This film is part of Free
Grand Hotel
Comedy stars Laurel and Hardy receive a rapturous welcome at Tynemouth, captured by an enthusiastic amateur filmmaker.
Overview
Shot by an enthusiastic amateur, Grand Hotel provides a valuable glimpse of the rapturous welcome received by legendary comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy when they visited Tynemouth in 1932. With local lad Stan unaware of how popular they had become in Britain, his low key homecoming became a full-scale promotional tour; the duo were mobbed by hordes of adoring fans wherever they went.
Ulverston-born Laurel went to school in Tynemouth. Though the film bulges with verbose intertitles, no mention is made of the fact that Stan's father's house - seen towards the end - was not in Tynemouth, but in Ealing, West London.
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