MAIL CALL:
"THE WEDDING NIGHT"

Radio Program
1943
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patsy Moran, Edgar Kennedy, Lucille Ball

    "The Wedding Night", alternately known as "The Wedding Party" or "The Marriage of Stan Laurel", is a tantalizing glimpse at what a Laurel and Hardy Radio Series might have been like. Written by Stan Laurel and reprinted in John McCabe's THE COMEDY WORLD OF STAN LAUREL, "The Wedding Night" is a slight sketch that shows Stan trying to adapt he and his partner's brand of comedy to a completely foreign medium. He only partially succeeds. There are good verbal gags here and there, and as a whole, the sketch is amusing, but Laurel and Hardy weren't really naturals for the slam-bang, joke a minute, wisecracking world of 40's radio.

     In the sketch, Stan and Patsy Moran visit Justice of the Peace Edgar Kennedy to get married, while Ollie tags along and advises.  In the tradition of all good radio comedy, the funniest moment comes from a miscue. About halfway through the sketch, Kennedy answers the door before the doorbell rings. Not the most hilarious blooper ever, but it's nice to hear the real Babe Hardy having a good chuckle live on the air.

     Often left off commercial recordings of this sketch is the introduction of Laurel and Hardy by future comedy legend Lucille Ball, where she mixes it up with The Boys for about a minute before the sketch proper.

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