Remembering the time Hollywood legends Laurel and Hardy came to Peterborough
Legendary Hollywood double-act performed in city during their sell-out 1952 British tour
Just over 70 years ago, one of Hollywood’s greatest ever double acts came to perform at Peterborough.
Slapstick comedy legends Laurel and Hardy spent a full two weeks in the city as part of a 1952 theatre tour of the UK.
The pair performed their new sketch, ‘A Spot of Trouble’, at the Embassy Theatre on Broadway for a full two weeks, starting on February 25.
Englishman Stan Laurel and American Oliver Hardy became internationally famous performing as a comedy duo in the Classical Hollywood era, from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.
Their slapstick comedy routines typically involved the clumsy, childlike Laurel playing the foil to Hardy’s pompous bully.
Their signature theme song (known as “The Cuckoo Song”) – which was heard over their films’ opening credits – became as iconic of them as their jaunty bowler hats.
While the comedy greats were, by their own admission, entering the twilight of their careers by the time they arrived here in 1952, their popularity within the UK remained stratospheric.
Indeed, every night of the ‘A Spot of Trouble’ tour was sold out well in advance, including the fortnight of dates they were scheduled to play at the Embassy.
Unsurprisingly, the duo smashed all box office records at the venue.
Along with their wives, Laurel and Hardy arrived in the UK aboard the Queen Mary ocean liner following a four-day Atlantic crossing from the United States that docked at Southampton.
After travelling to Peterborough by rail, the foursome were met at what was then Peterborough North railway station by the Embassy manager Jack Bancroft, along with a gathered crowd of adoring fans.
The four visitors were then escorted to their accommodation at the Great Northern Hotel.
The hugely successful tour ended at the tail end of September 1952.
However, the duo would return to the UK the following year to perform their less successful ‘Birds of a Feather’ tour.
Sadly, Oliver Hardy’s rapidly declining health saw the pair perform their last ever stage show in Plymouth on May 17, 1954.
Hardy died, aged 65, a few years later in 1957. Laurel – who refused to perform on stage or act in films without his best friend – passed away in February 1965, aged 74.
