By Den Ardinger 32° KCCH

Oliver Norvell Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia on January 18, 1892.  He was the son of Oliver Hardy and his wife, Emily Norvell.  His father died a year after he was born and he early on in life adopted his father’s name, Oliver.

Oliver was sometimes a difficult child and had little interest in formal education.  He did have, however, an early interest in music and the theater.  Recognizing this, his mother sent him to Atlanta to study with a music teacher.  While there, he began singing in the Alcazar Theater for $3.50 a week.

When the motion picture theater, The Palace, opened in his hometown of Milledgeville in 1910, he took on all tasks from janitor to manager.  He found that he loved the motion picture industry and devoted the rest of his life to working in it.  He moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1913 to work at night as a singer while holding a day job to make ends meet.  It was here that he met Madelyn Saloshin, a pianist, who he married November 17, 1913, at the age of 21.

It was in Jacksonville that he became a Freemason.  He was initiated in Solomon Lodge #20 and his original petition hangs outside the Lodge room to this day.  He was a life member.

Hardy was billed as O. N. Hardy in his first film that next year.  It was a silent film called Outwitting Dad.  Among his friends he was called “Babe Hardy”, and he was billed in some of his early films this way.  He made many films for the Lubin Studio and by 1915 had made 50 short films there.  He quickly found that he was limited in some roles due to his size.  He was 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 300 pounds.

Knowing that this was the career he wanted, he moved to New York City and continued working for various studios making films.  He returned to Jacksonville and made comedy films for the Vim Comedy Company.  Among his many roles were those playing a villain which he continued to do for many years.  He tried directing also and starred in ten of his own films.

In 1917, he moved to Los Angeles and played most roles as a villain between 1918 and 1923.  Here he made more than 40 films for Vitagraph.  He separated from his wife in 1919 and they divorced in 1921.  He then married actress Myrtle Reeves, but the marriage was not a happy one.

Hardy first met Stan Laurel when they played together in the movie, The Lucky Dog in 1921.  They did not work again for several years.  In 1925, Hardy played the part of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz produced by Hal Roach Studios that was also doing the Our Gang films.  In 1926, Stan Laurel again worked with Oliver Hardy in the film 45 Minutes from Hollywood.

Laurel and Hardy continued working together from 1927 on.  They appeared together in Slipping Wives, Duck Soup and With Love and Hisses. With good screen chemistry, they starred together in dozens of short films including The Battle of the Century in 1927 that had one of the best classic pie fights ever filmed. In 1929 they starred in The Rogue Song that was a comic musical filmed in Technicolor.  This was followed by their first full length movie, Pardon Us, in 1931.

In 1937, Hardy divorced Myrtle Reeves and in 1940 he happily married Virginia Lucille Jones who he met on the set the previous year.

In 1941, Laurel and Hardy were signed with 20th Century Fox and with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942.  During World War II, the comedic pair made pictures for both studios.  After the war in 1947, they made a six-week tour of the United Kingdom that was very successful.  Extending this reception, they continued to Scandinavia, Belgium, and France.  This overseas tour included performances for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.  In the years that followed, they continued to make live performances in Great Britain and France until 1954 often using original material produced by Stan Laurel.

In 1949, Oliver Hardy played a supporting role in John Wayne’s movie, The Fighting Kentuckian directed by John Ford.  In 1950 he played a role in Frank Capra’s film with Bing Crosby called Riding High.  It was at this time, 1950-51, that Laurel and Hardy made their final comedy film, Atoll K.  They appeared in a few television appearances from 1953 to 1955 but the health of both was beginning to fail.

Hardy suffered a stroke in 1956 and he died after another one in North Hollywood Los Angeles on August 7, 1957, at the age of 65.  He was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park.  Stan Laurel died in 1965 and missed “the Babe” to his dying days.

Oliver left a legacy in 107 films and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in his hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia and there is an annual Oliver Hardy Festival there.

Oliver Hardy, more than a man, a Mason.D