Eccentrically named florist of the week

Ollie admires Stan's green thumb

We'd like to extend this laurel, and hearty handshake to the florist in our new hometown of Coral Springs, Florida with the delightfully eccentric name of Floral and Hearty. We imagine if Ollie were alive today, he'd say something along the lines of "Well, here's another vine mess you've gotten us into."

Hooray for Olliewood: The Laurel and Hardy steps of Los Angeles, California

This photo comes from the swell blog Dear Old Hollywood. Check it out!

It was movie studio head Hal Roach's idea to team up a skinny dimwitted guy with a heavy pompous dope in the 1920s. Little did he know they would become the world's most famous comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy. Probably their most famous movie, a short actually, is "The Music Box", better known as the one with the piano and all the steps. It won the first Oscar given for Live Action Short Film, back in 1932. In it, Stan and Ollie are two nincompoops commissioned to deliver a piano to an address at the top of a very, very, very long outdoor staircase. About a half an hour of slapstick hilarity ensues, with the boys leaving everything in shambles, and I still laugh every time I see it. Laurel and Hardy used a real outdoor location at 923-935 Vendome Street near  Del Monte Street in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles and the steps are still there today and open to the public. It's a lot different today --with houses, trees, shrubs -- compared to the barren look it had back in the thirties. There's a marker and a plaque, and a park nearby named in Stan and Ollie's honor. The steps get visited often, most notably by the Sons of the Desert Laurel and Hardy fan club, but I'm not sure anyone has attempted to carry a piano up to the top. That would be another fine mess, wouldn't it?

(We also visited Harlem, Georgia,Oliver Hardy's birthplace. Check it out here).

Ollie-lujah! Harlem, Georgia: birthplace of Oliver Hardy

They're proud of Ollie in Harlem.

They've got a nice little Laurel and Hardy Museum there.

They've got Ollie's fez from the classic Sons of the Desert...

...and a pith helmet he wore in Bonnie Scotland.

Stan and Ollie appeared together in 106 films. 106!

Linda and Nancy kept the museum open past closing time for us so we wouldn't miss out. Thanks Linda and Nancy!

The house where Ollie was born is no longer standing...

...but there's a nice laundromat there named in his honor.

They've been sprucing up the town theater for the upcoming Oliver Hardy festival.

Check out those murals on the side.

Oliver Hardy was the rotund half of Laurel and Hardy, one of the most beloved comedy teams of all time. He was born in the little eastern Georgia town of Harlem, not far from Augusta, and they want you to know about it. They've got his picture on the water tower, a laudromat named after him on the site of his birth address, murals of him and Stan on the side of the movie theater, and best of all, a little gem of a Laurel and Hardy museum in the center of town. In it you'll find lots of figurines, photos, posters, scripts, and other Stan-and-Ollie-abilia, all under the watchful eye of two of the nicest Southern museum hostesses you'll ever meet, Linda and Nancy. They will play Laurel and Hardy movies and shorts for you in the screening room, too. My personal favorite is "The Music Box," where our two heroes have to deliver a piano up a very long set of steps. Ollie's pain in this film is exquisitely funny. Those very steps are still standing in Hollywood and we were lucky enough to see them on one of our recent trips there. Harlem's biggest event of the whole year is just a few days away. Every year since 1988, they've held an Oliver Hardy Festival on Main Street, with a parade, 350 craft booths, a barbecue, film showings, and look-alike contests. Harlem's population of about 1800 swelled to 35,000 hearty Hardy partiers in 2008 and this year's event is this Saturday, October 3. On Friday night Harlem hosts the Sons of the Desert reception, in honor of the L&H fanclub members that go by that name that will be coming in from all over the world. So if you're in the area, check it out. There's no place like Harlem for the Ollie-days.