He came back much changed, and never again set foot on stage. War broke out and Freddie went to fight in France. It was only later, on variety tours, that the comedians got to know each other properlyĬharlie and Stan went to the US with Karno and didn't come back. Chaplin was nice enough, he said, but had “notions” and held himself aloof from such frivolity.Īt the height of their fame Laurel and Hardy rarely socialised together. Stan Jefferson – often called Ginger because of his hair – was a great lad, Freddie told me, popular and easygoing, fond of a drink or two and with an eye for the ladies, and together they often rambled around the pubs of Dudley, Freddie’s home town, after a show. Freddie wasn’t a member of the troupe, but he performed at local theatres, way down the bill among the wines and spirits, and when a Karno show was touring the British midlands he and his comedy partner, Jack Dutton, would be drafted in to do a knockabout front-cloth parody strongman act while scenery was being changed, then join the others for the riotous finale. Chaplin was Karno’s star a 20-year-old Stan Jefferson (his real name) was second banana and Charlie’s understudy. My old pal Stan.”īefore the first World War Freddie had worked with Stan – and Charlie Chaplin, too – on music hall bills topped by the impresario Fred Karno’s touring company of slapstick comedians. When a Laurel and Hardy film came on television my grandad Freddie Elcock would sit me on his knee and point excitedly at the screen.
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