Immortal Befuddled
"Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard"
Edmund Keane, 1834
Part One: Double Trouble
by Dennis E. Power
The many faces of Ollu and Buzsla
Timeline
1806-1809 Mark of the Zap Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode
Abbott and Costello are the masked avenger's assistants. They get involved in riding and dueling. The finale is in a bullring with Costello fighting the Bull.
The Zap is of course El Zorro however to say that Ollu and Buzsla were his assistants is probably overstating the case. They probably were helpful in some regard but their efforts were probably more amusing than actually beneficial to Zorro. It would not be surprising if Zorro actually had to rescue them more times than the actually proved of use to him. Johnston McCully wisely chose to excise their roles in the adventures of Zorro as they wrote them. However the 1957 version of the Zorro television series made some use of their characterizations as the bulky Sgt. Garcia and the thin Corporal Reyes. Sgt. Garcia even had a good singing voice which Ollu had. This aspect of Ollu's character was also depicted by Oliver Hardy who often sang in his pictures.
Although it is possible that Ollu and Buzsla were Sgt. Garcia and Corporal Reyes, there is scant evidence to back this speculation. In the television show however, the two soldiers aided Zorro, often unwittingly, more often than they actually managed to stop his vigilante ways. For more on El Zorro
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1813-1841 Pardon Us Stan and Ollie take up home brewing during the Prohibition which is quite legal until they try to sell the surplus. Stan's inability to distinguish a streetcar conductor from a policeman lands them in prison. Stan has a loose tooth that punctuates each sentence with a raspberry sound unless plugged with his finger. This antagonizes the Warden and the prison's toughest convict, The Tiger. Fortunately the Tiger is impressed by Stan's apparent courage and he befriends Stan although Ollie's deliberate raspberry earns him a punch in the nose. In the prison schoolroom they become involved in an inkblot fight and when one missile hits the teacher they are placed in solitary. On their return from the hole they become involved in Tiger's escape plan. All the escapees are captured except for Stan and Ollie who hide out in blackface amid a community of cotton pickers. Their life in this tranquil surrounding ends when the Warden and his daughter arrive, needing help with their car. The blackface disguise is enough to hide them but Stan's loose tooth gives them away. Back in jail, a visit to the dentist means only the loss of some of Ollie's teeth. Another break takes place that they unwittingly quell by mishandling a machine gun. When the boys are pardoned the Warden asks if he can help them resume their life where it left off. Stan asks if he would like to order some cases of beer. Hoosegow Laurel and Hardy short subject
A prison wagon delivers some new arrivals. Out last are Stan and Ollie
who protest their innocence to the guard, explaining that they were
only watching the raid. Instant escape lies in their having been given
two apples to throw over the wall as a signal to friends outside. When
a guard confiscates the apples and throws them outside, a rope ladder
descends and the guard pursues the culprits. Distracted the guard
leaves Stan and Ollie outside the gate but their escape is terminated
by two shotgun blasts. The boys are put to work on a road gang. Stan's
pick spends less time digging than it does in jabbing Ollie and tearing
his clothes. Stan and Ollie are nearly lost in the rush when it comes
time to eat and they are unable to find a place to eat. Another convict
directs them to a small table nearby where they settle until the
table's intended occupant; the guard kicks them out. Ollie asks the
cook for some food. He tell them to fetch wood, with the promise of
more wood, more food. They chop down a tree which has a guard stationed
on top. The fallen tree lands on the cook tent. The Governor arrives to
inspect the camp. Two ladies in the party eye Stan and Ollie with
disdain. When Stan gets his pickaxe stuck in Ollie's clothing
once more Ollie hurls it straight through the radiator of the
governor's car. They attempt to seal the hole with rice which creates a
bubbling mess. A rice throwing chaos ensues. Second Hundred Years Laurel and Hardy short subject (1927) Silent Convicts Little Goofy (Stan) and Big Goofy (Ollie) divide their time between the rock pile and various means of escape. Just how much time they have can be gauged when Stan asks another con how long he has to serve. Forty years he is told. Stan gives him a letter with the request, mail this when you get out. One attempt at escape concludes with them tunneling into the Warden's office, another failure follows when marching in lockstep they try backing out of the line only to meet an armed guard. A golden opportunity arrives when painters break for lunch. The boys turn their uniforms inside out, borrow paint and brush and stroll calmly to freedom. When a policeman becomes suspicious they set out to prove their assumed identities by painting everything in sight, including a car, a shop window, a girl's rear end. Exiting from the scene Stan and Ollie jump into a passing limousine, ejecting the occupants minus their clothes. Unwittingly they have taken the place to two French VIPs and are soon inspecting the prison from which they had just escaped. At a reception their meager social skills some how fail to give them away but when touring the cells they are recognized by their fellow convicts among them the French visitors who have been arrested for indecent exposure. The boys accept recapture philosophically. Liberty Laurel and Hardy short subject Prison officer Tom Kennedy is in hot pursuit of Two escaped convicts Stan and Ollie. The fugitives are picked up by friends and change into civilian clothes in the back of a car. To elude a policeman on a motorcycle, Stan and Ollie leap from the car and quickly adopt a nonchalant pose by a parked car. Their hasty dressing has left each wearing the other's trousers and in seeking places to make the exchange, the boys are repeatedly caught lowering their trousers. Although soon followed by a suspicious policeman, they eventually make the necessary switch in a building site lift. Ollie accidentally catches upon a lever that sends them to the top of a partially constructed skyscraper. As the live has returned to ground level, Stan and Ollie must make their way on the girders. The danger to their lives is complicated by a runaway crab acquired from an attempt to exchange their trousers outside a fishmonger's stall. Stan and Ollie make back to the life, which on descent crushes the pursuing policeman into a midget. These four films although seemingly set in different time periods actually represent two consecutive decades of Ollu and Buzsla's life when they were inmates in prisons. Although the first film states they were originally arrested for selling beer during prohibition the actual charges seem less innocuous. It appears that they were originally arrested for violating the dry laws of Georgia as applied to the Native population, in other words of selling whisky to the Indians. In their defense they probably thought that that the prohibition against selling to the Native Americans was racist in nature and felt that they were striking a blow for equality while providing the Native Americans with a needed service. Had they served out their original sentences without incident they would have been released in four or five years but their continual attempts to escape added time to their sentences. They attempted to escape because they feared the closed environment would reveal their immortality and expose them to public scrutiny which could turn to fear and hatred or it might alert those nutty immortals who went about cutting off each others heads. In Pardon Us they were sent to jail for selling whiskey illegally. They almost immediately got on the bad side of the prison's warden. They later became involved with an escape attempt and successfully flde. In a rather clever move instead of fleeing across country they blackened their skins and hid among some nearby plantation slaves. Their disguise was uncovered when the Warden and his daughter visited the plantation and Ollu and Buzsla were among the slaves commanded to replace the Warden broken carriage wheel. Having had his tooth broken in a fight with the police when he was arrested, Buzsla's mouth made an odd whistling noise when he talked. Whn the Warden heard this sound comeing from one of the slaves he was immediately suspicious. Back in prison the boys became involved