Hollywood Museum Exhibit to Feature Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang

A retrospective on Hal Roach Studios, including memorabilia from the Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang franchises, will open at the Hollywood Museum July 5.

The exhibit, "100 Years of Hal Roach Studios: Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang and Harold Lloyd," which will run through Aug. 31, will open on the heels of the International Laurel & Hardy Society's national convention and include a wealth of photos, costumes and props dating to the early 1900s.

Costumes from the 1945 Laurel & Hardy movie "The Bull Fighters" will be display, along with coats worn in "Jitterbugs" (1943), the iconic Fez worn in "Sons of the Desert" (1933), among numerous other pieces of memorabilia such as posters, scripts, sheet music, scrapbooks, personal photos and letters.

The retrospective also covers silent film star Harold Lloyd and the Our Gang kids known as The Little Rascals. The studio also was home to bombshell actress Thelma Todd, Zasu Pitts and Charley Chase. Other performers who graduated from Roach comedies on their path to stardom included Jean Harlow, Janet Gaynor, Jean Arthur, Fay Wray, Paulette Goddard and Boris Karloff.

"We are so pleased to honor the 100th anniversary of the Hal Roach Studios with this special exhibit," museum head Donelle Dadigan said.

The Laurel & Hardy Society, also known as Sons of the Desert, is co- sponsoring the exhibit.

--City News Service