LAUREL - Stage by Stage

LAUREL - Stage by Stage is the prequel to Marriot's previous Laurel and Hardy's Tours books; and is a companion to CHAPLIN - Stage by Stage. It narrates for the first-time-ever all of Stan Laurel's stage shows from his earliest appearances in British pantomime (as the teenage Stanley Jefferson) right up to his last-ever stage show before entering films. Along the way he spends over three years touring with Charlie Chaplin in the most-famous of all comedy troupes - the Fred Karno Company. The next eight years are spent touring in U.S. vaudeville playing in song-dance-and-comedy sketch acts with various partners. Readers will experience every low and high as this comic genius tries to unshackle himself from the hardship and tedium of vaudeville during a number of attempts to get into the world of film comedy. The amount of detail revealed about these lost tours is astounding. - 272 pages - 470 illustrations