in yet another escape attempt that failed when they dropped the guns they were given and accidentally shot their accomplices. Although the film shows them getting credit for stopping this escape attempt and receiving an early pardon, in actuality they received longer sentences and a transfer to an even tougher prison. In Hoosegow the boys become involved in an escape attempt moments after arriving at the new prison. Their clumsy effort is immediately thwarted by shotgun blasts to their fleeing backsides. Amazingly, they survived the shots with little harm. Their escape attempt won them the chance to work on a road gang. While on the road gang they rapidly managed to anger the head guard by accidentlaly sitting at his table and eadting his meal. They also angereed the camp cook and most of the other prisoners when they chopped down a tree for firewood, causing a guard tower to fall and also destroying the cook tent. Finally when the state Governor passed by on an inspection tour, Ollu and Buzsla attempted to escape by stealing two of the governor's carriage horses. They unhitched and ran off the entire team of horses. They were left standing with empty hands. The modern use of an automobile and the rice throwing slapstick routine were fictional bits added into the film version merely for contemporary and comic uses. In the Second Hundred Years the boys worked on a rock pile near the prison. They have had quite a bit of time added to their sentence. This was symbolized by "Stan" (Buzsla) handing another convict an envelope and telling him to mail it when he got out in forty years. Some painters thoughtfully left some paint for them use. Ollu and Buzsla painted their prison uniforms and walked of the prison and made their way to the nearest city. In the city they came under the suspicious glance of a policeman and overreacting to his scrutiny begin painting everything in sight. While the policeman was distracted. Ollu and Buzsla jumped into a passing coach, robbed the passengers of their clothing and threw them out of the coach. The coach's driver iwas unaware that a switch has taken place and drove the boys to the passenger's destination. The boys have accidentally switched clothing with a pair of French diplomats who are to tour the prison from which they had just escaped. Their ruse is summarily exposed. In Liberty the boys broke out of prison once more, for the final time. A prison guard hotly pursued them on horseback. Some friends of theirs had left money and clothing for them. They discovered the cache but were forced to switch clothing on the run and as a consequence had dressed in the other's clothing. They eluded the determined prison guard and finally successfully escaped from prison. This prison escape was prompted by the news that a property of one of their Scottish descendents had no heirs. Buzsla decided to pose as a long lost American descendent. |
1840's Bonnie Scotland Laurel and Hardy film
While on the lam, McLaurel and Hardy wind up in Scotland to lay claim on an inheritance. When the boys see an ad for a free suit from a local tailor shop, they mistakenly go to the wrong shop and wind up in the Army.
The will of Angus Ian McLaurel is read to his heirs by the family lawyer Miggs. The heir from America, Stanley McLaurel is enroute but checks into a local hotel with his friend Mr. Hardy. They tell the landlady that Stan is the heir to the estate: we learn instead that the fortune will go to Lorna on the proviso that she live in India with her guardian Colonel Gregor MacGregor until she reaches the age of 21. Her escort to India is Lady Violet Ormsby, who is Gregor's sister. Lorna is reluctant to leave Scotland and her sweetheart, Lawyer's clerk Alan Douglas. Lady Violet is determined. Stan and Ollie arrive at Miggs office to learn of Stan's true inheritance, to wit a set of bagpipes blown at Waterloo and a snuffbox.
Outside, Ollie demonstrates the snuff which and is propelling to a river which he sneezes dry. At their lodgings Ollie's clothing are hung by the fireplace as they contemplate their position. Having escaped from prison (their journey to Scotland was by cattle boat) they will return to the US but to a state with no exposition. Before this they must overcome another problem that of Ollie's shrunken trousers. The rent mounts up but Stan persuades the landlady that Ollie is ill. Attempting to cook a fish dinner in their room, the set the room afire and are ejected from their lodgings. Outside they are handed a handbill offering a suit of clothes free for thirty days approval. They mistakenly visit a recruiting office below the tailor's shop and become unwitting volunteers. In uniform, they visit Miggs and give him their forwarding address in Pellore, India the very fort commanded by Gregor MacGregor. Alan has been pining for Lorna and decides to join Stan and Ollie in the regiment. Lady Violet has been engineering a romance between Lorna and her brother, withholding all of Alan's letters. The new recruits arrive and Stan and Ollie almost immediately fall afoul of Sergeant and being misled by fake mirages. These are troubled times because of Khan Mir Jutra who is ready to start a rebellion. Alan is more concerned when wandering into the officer's quarters he hears of Lorna's engagement to Gregor. Alan is placed in the guardhouse for trespassing. He asks to see Stan and Ollie and gives them a note for Lady Violet. Lady Violet is arranging a dinner when she discovers her maid entertaining the Sergeant. Millie is dismissed but vows revenge. Stan asks Gregor where they can find Lorna, telling him that Ollie has a note for her. Gregor takes the note and Ollie is ordered to see the Sergeant. Ollie ensures that Stan joins him. Gregor seeing through Lady Violet's scheming decides to let Alan see Lorna. Their reunion is disastrous, Alan being far too angry to listen. Millie turns Alan's letters over to Lorna just as word reaches Fort Rannu of an imminent attack. A suicide party is sent to Mir Jutra's palace as a decoy, posing as the regiment senior officers. Fort Rannu is ready for the attackers and captures each one. The Sergeant, Stan, Ollie and Alan are entertained at the palace until Mir Jutra believes the fort has been taken. Stan and Ollie are ordered to shoot themselves. Stan goes first but misses. News arrives of the rebels' defeat and chaos in ensues. The boys escape. In their flight, Stan and Ollie knock over Mir Jutra's beehives adding to the confusion.
Having escaped from prison successfully after many years of constant attempts, Ollu and Buzsla traveled to Scotland on a cattle boat to try and obtain an inheritance from a descendent of Buzsla's. They had been misinformed however about the estate; there was not a male heir but there was a female heir. One of Buzsla's female descendents, Lorna she but would not inherit fully inherit the estate until she was 21. Until that time she would have to go to Afghanistan and live with her guardian Colonel Gregor McGregor. Buzsla's unexpected arrival caused a stir but there was a proviso in the will for unexpected relatives. Buzsla received a silver snuffbox and a set of bagpipes blown at Waterloo.
Ollu's attempt at using snuff caused a sneezing fit which tumbled him into a nearby river. His depiction of sneezing the river dry was of course merely comic exaggeration. Their clothing shrank when dried next to a fire. As in the film they attempted to get new clothing by visiting a tailor and getting a suit for a thirty day trial. Although the film shows them going into the wrong door by accident, they were in fact directed to the wrong door by a tall, dark haired young officer of the local militia (22)who may have done so out a malicious sense of humor. They joined the British Army and were sent to India as part of the regiment commanded by Colonel MacGregor. Lorna's beau, Alan Douglas, joined them.
Although they were first stationed in India they were among the army sent to relieve the forces in Afghanistan. The character in the film is named Khan Mir Jutra this was actually Akbar Khan also known as Sirdar Akbar. He was the son of the deposed King of Afghanistan. Akbar Khan had lead the revolt against the British and their puppet government of Shah Shuja. His campaign was a great success due in no small part to the inept leadership of the leadership of the British in Afghanistan. The British command was besieged in Kabul and when it became necessary for them to leave or starve, Akbar Khan promised them safe passage. The extreme weather conditions and constant sniper fire caused the deaths of 12,000 in the course of a week, most of them civilian casualties. Akbar then took as hostage the remnants of the British fleeing from Kabul which consisted the senior officers and a few civilians.
