"LAUREL - Stage by Stage" is the prequel to Marriot's previous Laurel and Hardy's "Tours" books; and is a companion to "CHAPLIN - Stage by Stage."
It narrates for the first-time-ever all of Stan Laurel's stage shows, from his earliest appearances in British pantomime (as the teenage Stanley Jefferson), right up to his last-ever stage show before entering films.
Along the way he spends over three years touring with Charlie Chaplin, in the most-famous of all comedy troupes - the Fred Karno Company.
The next eight years are spent touring in U.S. vaudeville, playing in song-dance-and-comedy sketch acts with various partners.
Readers will experience every low and high as this comic genius tries to unshackle himself from the hardship and tedium of vaudeville, during a number of attempts to get into the world of film comedy. The amount of detail revealed about these "lost" tours is astounding. - 272 pages - 470 illustrations