Laurel & Hardy Case Study

LAUREL & HARDY: Leading in Celebrity & Estate Practices For Generations To Come

The world’s most famous and beloved movie team was near broke at the end of their careers—we took their estates on, rebranded who they were, cut thru the myriad roadblocks as to publicity rights (even helped create new laws to protect celebrity publicity rights), photo rights, etc.  Established a Laurel & Hardy international business model for licensing and promotion that is still paying excellent dividends to the two comedy legends’ estates, three generations and 35+ years later. 

  In the 1980s, we represented the Laurel and Hardy estate. We were looking for ways to generate some buzz since the property had been around forever and both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were dead. I came up with the idea of a commemorative postage stamp. This was before the Hollywood Legends stamp series, so I put together a committee of luminaries to approach the Postal Service with the idea.

Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Johnny Carson, Jimmy Stewart – basically every comedian immediately jumped on board because they loved Laurel and Hardy. It took two years to get the project moving. Ernest Borgnine was on the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee that makes recommendations to the postmaster general. He finally kicked the ball through the goal. The post office called me after two years and gave us approval.

PRODUCTS…worldwide, over 300 different products, categories

In 2019, BBC Films did a STAN & OLLIE movie starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly that added NEW momentum to the brand…

As part of their license, we had access to 2,100 images of Laurel and Hardy including original poster images, stills from their films and some exclusive “behind the scenes” photography. The Laurel and Hardy range of merchandise included t shirts, jumpers, hats, scarves, caps, mugs, umbrellas, aprons, notebooks, postcards, Rubik’s cubes, towels, door mats, keyrings, tote bags, glass wear, posters and framed prints. The range also appeals to fans of Friends the TV Series as they sell a selection of merchandise featuring the iconic Laurel & Hardy poster image which is seen in Joey and Chandler’s apartment.