The two British armies that were sent to Kabul beat Akbar's forces. Akbar avoided being hunted down by using the hidden hostages as a bargaining point. He also stated that he sincerely regretted his actions of the past few months. Akbar arranged for a meeting of the top officers to discuss the release of the hostages. Last time Akbar had arranged such a meeting the British officers had been slaughtered. As a feint, Ollu, Buzsla and two other soldiers were sent as decoys to pose as the senior officers.
While Akbar entertained them, the hostages managed to free themselves from their captivity in Bameean and took over the town. The British forces moved into capture Akbar and also to secure the hostages freedom.
The boys escaped from Akbar's palace, using thrown beehives to aid their escape. After they had made their way to Kabul, the saw that the young man whom had directed them to the recruiting office was now a hero.
After dynamiting Kabul, the British quit Afghanistan and Dost Mohammed once again resumed the throne. Akbar was poisoned five years later.
Ollu and Buzsla served in the British Army until they were wounded during the First Sikh War. Having enough of dry, hot land they returned to America and lived in the Northeast.
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1846-48 Towed in a hole 1931 Laurel and Hardy short subject Fish peddlers Stan and Ollie are driving the through the streets, Ollie singing Fresh Fish with Stan supplying counterpoint on a flat sounding horn. The day bright in itself seems all the sunnier because they are making money. Stan suggests that they could make more money if they caught their own fish, eliminating the middleman. Stan's notion to invest in fishing poles is superseded by Ollie's greater plan to buy a boat. Such a vessel is obtain from Joe's junkyard, although not in pristine condition it is eminently worthy of fixing up. To find any leaks they fill the boat with water. Their efforts to fix up the boat lead to disaster, ruining both their boat and their car. Buzsla and Ollu worked as fish cleaners and peddlers. Buzsla had the idea to cut out the middleman by catching their own fish. They bought a run down fishing boat with some minor leaking problems at a salvage yard. The boat had been sold for scrap wood but Ollu was convinced that he could make it seaworthy. They repaired the obvious holes and then dragged the boat to the harbor with their horse and wagon. This method damaged both the boat and their wagon. The boat sank and the wagon cracked an axle. Live Ghost (1941) Laurel and Hardy short A sea captain cannot get a crew for his supposedly haunted ship. Turned down by every prospective mariner in a waterfront bar, he chances upon two fish cleaners. They are reluctant to join his crew but agree to help him shanghai a crew at a dollar a head. Stan goads the prospective sailor into chasing him and Ollie clouts him with a frying pan. Stan and Ollie also end up shanghaied on the Captain's ship. They are about to be lynched by the angry crew when the Captain intervenes. He tells them they will be safe as long as they stay on his ship. He says he will twist around the head of anyone who mentions ghosts. Ten ports later they still have not left the ship.
A drunken crewmember is ordered to stay aboard while everyone else has
shore leave. He was placed in the boy's care. He escapes leaving a
trunk under his bead clothes. Stan finds a concealed gun and
accidentally shoots what they believe is the drunken crewmember.
Reduced to merely being fish cleaners, they jumped at the chance to make a few extra dollars by helping a Captain shanghai a crew on a ship. To fulfil his complement, the Captain shanghaied Ollu and Buzsla. Because of their part in shahgaiing most of the crew, they were hated by the rest of the crew. The ship was believed to be haunted by the ghosts of men killed during the Captain's obsessive pursuit of a Great White Whale that destroyed one of his ships and caused him to lose his leg. The Captain whose name was Ahab had a leg made of whalebone.
Although comedic in nature, much of the ghost story as related is true,
in that Ollu and Buzsla believed that a drunken crewmember covered in
whitewash was a ghost. The story of the Captain with the drunken floozy
who happened to be the drunk's wife however seems to be false as was
the twisting of Ollu and Buzsla's heads. Frail Whale Abbott and Costello Animated Series Abbott and Costello go to sea with Captain Ahab to capture Moby Dick As related above Ollu and Buzsla sailed with Captain Ahab as he pursued the Great White Whale, however this voyage took place prior to the events of Moby Dick before Ishmael came aboard. They left the ship and never returned once Ahab docked in American waters. Any Old Port (1932) Laurel and Hardy short subject Stan and Ollie arrive home from a whaling voyage for which Stan was the bait and check into a hotel. The proprietor of this establishment Mugsy Long is forcing a young girl in his employ into marriage, an activity from which he takes time to register his new guests. As the boys play pool, the reluctant girl manages to tell them of her situation before being locked into a cabinet. Stan and Ollie intervene but are dissuaded somewhat when Long fails to notice the pool balls aimed at his head. The local justice arrives to officiate and the boys are summoned as witnesses. They refuse to cooperate and a free for all breaks out over the key to the cupboard. Stan swaps the key for another giving the second one to Ollie. As Long chases Ollie around the building Stan frees the girl who makes her exit. Eventually the chase leads to a jetty where Long is dumped into the water. Stan and Ollie escape only to realize that all their money is locked in their room. Starvation seems imminent until Ollie is hailed by his old friend seated at a lunch wagon. He is making money as a boxing promoter and offers Ollie 50 dollars to fight that evening. Ollie happily accepts both the engagement and an advance of the full amount before settling down to a full meal. Stan cannot do likewise because he has to fight later on; Ollie is of course the manager. At the arena Battling Laurel displays ignorance of even such basics as limbering up but these become minor concerns when he discovers his opponent to be Mugsy Long. The vengeful hostler instructs his second to load his glove. Oliver meanwhile places a bet against Stan winning. The advice of Stan's second is to hold him in the clinches, an instruction Stan takes literally until they are pried apart. In the confusion, Long's weighted gloves went to Stan who is soon chasing Long around the ring. When the tries to retrieve the glove Long is knocked cold and his second reports Stan to an official. By Ringside, Ollie tells Stan about the bet he had against Stan. Stan draws back his fist to strike Ollie but hits the official and knocks him out. The boys make a swift exit. After leaving Captain Ahab's ship rather rapidly with a scant amount of money, they looked for work. Ollu procureed employment for them as boxers with Buzsla being first on the bill. The events of the Laurel and Hardy short follow this adventure of Ollu and Buzsla fairly accurately. They did indeed rescue a girl from a hostler although he seems to have run a white slaver racket rather than actually having desired to marry the girl.The white slaver intended to use the boxing ring to legally beat Ollu and Buzsla to death. By cheating they managed to knock the white slaver unconscious and then fled the city. Citing their vast nautical experience and past law enforcement experience, Ollu and Buzsla procured jobs as riverboat detectives. Their main jobs were to ferret out unscrupulous gamblers and confidence men like George Devol and Canada Bill Jones. Yet they also pursued river pirates and attempted to prevent acts of river piracy. |
1850
Paddle Wheel Pirates Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode
Abbott and Costello are disguised as Southern gentlemen aboard a Mississippi Riverboat. In actuality they are riverboat detectives assigned to nab the notorious riverboat pirate Jean Le Feedback. Instead Le Feedback captures them and plans to use the riverboat to attack an ocean liner. The ocean liner turns out to be a navy battleship that nearly blasts them out of the water. The story ends with Abbott and Costello bringing the chastised Jean Le Feedback back to port, tied above the revolving paddles of the riverboat for the spanking of his life.
