Handwritten gag by comedian Stan Laurel. Written in ink on a small piece of unlined paper, it reads:
"S. [Stan] explaining something to B. [Babe, Laurel's nickname for Oliver Hardy] looks around to see if
anyone listening - turns back to B. but B is also
looking the other way - as B turns back to S.
S. backs away again - keep doing this Bus. [business]
till both turn to each other - double takem [double take]."
Laurel was the primary writer and creative member of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, and he often wrote notes for scenes and gags to be used in future films on scrap pieces of paper like this. When Laurel died, he left many of these notes to John McCabe, historian and author of a book on Laurel & Hardy. The English Stan Laurel and American Oliver Hardy appeared in 107 films together - 32 short silents, 40 sound films, and 23 feature films - over the course of a decades-long career. Their popular films for the Hal Roach Studio are acclaimed for excellence in physical and visual humor and earned the duo a new audience through broadcast on television in the 1950s and 60s.
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