LAUREL, INVENTOR.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 21

LAUREL, INVENTOR.

To those passing Stan Laurel's house, , die garage looks like the ordinary ; place where a couple of automobiles ', are housed. But there is more to the building than this. It is the sanctum sanctorum of Stan Laurel the mechanic. Here he carries out his tinkering and inventing, creating all the gadgets that for years he has carried in his mind in his travels about the country with ' theatrical companies and only recent- > iy made possible by the acquisition of nis own home. The more complicated I the device to fulfil a simple need the i more kick Stan gets out of the enter- \ prise. During filming of "Swiss Miss, j the lavish musical production, Laurel s ] mechanical wizardry stood him in good ] stead. The earlier sequences of the \ picture are devoted to the comedians i attempt to sell a variety of mouse- i traps in Switzerland. The traps, com- ] plicated affairs to enhance the comedy 1 values, are demonstrated by them to , cheese manufacturers. These demon- j . strations found Laurel right in his ele- , 1 ment. He threw himself with gusto , ; into showing off the salient points of , ' the varipus rodent ridders. i One of the traps, involving the use c of mirrors, was particularly difficult of ' execution. Property men, accustomed ; to providing the answer to any me- > ; chanical necessity demanded, were ' baffled when the model they created 1 ■ failed to come up to Laurel's and ; I Hardy's idea of a ludicrous bit of busi- - : ness. "Let me take this home and J : study it," Laurel demanded. When he ? ■ left the studio that evening the mouse- I ' trap occupied the rear seat in his car. < 1 The next morning he arrived with the < trap in the same place. But in the j i meantime it had been completely over- r hauled and efficiently served its double < i purpose oi corraling .the unwary mouse i and providing a mirthful sequence j i worthy of the Laurel and Hardy name. 1 ' "There's no science to it," Laurel ex- < f plained in telling of his hobby. "Any j 1 kid in high school could probably run T ; circles around me in getting results. t 1 I get double the amount of fun out of E ;my inventions, building them up and j • tearing them down if they fail to func- r tion."