Despite the obvious cartoon tomfoolery, there does seem to be a basis in fact for this particular incident of Ollu and Buzsla's career as river detectives.
The famous pirate Jean Laffitte left his base on Galveston in 1820 and disappeared from history. He was thought to have gone to Mexico or South America.
As speculated elsewhere he went to Mexico and assumed for a time the guise of Juan Murieta and helped to foment the rebellion against Spanish rule in Mexico, and later in other regions of Latin America. Yet there are accounts of him having married, having a family and dying a respected businessman in the region of Alton, Illinois. While it may be true that he married and had children during period of 1840's he more than likely faked his own death in 1854, as an Eridanean adoptee, he looked forward to a thousand years of life. It is also quite likely that the respected businessman was a cover for his illegal activities of piracy and smuggling which he carried out on the river. Whether he was acting under orders or did this activity on his own at present unknown. It may be that Jean Laffitte was working with elements of the United States government or Military Intelligence. The idea that he was going to hijack a paddlewheeler to then use it to rob an Ocean liner is absurd and one of the fictive elements of the tale. However, it is probable that Laffitte intended to seize the paddlewheel boat as an act of riverboat piracy. Ollu and Buzsla prevented him from doing this. Laffitte may have wished to seize the boat he was on because the delay that his arrest caused him to miss a rendezvous in Cairo. Laffitte wished to prevent another Riverboat from taking on cargo. The boat which had the cargo loaded on it was the Gold Dust which later experienced a boiler explosion and destroyed everything on board.(23)
Only a few people knew that the cargo had in it crates of rifles and ammunition, bought by British agents to be sent to Kansas and exacerbate the minor civil war going on there. Laffitte had wished to prevent these guns from arriving in Kansas. Despite Ollu's and Buzsla's well intentioned meddling all turned out well. However this turned out to be Ollu's and Buzsla's last case as they were fired for arresting the respected businessman without a shred of proof.
They found themselves in the town of St. Petersburg without employment and took jobs with a passing circus.
1852 The Chimp Laurel and Hardy short subject
Released May 21, 1932 (Sound -three reels).
When the circus folds, Stan wins the flea circus and Ollie wins "Ethel" the chimp in lieu of their salary. The boys have their work cut out for them trying to get Ethel past their landlord, whose wife is also named Ethel. Chaos reigns when the landlord hears the name Ethel coming from the boy's room.
Ollu's and Buzsla's employment with the Circus lasted nearly seven years however due to some unsound investments on the part of the Circus owner, the Circus went bust in 1859. As part of their severance pay Ollu and Buzsla were given a chimpanzee, actually a baby gorilla named Ethelbert. With the onset of rising tensions between the Northern and Southern States and very little desire to get caught up in another civil war, they went west. They had trouble finding a place that would allow them to stay with the baby gorilla and so sold it to a man who was going to Colorado to prospect for gold. He renamed the baby gorilla O'Neill. Johnson wanted to teach the animal to pan for gold. Johnson, the prospector, was a kind man and treated O'Neill very well. He also taught O'Neill how to dig, fetch firewood, haul up buckets of water, cook, clean, and load and fire a revolver. Naturally, when Johnson is murdered for what he knows about "the great motherlode," O'Neill sought revenge. He strapped on a bandoleer and two six-shooters and began tracking the thieves across a hundred miles of Colorado mountains and badlands. He picked them off one by one, meanwhile discovering a talent for holding up stagecoaches. (24)
(April 1860 - October 1861) Phony Express Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode
Pony Express riders Abbott and Costello run into Indian trouble when they met Chief Nasty Bear.
Although the animated episode portrays Ollu and Buzsla as pony express riders this does not appear to have been the case. The riders were as a rule young men, most of who have been historically identified. Ollu and Buzsla were attached to the Pony Express service but rather as stationmasters." Although the spotlight of admiration and praise often focused upon the Pony Express riders, their success was impossible without the humble, mostly obscure, and forgotten station keepers and stock tenders. These were the unsung heroes without whom no rider could have operated very far or for very long. They formed a standby group, mostly too old or too heavy to withstand the strain on human and horse flesh, but who were always ready to serve as substitute riders in an emergency, and some of whom later did become full-fledged riders.
These were the farriers, artisans and mechanics at Home Stations and especially the station and stock tenders at outlying, often desolate relay stations, whose sole job was the preservation of connecting links between Home Stations and the presentation to an incoming rider of a fresh mount, when possible all saddled and bridled and ready to keep the mail moving at top speed, the distinctive badge of the Pony Express. Theirs was a lonely, a dangerous life, far from immediate help against hostile Indians and outlaws."
Ollu and Buzsla may have been steer towards this line of work while traveling west and having run into a person from their past, Leonardo Da Vinci, a.k.a. Flint who was taking a position as a stationmaster for the Pony Express. A Captain F. Flint is listed among the stationmasters of the Pony Express.(25)
Although records are incomplete, they appear to have run the Fish Creek Station under the names of Smith and Jones. They may have been mentioned in a travelogue by world famous explorer, Richard Francis Burton in his The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California Fish Springs: "Two men had charge of ten horses and mules. Nature provided an ample supply of warm water, which was slightly sulphury. After breakfast which the water rendered truly detestable we left Fish Springs." -Sir Richard Burton September 30, 1860 3:00 AM
The cartoon depiction of their ongoing battle with Chief Nasty Bear probably symbolizes their location that was in somewhat hostile territory. The Utes destroyed a couple of the express' stations in the short time they operated.
