The usual encyclopedic thumbnail sketch of Laurel and Hardy paints Laurel as the creative genius behind the team, and Hardy as the one-dimensional happy-go-lucky fellow content to run through his scenes and then race out to the golf course at the end of the day. McCabe's book is an attempt to rectify this misconception. Not that Hardy wasn't eager to fit in 18 holes at the end of every working day (9 if he was running late), but as McCabe's book shows, there was much more to the man. A private self-effacing man of many hobbies, to whom movie-making was simply make-believe, the real Babe Hardy will always remain something of an enigma. But this book paints a picture of a complex artist who was sometimes held back by his own self-misconceptions, but who nevertheless managed to develop one of the world's most beloved and human comic personalities. Along with the letters of Lucille Hardy printed in McCabe's earlier MR. LAUREL AND MR. HARDY, BABE is the closest we will ever come to knowing the real Oliver Hardy, and thus, this is McCabe's most compelling book on the Boys. - JB