Movie Classic (Sep 1932-Feb 1933)

♦ MOVIE CLASSIC TABLOID NEWS SECTION ♦ No Laughs In Laurel Home-Life, So Comedian And Wife Separate Thin Member Of Famous Laugh-Provoking Team Of Laurel And Hardy Says, "When My Wife And I Could No Longer Laugh Together, There Was Nothing Else To Do' B Ann Glaze STANLEY LAUREL and Oliver Hardy are about the two funniest men on the screen to half of the world's moviegoers. Creating mirth is their stock in trade, and they have made nations rock with laughter. But Stan Laurel could not create laughs within the four walls of his own home ! That, at least, is the reason that Stan, himself, gives as the underlying cause of his recent separation from his actress-wife, Lois Neilson Laurel. "When two people reach the place in married life where they can no longer share a laugh together, then it is practically impossible to share the same bed and board, as the legal phrasing has it," explains the famous comedian. "Laughter is not a trivial part of married life. To the contrary, it is very important. "Neither my wife nor I considered the idea of divorce lightly. We have a little five-year-old daughter and for her sake, as well as our own, we both sincerely attempted to make a 'go' of our marriage. But it was just one of those things . . . "We reached the point where we were continually getting on one another's nerves. I'm sure that nothing I did was very amusing to my wi f e . When we were first married, little annoying things that we both might do were 'laughed off' and forgotten. But in the past year we seem to have lost that saving grace of humor. "I don't know whether my wife thought my pictures were funny or not. But even if she had been amused by my screen antics, remember that professional humor and 'private-life humor' are two entirely different things. Comedians, the fellows who make laughs for a living, are seldom funny men in private contacts. To the contrary, they are likely to be very serious-minded fellows. Maybe seriousness is a diversion to them after long days of painfully manufacturing 'spontaneous' laughter in front of a camera. "When we realized that we had reached the point where we could no longer laugh together, then there was nothing else to do — difficult though it was for us both — but legally separate. That's really the whole story." Laurel has made a very generous settlement, from a fortune founded on laughter, upon his wife and daughter. Their large home in Beverly Hills will be retained by Mrs. Laurel. She will also have the custody of their small daughter, Lois. Several years ago, Stan created two trust funds for his family amounting to more than #200,000. These two trust funds are also part of the settlement. The news of the divorce plans came as a distinct surprise to Hollywood. For as recently as last autumn, when Laurel, accompanied by theJAmericanborn Hardy, revisited England and received a triumphant welcome everywhere, there was no hint of marital trouble. Also, no one had foreseen the divorce, since divorces are so rare in the English colony. And there have been no rumors of "another woman" or "another man." But Hollywood, used to a series of part-then-make-up divorces, is wondering if, perhaps, a short marital vacation might not revive the lost humor between the Laurels and eventually see them reconciled, as the Adolphe Menjous (Kathryn Carver) recently were. A little bird whispers that Stan was recently seen at a movie premiere with a girl who looked suspiciously like Mrs. Stan, and that they were laughing heartily over something! Apeia Left, Stanley Laurel as he looks in private life, without his famous dazed look and undersized derby. Above, Lois Neilson Laurel and their five-year-old daughter, Lois, who will remain in her mother's custody 28