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1861-1866 When the Central
Overland California & Pikes Peak Express went bust, Ollu and Buzsla
heard of another pony express being started up in Virginia City. After
traveling the great distance over rugged territory, because Buzsla
insisted he knew a short cut, they discovered they had made a slight
error. The pony express was starting up in Virginia City, Nevada. They
had traveled to Virginia City, Montana. This was not entirely a bad
mistake for there had been gold strikes there and a people were
becoming wealthy prospecting gold. It was not entirely a good mistake
either since there was also a great deal of robbery, vandalism and
murder going on as well. People did not know whom to trust since the
officials were called corrupt by a band of vigilantes who went about
hanging folks and the local enforcement officers called the vigilantes
the real thieves who covered up their activities by murdering innocent
folk and calling it justice. Going Going Gun Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode Abbott and Costello are western sheriffs who have to bring in Gruesome Galoot the stage coach robber. Gruesome is too much for Abbott and Costello and they end up behind bars. Ollu and Buzsla find themselves elected Sheriff and Deputy by a drunken band of miners in a small mining town. They are charged with finding and stopping the outlaw band that is hijacking the miners as they leave the diggings to go to Bannack or Virginia City. Due to their inability to stop the bandits, the miners soon began to believe that Ollu and Buzsla were in collusion with the bandits. They were nearly lynched but saved by Sheriff Henry Plummer of Bannack. Partially because he admired their devotion to duty and partially to help protect them, he deputized them. This career in law enforcement was cut short when Henry Plummer was dragged from his house one night and lynched by a group of vigilantes. The vigilantes believed that he was a criminal mastermind hiding behind his badge. This is at least the version given to justify their actions. Like Wyatt Earp, Henry Plummer may have straddled the line of legal behavior but he also seemed to take his duties as a law enforcement officer seriously. He had publicly stated he intended to put an end to the lynchings. It is also interesting to note "after the "Plummer gang" hanging, the stage robberies showed more evidence of organized criminal activity, more robbers involved in the holdups, and more intelligence passed to the actual robbers." (26) Way Out West Laurel and Hardy feature film Life in Brushwood Gulch centers around the saloon run by Mickey Finn and his wife, singer Lola. Slaving in the kitchen is Mary Roberts who has been in their charge since childhood. When two prospectors Stan and Ollie arrive in Brushwood Gulch with the deed to a gold mine left by their old friend to his daughter. They find their way into Mickey Finn's saloon, and let it slip to the crooked proprietor that they have a deed to a gold mine, to be delivered to a young woman by the name of Mary Roberts. Because neither Stan nor Ollie know what Mary looks like, the saloon owner passes his girlfriend off as the woman they are looking for. Of course, the boys have no reason to believe that they have been lied to and sign the deed over to Mickey Finn. When they encounter the real Mary Roberts, who also works in the saloon and realize their mistake, they try everything they can to steal the deed back. Matters are not helped by the arrival of the town's sheriff who had ordered Stan and Ollie out of town earlier that day. That night they break into the saloon, recover the deed and leave with Mary with plans to settle way down south. Their law enforcement career having been cut short Ollu and Buzsal took to mining once again. Although they were not successful, their nearest neighbor Red Roberts was. However the rigors of mining had taken a toll on his consumptive condition and he became weak and died. He asked Ollu and Buzsla to take the deed to his gold mine to his daughter in Brushwood Gulch. As portrayed in the film the boys were tricked by an unscrupulous saloon owner named Mickey Finn (27) who claimed his wife was Mary Roberts. When the boys discovered their mistake, they did everything in their power to get the deed back and eventually succeeded after various misadventures. Despite desiring to travel way down south, they soon discovered that the War between the States had devastated the South. They established Mary Roberts at her home town of Chattanooga where they arranged with a bank for her inheritance to become a viable enterprise and for her to be educated at Women's college. Cherokee Choo Choo Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode The Iron
horse has trouble getting through Indian Territory. But when Abbott and
Costello take charge things go too far and they run the line up through
Eskimo territory. The reference to them
having run the railroad line up to Eskimo territory is a reference to
their employer's ultimate plan which was to have the entire Indian
Territory opened to White Settlers and the Indians relocated to Alaska.
Ollu and Buzsla were able to discover some discrepancies in their
employer's bookkeeping and so discredit him. As a consequence they
delayed the Oklahoma Land Rush for almost twenty years. |
1869
Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) Abbott and Costello feature film
Duke Egan and Chester Wooley, traveling salesmen enroute to California arrive in the tough Montana town of Wagon Gap. One of the infamous citizens, Fred Hawkins, is shot and killed. Duke and Chester are charged with murder. Joe Simpson the head of the honest citizen's committee saves the boys from being lynched by digging up an old Montana law that makes the survivor of a gun duel responsible for the debts and dependents of his victim. The victim's blustery widow and her seven children become Chester's responsibility. The widow works Chester from dawn to dusk on her farm, trying to wear him down so that he will agree to marry her. Jake Frame, however, who runs the town's saloon demands that Chester pay off Hawkins debt to him by working at the saloon at night.
Chester soon discovers that no one will dare shoot him for fear of inheriting his dreadful responsibilities. Jim realizes that Chester will make an invincible sheriff who can clean up the town once and for all. Armed with a photograph of the widow and her seven children to discourage gunslingers, Chester turns Wagon Gap around, foils a hold up Frame is planning and even stands up to Duke. While Chester enjoys his new power, Duke longs to move to California. He tries to persuade Judge Benbow to marry the widow by spreading a rumor that she stands to become rich when the new railroad buys her property. As the rumor spreads all the men in Wagon Gap begin gunning for Chester. Finally the townspeople save Chester and Frame confesses to the murder of Hawkins. Duke and Chester are free to leave for California and the Judge is set to marry the Widow. The rumor turns out to be true.
Ollu and Buzsla soon found a new profession after hooking up with a patent medicine man. They traveled throughout the Indian Territory selling their high alcohol content medicine. Eventually they took over the business when their employer died testing a new concoction. They decided to travel to California.
On their way to California they decided to visit Montana to look some old friends. Their previous bad luck in Montana reccured and they became embroiled in renewed clash between crooks and vigilantes. The story of Ollu becoming accidentally responsible for the Widow Hawkins and her children was based on fact as was the Ollu becoming Sheriff. The incident of the live oyster in the soup was however, I fear, false.
After the Widow received as nice chunk of change from the railroad for allowing passage through her land she showed her gratitude to Ollu and Buzsla by having her new husband declare them indigents who needed to leave town. Ollu and Buzsla continued on to California. While in San Francisco circa 1871, they actually struck it rich in speculation on commodities. It was not until they had gained their windfall fortune that they learned that the person who had given the sage investment advice was Emperor Joshua Norton I, a well-known lunatic. Fearful that this would some how discredit their fortune, Ollu and Buzsla boarded a steamship and left the country.
They established separate identities for themselves, Ollu went bought a manufacturing firm. Buzsla established a false peerage for himself and began attending Oxford under the name of Lord Paddington. Ollu received a manufacturing contract with the government to make horseshoes for the cavalry. Buzsla became a well known scholar. However by 1877 things had gone sour for both of them.
Ollu had lost his contract with the government and was being charged with causing the crippling of a horse that had thrown an officer at a crucial point in battle. It took his entire fortune to prevent legal charges from being filed against him. Buzsla or Lord Paddington had become a popular athlete and well known scholar, he had refused to help Ollu or having anything to do with him because it might besmirch his good reputation.
Ollu showed up at a boxing match in which Paddington was fighting. Startled at the sudden appearance of Ollu, Paddington let down his guard and suffered a severe blow to the head. When he awoke he could not remember anything about his experiences as Lord Paddington. Ollu used this to his advantage and convinced Buzsla that they had to flee England.
1881 Phantom of the Hoss Opera Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode
Abbott and Costello are Sheriffs in a western ghost town when the ghosts of Billy the Kid, Black Bart and Jesse James come to life and begin shooting up the town. Costello finally subdues them by inadvertently starting a desert whirlwind which blows them back into their tombs.
Portions of the cartoon adventure are true. Ollu and Buzsla were once again a Sheriff and a Deputy, although in this case Buzsla was the Sheriff and Ollu the deputy. The town is not a ghost town although it was close to being one. The town was boomtown called Goldpeak in Death Valley. The Gold had peaked by 1880 and the only thing that kept the town alive was a well that made it a necessary spot to stop while traveling through Death Valley. The town boasted a saloon, a general store and a small diner and a jail with out any cells.
As for Billy the Kid, Jesse James and Black Bart being ghosts, well they were pretty substantial ghosts. Of the three only Billy was supposed to be dead. Jesse James had arranged to meet with Billy at this town in Death Valley to persuade him to join his gang for a last hurrah of robbery. They sat at the saloon. There were two other customers besides them.
Billy had agreed to meet with Jesse, based upon his perception of James from the dime novels he had read. He was disappointed that James was not at all like the way the books had portrayed him. James remarked that he wished Billy had picked a different spot to meet, the name reminded him a recent horrible experience he had where a woman doctor had raised the dead and created monsters.
