A History of the Hal Roach StudiosOnce labeled the “lot that laugher built,” the Hal Roach Studios launched the comedic careers of such screen icons as Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, and Laurel and Hardy. With this stable of stars, the Roach enterprise operated for forty-six years on the fringes of the Hollywood studio system during a golden age of cinema and gained notoriety as a producer of short comedies, independent features, and weekly television series. Many of its productions are better remembered today than those by its larger contemporaries. In A History of the Hal Roach Studios, Richard Lewis Ward meticulously follows the timeline of the company’s existence from its humble inception in 1914 to its close in 1960 and, through both its obscure and famous productions, traces its resilience to larger trends in the entertainment business.
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Contents
1 | |
2 The Rolin Film Company 1914 | 6 |
3 Lonesome Luke and the Glasses Character 191519 | 15 |
4 Pathécomedies 191927 | 32 |
5 RoachMGM Short Features 192733 | 62 |
6 The Demise of the Short Subject 193338 | 84 |
Gallery of Illustrations | 98 |
7 From A Pictures to Streamliners 193842 | 99 |
The Films of Hal Roach | 163 |
Television Series at the Hal Roach Studios | 195 |
Film and Series Synopses | 197 |
The Financial Side of the Hal Roach Studios | 205 |
Notes | 215 |
235 | |
237 | |
247 | |
8 Fort Roach 194348 | 124 |
9 The Man Who Bet on Television 194960 | 138 |
10 Conclusion | 157 |
Back Cover | 248 |