeared separately in a number of silent shorts for the Hal Roach Studios. 45 MINUTES FROM HOLLYWOOD (1926) is the first Hal Roach production featuring both performers. Their characters blossomed as a team in DUCK SOUP, their very next film, then, curiously, regressed.

The independent recollections of both Stan Laurel and Hal Roach cite PUTTING PANTS ON PHILIP (1927) as the first Laurel & Hardy film. THE SECOND HUNDRED YEARS (1927) was promoted as the first official Laurel & Hardy release, but the film was actually produced and sold as part of the Hal Roach All-Star series. It was not until SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME? (1928) that the studio officially branded their pictures as "The Laurel & Hardy Series." 

Their First Film?
Click here to read Richard W. Bann's mini-essay