Billy countered James story with a tale of fighting against a man that was undead and drank blood. He feared at first that this man had affected him because after Pat Garrett had shot him the back like a murdering dog, he remembered dying. Then he woke up in a grave and dug his way out. However he wasn't affected by sunlight and he healed real fast, so maybe he got the benefits of the vampire's bite without the curse.
Another customer, a dapperly dressed man in his mid-fifties, sporting a brushy moustache spoke up and said he had seen that in the war, people being shot, seemed like they died and then they was up and about a little while later once. He had seen a Illinois bushwacker named Melvin Kroner die after being shot up. Yet he was back causing mayhem a few days later.
Jesse James demanded to know who the older man was. He said he was Charlie Bowles he robbed stages under the name of Black Bart over in California.
A man sitting at the end of the bar upended his bottle of whisky. Walking next to Billy he broke the bottle on the edge of the bar and stabbed Billy with a three inch shard of glass. Billy pulled the bottle out of his stomach with shock. He and the stranger began to shiver as Billy's body healed at an abnormal rate of speed.
The man shrugged and said he wanted to be certain as he pulled out a two foot long Bowie knife from a sheath on his back. As the stranger started to slash at Billy's throat, he was shot a dozen times by Jesse James, Black Bart, Ollu and Buzsla. Afraid that the stranger would revive, kill Billy and then come after them, Buzsla grabbed the bowie knife and told Billy to cut the head off. Billy was reluctant at first but with Ollu and Buzsla's guns pointed at his head and the sight of the dead man stirring prompted him to action.
The isolated electrical storm that arose from the beheaded corpse kicked up a dust storm that enveloped the tiny town.
After this incident Jesse James, Black Bart and Billy the Kid immediately rode their separate ways.... rapidly.
Having once again run into one of those nutty immortals that went around cutting off each other heads, Ollu and Buzsla were certain that they had been tracked out west. Ollu and Buzsla went east to lose themselves in the big cities.(28)
1882 Chump at Oxford 1940 Laurel and Hardy feature film
Ollie and Stan are open to offers for suitable employment. An agency needs a married couple to wait a dinner party and Ollie knows who will just fit the bill. Ollie as a butler and Stan as a maid are insufficiently versed in etiquette, a disadvantage complicated by Stan's literal interpretation of serve the salad undressed. Their next job finds them sweeping the streets. A discarded banana skin from their lunch break stops a bank robber in his tracks. As a reward they are provided with the best education that money can buy, at Oxford. They arrive dressed for Eton and are ragged by their fellow students, being sent through a maze and installed in the Dean's quarters. Innocently they betray the student culprits and are about to be run out of Oxford until a blow to the head reveals Stan to be Lord Paddington, an all around genius who had disappeared from Oxford after a similar blow years before.
Paddington is a fierce fighter and makes short work of the other students, before long he is Oxford's leading scholar and athlete with Ollie as his personal valet. Paddington is arrogance personified, prepared to fit in a visit from Einstein when convenient. While the mistreated Ollie decides to return to America a further blow restores the old Stan.
As street sweepers they inadvertently stopped a bank robbery. As a reward they were offered the best education that money could buy, at Oxford University. Ollu was reluctant to go but Buzsla insisted, drawn to Oxford for some reason. A blow to the head restored Buzsla's memories of being Lord Paddington, although he retained all his other memories as well. He was incensed that Ollu had convinced him to return to America earlier. He became snooty and arrogant, treating Ollu as a merely a servant. Although the film has Buzsla ready to fit in a visit from Einstein when convenient, actually the celebrity scientist was Lord Lister, who was intrigued Buzsla's statements on disease. After meeting with Lord Lister, Buzsla became short tempered. In another fight, he took a blow to the head and lost all memories of being Lord Paddington again. Ollu and he declared their intent to return to the United States.
The reason that Buzsla became short tempered after his visit with Lord Lister was because Lord Lister quickly discerned that Buzsla was a humbug as a scientist and as a member of the aristocracy, although he was too polite to say so. Lister did suggest that Lord Paddington leave Oxford shortly or an inquiry might discover his real identity. Buzsla used the blow to the head as a ploy to destroy the Lord Paddington character. They did intend to return to America but needed money. Hearing that because of a series of murders in Hyde Park that Scotland Yard was hiring a few men to help patrol the streets more frequently they went to Scotland Yard. They talked their way onto joining the Scotland Yard as a pair of constables, convincing an Inspector that they were American detectives sent over to observe superior British Police techniques. Their familiarity with older police methods convinced the Inspector.
1883 Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) Abbott and Costello feature film
Slim and Tubby, two American police officers studying London police methods and Bruce Adams, a newspaper reporter become involved in a brawl at Hyde Park instigated by Vicky Edwards and other militant suffragettes. Bruce and Vicky are jailed and Slim and Tubby are bounced off of the force. Vicky's guardian, Dr. Henry Jekyll arranges for her bail. Dr. Jekyll conducts strange experiments in a laboratory in his home. A hypodermic needle changes Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde, a monstrous creature who has panicked London. He jealously notices that Vicky and Bruce are becoming fond of one another. The monster tries to kill Bruce at a music hall where he watches Vicky perform. Tubby and Slim spot the monster and a chase ensues. Tubby traps Mr. Hyde in a cell in a wax museum but when he returns with the Inspector and Slim the creature has become Dr. Jekyll again. No body believes that he is the monster.
Dr. Jekyll asks Tubby and Slim to escort him home, where Tubby drinks a potion that temporarily turns him into an oversized mouse. When the serum wears off the boys rush to Scotland Yard to inform the Inspector who still refuses to believe them. The jealous Dr. Jekyll once again becomes Mr. Hyde and tries to kill Vicky. Bruce returns in time to save her but Mr. Hyde escapes. Tubby falls against the syringe and gets enough of the serum to become a monster. A chase follows with Bruce leading one group after the real Mr. Hyde and Slim another after Tubby. The chase ends back in Dr. Jekyll's home where Hyde falls to his death from an upstairs window. Meanwhile Slim brings Tubby into custody and Tubby doesn't change back into his normal self until he has bitten half a dozen Bobbies and the Inspector. They turn into monsters and chase Slim and Tubby.
For an in-depth view of this incident and how it fits into the life of Henry Jekyll please visit Hyde and Hair Part Six: Hydden Pair
1884After the above incident Ollu and Buzsla have enough of Britain for a while and return to the United States.
1885 Coming 'Round the Mountain (1951) Abbott and Costello feature film
Al Stewart, a theatrical agent has finally come up with a hit nightclub act in Dorothy McCoy, the Manhattan Hillbilly. But Al also managed to get his worst client, the Great Wilbert, an escape artist in the same nightclub. When Wilbert is unable to escape from his chains and shackles he yells for help. Dorothy recognizes his cry for help as the McCoy clan yell. A photograph and a concertina in Wilbert's dressing room identify him as the grandson of Squeeze Box McCoy, leader of a feuding Kentucky clan. Granny McCoy will reveal the whereabouts of a fortune in gold to the kin of Squeeze Box. Wilbert, Al and Dorothy head for the mountains where Dorothy recounts how McCoys have been feuding with the Winfields for sixty years. Dorothy, Al, and Wilbert meet the McCoy clan, Granny, Kalem, Uncle Clem, Luke, Kalem's sister Matt on the way to the fair.
