You've been Tagged
These days, the phrase
'You've been tagged' means
that someone has named you on a photograph on the Internet site
Facebook.
In these images of Laurel and Hardy, however, the phrase takes on
a
more literal meaning. We first
come
across Laurel and/or Hardy being tagged in the film The Flying
Deuces.
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The lapel tags Stan and Ollie wear in "The Flying Deuces" can't be read, even with a blow-up of a hi-res copy of this photo. |
Harold Lloyd
visiting
Stan and Babe on the set of |
The tags the Boys wear in "The Flying Deuces" may well have been a gag, designed by Laurel, referencing back to his 1910 Atlantic crossing with the Fred Karno Company, when they travelled 'steerage' [but that is pure speculation]. The logo is a T overlaid on a C [or vice versa]. Any offers??
Other snaps of Laurel and/or Hardy are around, which some fans have confused with the above. Here are three of them.
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Laurel sporting a lapel identity
badge. |
Joe E. Brown's turn to wear the tag. |
And finally - Hardy |
The above aren't being worn for a gag, as all three photos are from 1941 and 1942 trips Stan and Babe made to Mexico. I surmise it's a requirement that all visiting non-nationals had to wear them. These were sensitive times, as the govenment suspected that any invasion of the US mainland would be made on the coastline south of the California/Mexico border. Mind you, Laurel and Hardy went there purely to cause laughter - not slaughter. .
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| This photo has had some
outrageous claims as to the location, date, film, and starlet. It isn't taken on the set of a film, at all. Yet again it's from a show Laurel and Hardy did in Mexico, in 1942, but that's no identity tag Stan is wearing. It's a prop he wore during 'The Driver's Licence' sketch. |
In this shot of Babe
cutting his 50th Birthday cake,
backstage at a theatre in Chicago, we can see the exact same tag Stan is wearing more clearly. The tag reads simply: |
I hope that has sorted out the confusion surrounding 'Laurel and Hardy being tagged.'
All the answers to where, when, and why Stan and Babe were in Mexico will be found in the book:
LAUREL and HARDY - The US Tours
To order your copy, click on the LULU.COM icon.
