& Hardy’s third man

Bohemian Girl. But the bromance nearly soured in 1937 in a plot worthy of a film...

John said: “Stan and Charlie loved a good drink and often went out together. Stan was growing fed up with the studio because he and Oliver were on separate contracts.

“He wanted more freedom so he called up Charlie for a night out. Sadly, they had a bit too much.”

Charlie turned up at work the next day still tipsy – and producer Hal suspended him.

Despondent, he returned to Birmingham to find work.

There, mum Maria was so embarrassed by his flashy Hollywood clothes that she hung them at the bottom of the washing line so neighbours would not see them.

As the Second World War loomed, Charlie took a job in a gas mask factory, but he was desperate to return to LA.

John says: “Can you imagine him coming back to Britain and being inteviewed for a job in a factory?

“‘So where have you been for the past few years, Mr Hall?’ ‘Oh, starring in films with Laurel

and Hardy.’ It’s incredible.” Letters found by John reveal he wrote to his friend, Oscarwinning director George Stevens, asking for a $200 loan to return to Tinseltown.

He moaned about British weather, complained of warm beer and said Birmingham women didn’t “know the first thing on make-up, walk around like clowns, their idea of dress is terrible and they think personal hygiene is something to eat”.

Charlie made it back to America and Stan looked after him again with roles in A Chump at Oxford and Saps at Sea.

But Laurel and Hardy moved to Fox in 1940 and the studio ended Charlie’s sidekick role.

New movie Stan & Ollie focuses on the duo’s gruelling last UK tour in 1953.

Oliver Hardy died in 1957 aged 65 of a stroke. Heartbroken Stan spent the last years of his life turning down roles until his own death in 1965 at 74.

Meanwhile, Charlie had taken roles in US TV shows and in 1956 appeared in his final film, So You Want to Play the Piano. He even helped to build the wooden sets. Months before he died of liver problems in 1959 at home in North Carolina, he wrote to his old friend George Stevens saying he had an idea for a new comedy show.

John – who runs the Birmingham “tent” of the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society – convinced pub chain Wetherspoon to name The Charlie Hall in Birmingham after him.

But he wishes his book was not the only other tribute.

“Charlie made a very nice living and may not have enjoyed the same fame as Laurel and Hardy,” says John. “But we should be very proud of him.”

John’s book This Is More Than I Can Stand is available on Amazon. Find out more about the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society at laughinggravytent.co.uk