Wilbert, who knows nothing of guns, is chosen to represent the McCoys against Devil Dan Winfield in the turkey shoot and feud starts anew. Granny McCoy insists that Wilbert be married before she will reveal the secret of the treasure. But Dorothy refuses the honor, explaining that prefers Clark Winfield, Granny suggests that Wilbert obtain a love potion from Aunt Huddy the Witch to use on Dorothy. The potion however gets mixed up with all of the other jugs in the cabin, so while Dorothy falls for Wilbert he falls for Matt, who in turn falls for Al. When the potion wears off, Dorothy marries Clark just as the irate Winfield Clan arrives. A random bullet strikes the love potion jug and Devil Dan conveniently gets a taste of the potion and adopts Wilbert with great affection. When the map is found in Wilbert's concertina, it reveals that the treasure is located in the Lost Springs Mine on Winfield territory. Devil Dan blithely helps the boys gain entrance to the mine which turns out to be above the vault at Fort Knox. The boys break into the vault and are arrested.
While in Charleston, they heard a woman scream and ran to help her. Two toughs had accosted her. Ollu was stunned because the girl closely resembled a long passed wife of his. They escorted the young woman to her hotel room where upon she offered them a drink of 'shine as a thankee kindly. They agreed, sitting in her visiting room and sipping glasses of moonshine. Ollu spotted an old concertina. He picked it up and looked it over. He asked where she had gotten it. The girl replied it had belonged to her grandmother, Squeeze Box McCoy. Ollu opened up a small door in one of wooden ends and extracted a letter.
Frightened the girl asked how he had known about that. Ollu claimed to be distant relative on the Payne side of the family. He wondered what Matilda was doing so far from home. She would not tell except to say that she had run away from her family. Ollu and Buzsla took it upon themselves to return the girl to her family in Kentucky. It wasn't until they approached the McCoy homestead that Matilda revealed that she had left to avoid all of the violence. The McCoy's and Hatfields had been feuding with one another off and on for six years.
Ollu was welcomed to the McCoy as Cousin Wilber, this being the name he was using at the time. At the time that Ollu and Buzsla arrived the feud was at an uneasy peace. Shortly after they arrived the fighting would begin, unfortunately, incited by them.
Because he is an honored guest, being a long lost relative and all, Ollu was chosen to be the first to represent the McCoy family at a Tug Valley Turkey shoot. Although the film has him being unfamiliar with fire arms, this was not the case. He was out of practice and no longer familiar with the musket they gave him to use. He accidentally shot Devil Anse Hatfield's hat off his head. This lead to fist fight and a knife fight between the Hatfields and McCoys before local law broke it up. There were no fatalities.
The business of visiting the mountain witch has some truth to it as well, although the sequence of events and the reason behind the visit are different. The matriarch of the McCoy clan announced that because of Wilbur's defense of the McCoy honor it was only right that he become closer joined to the family. Matilda would wed Wilbur. In a tearful meeting with Old Ma McCoy and Wilbur Matilda announced that she had no intention of marrying Wilbur, she was in love with Clark Hatfield. Old Ma McCoy was shocked at this news, as was Wilbur, although he did not wish to marry Matilda, he saw only trouble arising from her liaison with Clark Hatfield.
Old Ma McCoy proposed that Wilbur visit the mountain witch and get something that would end Matilda's love for Clark and incite Matilda to love Wilbur.
The Mountain Witched proved her powers to Wilbur by creating a poppet powered by his hair and spit into which she stuck pins. The sharp pains convinced Wilbur although Buzsla remained skeptical, thinking she used sleight of hand and mesmerism to perform her magic.
Despite the potency of the love potion, which was 'shine with some herbal additives, Matilda's love for Clark Hatfield was not swayed by the love potion. Clark Hatfield came to collect Matilda and leave with her to go to the city. The Hatfields came to fetch Clark Hatfield back. A gun fight between the two families broke out but Wilbur and Ollu sneaked out of the cabin and headed for the hills. They were captured by the Hatfields. Wilbur told Anse they were not running away but had been coming to see the Hatfields to discuss the problem like sivilized menfolk.
Under the influence of the potent "love" potion, Devil Anse Hatfield comes around to Ollu and Buzsla's point of view. He gave his blessing for the marriage. This was quickly enacted before he sobered up. For a wedding present Devil Anse Hatfield gave Matilda a small tract of land. This tract of land had actually been part of the current dispute. The treasure in the film was actually a symbolic representation of the economic power struggle between the two clans. Despite their appearances both the Hatfield and McCoy families were fairly wealthy, owning much of the rich farm and lumber in the Tug Valley. It was this financial competition was at the root of many of their antipathy, although other factors usually caused the clashes to become violent.
Tensions were running especially high between the clans with the increasing extensions of the railroad into the Kentucky and West Virgina areas, both vied for control of vital railroad crossings and depots.
Ollu and Buzsla and Clark and Matilda wisely departed Tug Valley before Anse Hatfield came to his senses.
Although the treasure part of the film is fictional, Ollu and Buzsla did buy a treasure map within the next two years.
After leaving Kentucky, they traveled westward and visited Oklahoma. In the Cherokee Strip they met a man who had the authentic map to the Lost Adams mine. The man claimed that no one had found it in Arizona or New Mexico because it was really in Texas. Accepting the logic of this, they acquired mining equipment and set off for Texas.
1885-88 Mole Man Mine Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode
Prospecting for the Lost Dutchman mine, Abbott and Costello are kicked down a deep shaft by a burro. They are confronted by a giant mole man who clobbers them with sold gold nuggets. The boys are blast back to the surface when the mole man through ignorance sets off their dynamite supply. Costello saves the day by hanging onto a million dollar nugget but uses it to knock the mole man back down the shaft.
Although the cartoon has Ollu and Buzsla searching for the lost Dutchman Mine, in actuality it was the Lost Adams Mine. They discovered however as they entered the Guadaloupe Mountains as shown on the map they had bought, that the map artist appeared never to have visited those particular mountains since the map was wholly inaccurate. Buzsla chose to believe after this long journey that they were simply not reading the map correctly and persevered in their quest. In a valley between New Mexico and Texas they found a valley with a large grouping of rocky hills which resembled in some degree one of the structures on the map. They began to search the hills for signs of mining or other activity. They discovered a tunnel set in the rock that showed signs of having been mined, by the regularity in which the tunnel had been cut. They traveled deep into the tunnel however before encountering any artifacts. They found abandoned tools; this encouraged them to continue traveling.
The big mole man that they encountered was actually a robot that was programmed to maintain the tunnel. Their first thought was to attack it by shooting. When its controllers noted this attack, they initiated a self defense program whereby the maintenance robot threw rocks at them. Ollu and Buzsla fled but were pursued by robot. Its controllers did not want the knowledge of the existence to get out. At the tunnel entrance, they discharged all of their dynamite just before the robot arrived, sealing the entrance. (28)
They continued to search for gold for another six months before giving up. They returned to the Midwest and became part of a Showboat troupe.
