A top dog for Stan and Ollie
QUESTION Why was the dog that appeared with Laurel and Hardy given the eccentric name Laughing Gravy?
The mongrel was the doggie star of the eponymous 1931 Laurel And hardy short Laughing Gravy.
On a snowy winter’s night, the comic pair try to keep the pet hidden from their landlord (Charlie hall), without much success. The film ends with Stan and Ollie about to be thrown out, only to get a reprieve when the house is ordered into a two-month quarantine.
The short’s producer, hal Roach, was one of the great hollywood producers of the 1920s and 1930s, working with the likes of harold Lloyd, Will Rogers, Thelma Todd and the Our Gang children.
If an animal co-star was needed, it was provided by Tony and Irma Campanaro, who managed a menagerie that roamed Roach’s ranch on Robertson Boulevard, not far from his studio.
During pre-production of the 1931 Our Gang feature Little Daddy, director Robert McGowan told Tony he needed ‘ an assortment of mongrels for atmosphere’.
Campanaro went to the city dog pound and selected several unfortunates, including a small mongrel he named Laughing Gravy. This was a euphemism for hard liquor during the Prohibition era, 1920 to 1933.
While being trained for movie work, Laughing Gravy caught the eye of Stan Laurel, who recruited her for Pardon Us and Laughing Gravy.
The mongrel went on to perform with Thelma Todd in Show Business, I’ll Be Suing You and Treasure Blues, in which she closed the picture leaping from a sinking ship in a life jacket.
In 1936 she appeared in another Laurel and hardy feature, The Bohemian Girl.
The dog became a great favourite with Roach. his secretary, Ruth Burch, recalled that she became one of the studio pets who had the run of her boss’s office.
Irma Campanaro said Laughing Gravy ‘lived a long happy life, well into World War II. People at the studio spoiled her, though, beginning with Mr Roach’.
Duncan Noble, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
QUESTION John Lennon messes up the harmony in the final verse of Please Please Me. Are there any other mistakes in The Beatles’ songs?
One notable example is Paul McCartney using the F-word in that most hallowed of Beatles songs, hey Jude.
The sharp of hearing can make it out three minutes in, just before the famous segue into ‘na na na nananana’.
McCartney sings ‘Then you can start (expletive) to make it better . . .’
Assistant engineer John Smith recalled that John Lennon insisted they leave the expletive buried in the final mix.
‘Paul hit a clunker on the piano and said a naughty word,’ Lennon said. ‘Most people won’t ever spot it . . . but we’ll know it’s there.’
Part of the genius of The Beatles was that they knew a happy chance when they heard it.
One example is Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Paul McCartney’s jaunty opener on the White Album. he often irritated his bandmates with his multiple takes. On this track, an exasperated Lennon bashed out a cod piano intro, which McCartney loved and left in.
When he was singing the final verse, McCartney juxtaposed the occupations of Desmond and Molly Jones.
Initially, Desmond has ‘a barrow in the marketplace and Molly is the singer in a band’. By the end, Molly is working in the marketplace and ‘Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face / And in the evening she’s a singer with the band’.
McCartney left in the mistake ‘to give people something to think about’.
Pete Jones, Welshpool. DURInG the recording of I Feel Fine,
George harrison’s guitar began to feedback before he played the introduction.
normally, this would have been edited out, but record producer George Martin and the band decided to keep the distinctive sound.
This would have been the first time The Beatles’ fans had heard feedback, and there were many theories as to what the strange noise was.
Andy Rayner, Canterbury, Kent.
QUESTION Was Abraham Lincoln trounced in an early presidential debate?
The first U.S. presidential debates are often said to be the four televised encounters between Richard nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960.
however, they were inspired by a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Democratic opponent Stephen Douglas while contesting an Illinois senatorial seat in 1858.
each debate lasted three hours. One candidate spoke for 60 minutes, the other spoke for 90 minutes and then the first was allowed a 30-minute rejoinder.
During the debates, Douglas branded Lincoln a dangerous radical who advocated racial equality and disruption of the Union. Lincoln emphasised the moral iniquity of slavery.
Some of the debates were attended by more than 5,000 people.
Douglas won the seat and, two years later, found himself facing Lincoln for the presidency. This time, Lincoln declined to debate and was duly elected U.S. president in 1861.
Rachel Foulds, Cirencester, Glos.
QUESTION What is the most amusing contrived rhyme in a pop song?
FURTHER to previous answers, three generations of our family have independently flagged up the lines from the Bobbie Gentry song I’ll never Fall In Love Again as being the most contrived: What do you get when you kiss a guy, You get enough germs to catch
pneumonia Then when you do he’ll never phone ya, I’ll never fall in love again.
Phil Alexander, Farnborough, Hants.
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