Upcoming publication on Laurel and Hardy features thousands of artifacts, film history, and more

The Spark

Laurel and Hardy were a comedy team that is widely regarded as the greatest in film history. Stan Lauren and Oliver Hardy made more than 100 comedies together between 1921 and 1950.

Danny Bacher and Berine Hogya co-authored an upcoming publication, Collecting Laurel and Hardy.

Bacher has always been fascinated by old silent film stories.

“We would sit and watch these old silent film strips of like, you know, comedians like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, of course, Laurel and Hardy, because my brother and I, there were two of us. We got into Laurel and Hardy. And, you know, I just I guess my cousin had given us a set of Laurel and Hardy dolls when we were really little, and we played with those. Then it was between that and the films. I just said, I want to try and find more of this. So, I really kind of started and amassed a huge collection of all these years, “said Bacher.

Bacher realized the comic duo Laurel and Hardy were timeless when his brother showed an old film to his kindergarten students in Jersey City.

“I was amazed by how much they laugh and how much they enjoyed this. And it almost was like, again, they weren't thinking of it like this was these were filmed like, you know, 80, 90 years ago. They were looking at them as a, you know, fresh audience. And this was something very new to them. And I don't think they had an idea of the timing of it. So that's the beauty of their comedy and their appeal is that they really were great, “said Bacher.

The book features more than 1,000 artifacts from film history, fun stories, and research to create a veritable encyclopedia of Laurel and Hardy Memorabilia. The inspiration of the book came when Bacher and Hogye realized they both were collecting Laurel and Hardy memorabilia.

“A couple of decades later, Danny now has the largest collection of Laurel Hardy memorabilia in the world. Bigger than anybody's collection. I've got a meager collection now compared to what Danny has. But you see that behind me is in his room. He has a lot of his artifacts. But several years ago, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I'm an art director by trade. And so Danny asked me, Hey, would you do me a favor? I'm thinking I've got some cool stuff, one of a kind things, you know, be photograph some of these things. And so I went down, photograph them for him. And at some point he said, Do you think there's a book in this? And the answer was yes. We decided to keep photographing and put together a book, “said Hogye.

The book has been published and will be on the shelves November 28, 2024.

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