Stan Laurel's Scottish roots
The Herald (03.10.23.) had a flawed item...
Bill Crouch hastens to put us right on a few points...
Many media outlets (including this Herald article) continue to report that Stan Laurel spent much of his childhood in Glasgow. Documentary evidence tells us that this is simply not true.
As a teenager, Arthur Stanley Jefferson (the name Laurel came later in America) spent two short years with his parents in Scotland. In July/August 1905 when Stan was 15 years old the Jefferson family relocated from Tyneside to Rutherglen, a Royal Burgh three miles from Glasgow and Arthur’s Metropole Theatre.
In August 2022 Historic Environment Scotland installed a bronze plaque at the house in Rutherglen the family moved to in 1905, to celebrate Stan’s short stay in Scotland.
In the summer of 1932 the comedy duo arrived in Glasgow on Friday the 29th July for a short holiday and not the 8th July as the Herald article stated. Mr King of the La Scala cinema played golf with Oliver Hardy on Saturday 30th July and arranged a showing of their short comedy film “One Good Turn” that Saturday evening.
In a letter written by Stan later that year regarding their UK tour, he remarked that he had come to the UK for a rest - but had gone back to the States a nervous wreck. However, he said that if he had died from it all it would have been a humble way of showing his appreciation. He had been disappointed that he could not go where he wanted - even to visit his mother’s grave in Glasgow, his whole time being taken up with the public, the press and photographers.
