LAUREL & HARDY (OLIVER HARDY) - DOCUMENT SIGNED - HFSID 182643

LAUREL & HARDY: OLIVER HARDY. Printed DS: "Oliver Hardy" on first blank flyleaf, 28p, 7x10, softcover. Los Angeles, California, 1943. Booklet detailing a follow-up suit in the messy divorce of Oliver Hardy and his second wife, Myrtle Lee Reeve Hardy. Imprinted on cover: "2nd Civil No. 13874/In the Supreme Court of the State of California/MYRTLE LEE HARDY, Plaintiff and Apellant, vs. OLIVER NORVILLE HARDY, Defendant and Respondent./APPEAL FROM SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY/Hon. Charles S. Burnell, Judge./ANSWER TO PETITION FOR HEARING IN THE SUPREME COURT." OLIVER HARDY (1892-1957), born Oliver Norvell Hardy, the roly-poly half of the classic comedy team, was married to his second wife, the former MYRTLE LEE REEVE, from 1925-1937, when they were divorced. Myrtle Hardy filed for divorce toward the end of the filming of the Laurel & Hardy comedy, Way Out West (ironically, Ruth Laurel, the wife of Hardy's partner, STAN LAUREL, had filed for divorce at the beginning of the shoot). At the same time, Hardy's first wife, the former Madelyn Salosihn, to whom he had been wed from1913 until their divorce in 1920, returned, claiming that Hardy owed her years of back alimony. In this follow-up suit, the second former Mrs. Hardy demands additional alimony and claims that her husband had been tardy in making his mandatory payments. Hardy's divorce case was a bitter one, and caused his reputation a great deal of harm. In 1940, Hardy would marry his third wife, Virginia Lucille Jones. This marriage was a happy one, although the comedian suffered a debilitating stroke in 1956 and Lucille had to care for him day and night until his death in 1957. Ironically, Hardy's death occurred at a time when critics were hailing Laurel & Hardy as the greatest comedy team of all time. Laurel and Hardy had appeared in more than 100 films, beginning with comedy shorts and moving easily to the "talkies". Their short, The Music Box, was awarded the 1932 Academy Award for Short Films (Comedy), and the duo's other films include From Soup to Nuts (1928, their first star billing), Pardon Us (1931, their first feature-length film), Babes in Toyland (1934), Block-Heads (1938) and The Bullfighters (1945, their last film together). Slightly creased. Fine condition.