1891 Naughty Nineties (1945) Abbott and Costello feature film
Trouble looms for Captain Sam, owner of the showboat River Queen, when he ties up at the Mississippi River town of Ironvill. Despite his better judgment and the advice of his lead actors, Dexter, his chief Roustabout Sebastian and his beautiful daughter Caroline, the kind hearted Captain Sam befriends three dubious types. The newcomers, a gentleman gambler named Crawford, his companion Bonita and their bodyguard Bailey are fugitives from the sheriff and use the River Queen to escape to St. Louis.
In St. Louis they invite Captain Sam to be their guest at a notorious gambling house the Gilded Cage. Plying the Captain with liquor during a crooked card game, Crawford and Bonita win controlling interest in the River Queen. To the despair of the honest Captain, Bonita and Crawford install a crooked gambling operation on the Riverboat. Sebastian and Dexter start a brawl with Bailey and his men, which leads to a frantic chase around the riverboat. The unwelcome intruders are eventually ousted and the Riverboat is finally restored to Captain Sam.
The events of this film, despite some comic fabrications do appear to be mostly valid. Ollu and Buzsla did help Captain Sam extricated from clutches of crooked gamblers. The aid of Captain Andy Hawk and roustabouts from the crew of the Cotton Blossom were excluded from the film version of these events. Buzsla received a telegram from a theatre in San Francisco wishing to secure the acting talents of Dexter Broadhurst. Urged by Captain Sam, Dexter and Sebastian went to San Francisco.
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Late 1892-1894 Ollu and Buzsla moved to San Francisco only to discover that the job was a ploy to get Dexter and Sebastian to come to San Francisco. The gamblers blamed Dexter and Sebastian for their loss of the River Queen and wanted revenge. Almost as soon as Dexter and Sebastian entered the Gilded Lady saloon and game room, they were coshed, robbed of all their possessions and dumped in the bay to drown. Recovering from their skull fractures before they drowned Ollu and Buzsla swam ashore to San Francisco but without any clothing or prospects. Having no wish to be found by the gamblers they worked at a number of professions until they could get a stake to get out of town. DIRTY WORK (1933) Laurel and Hardy short subject The animated titles begin by bubbling from one to the next in a laboratory beaker before chimney-sweeps Stan and Ollie arrive at the house of Professor Noodle. The butler makes the mistake of allowing them both in while remarking that they will find the fireplace "standing against the wall". Inserted between shots of the genial, but thoroughly insane professor perfecting his rejuvenation formula, Stan and Ollie systematically decorate the house with soot, and generally destroying any object in their way. The peak of their anarchy occurs when Stan tussles with the brush in the fireplace and accidentally pulls Ollie down the chimney that breaks apart under the strain of his girth. Ollie appears in the fireplace amongst a haze of soot as bricks plummet down the chimney and onto his head one by one. Professor Noodle proceeds to demonstrate his formula to Stan and Ollie when he places a duck into a tank and adds a drop of his solution that changes the animal into a young duckling. A little more is added and the duckling reverts to an egg. Determined to try the experiment on his butler Jessop, Noodle leaves the room. Inevitably Stan accidentally knocks Ollie into the tank with a whole phial of the formula. Ollie emerges as a chimp, complete with a bowler hat on his head remarking "I have nothing to say!" Habeas Corpus (1928) Laurel and Hardy short feature Vagabonds Stan and Ollie arrive at the doorstep of an eccentric scientist named Professor Padilla who persuades them to exhume a corpse from the local cemetery for use in his experiments. The script mentions that he is trying to transfer the brain of one body into another, but the film leaves the experiment unexplained. Padilla's servant, Ledoux, informs the police of his master's nefarious deeds while, Ollie attempts to climb over the cemetery wall, but much to his own chagrin, he falls through it instead. A detective draped in a white sheet hides in the graveyard. Stan knocks over a lamp and set the detective's sheet on fire. He runs through the cemetery. As Stan digs Ollie takes off his shoes to nurse his aching feet, Stan notices the toes emerging from the dirt and thinks that something is coming out of the dirt and smashes Ollie's feet with the shovel. As Ollie chases Stan, the detective returns with a curiously unsinged sheet and hides in the grave, rising to his feet as Stan digs. Stan terrified escapes the apparition who returns to the grave. Ollie brings out the body in a sack. The Detective's feet pop through enabling him to walk behind Stan. Thinking the corpse is alive Stan and Ollie flee the scene. In the meantime Ledoux clambers into the body bag and plays dead to give Stan and Ollie a real scare when they think that the corpse has returned to life. Directed by
James Parrott, Charlie Chase's brother, and supervised by Leo McCarey,
who was involved in many of the duo's best films, Habeas Corpus was the
first film to realize Laurel and Hardy's potential as a team.
Charley Rogers as Ledoux, also collaborated with Stan on many of their
scripts and became a life-long friend to them both. Also of interest is
Richard Carle as the mad Prof. Padilla who later appeared in the spooky
comedy thriller The Ghost Walks (1934). Although it is possible that these two films are actually separate events within the same time period, it seems that they may actually be one incident. The chances that they ran into two mad scientists in so short a time seems unlikely but it may have happened. It appears that Ollu and Buzsla took jobs as chimney sweeps and encountered a scientist who had created a rejuvenation serum. Their efforts to clean the ill kept chimney caused it to fall. Angry the Doctor demanded that they make restitution or act as test subjects. The rejuvenation formula was seriously flawed. Although the serum did revert a duck into a duckling, the serum had a short-lived effect and the duck rapidly aged to its previous state. When the subject was tested several times the cumulative effect of the testing killed the subject. Ollu and Buzsla were not certain how the serum would react on their physiognomy and so refused to try it. The scene were Ollie is devolved into a chimp was merely comic exaggeration. They asked if there was not another task for which they could make restitution for destroying the chimney, Professor Padilla said yes. He wished to see how the serum would react on a fresh corpse and so sent Ollu and Buzsla to a graveyard to collect one. Padilla resolved to try the rejuvenation serum on his butler. His butler however was having none of that and informed a nearby policeman of his employers misdeeds and about Ollu and Buzsla's plan to rob the grave. A detective dispatched to stop Ollu and Buzsla from committing grave robbery instead decides to catch them in the act and then arrest them. He pretended to be a corpse. They manage to elude him and return to Professor Padilla's only to find the Doctor had been arrested. The servant was bottling the youth rejuvenation formula. Greedy however he cut it with alcohol and so altered the formula to the extent that it no longer worked as a youth restorer, it did however have the slight rejuvenation effect of ridding a person of aches and pains and other ills for a couple of hours. The servant called his medicine Brighto. Ollu and Buzsla got jobs on the San Francisco Fire Department. |
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1896 Lost in Alaska (1952) Abbott and Costello feature film Two firemen, Tom and George, rescue Nugget Joe McDermott from drowning off a pier in 1890's San Francisco. Joe has a 2 million fortune in gold in Alaska but he wants to die because Rosette, a dance hall girl, no longer loves him. Tom and George keep watch on him until Joe receives a letter informing him that Rosette still loves him. He plans to return to Alaska and Tom and George join him for the voyage. Upon arriving in Skagway, Tom and George discover that Joe is a marked man. He once was a sheriff and hanged many people whose friends are now out for revenge.
Jake Stillman, who runs the casino where Rosette works, demands that
Rosette marry Joe. Jake then plans to kill Joe, marry Rosette and gain
possession of the fortune. Rosette reveals the plot to the boys who
foil the scheme by sending Joe and Rosette away from Skagway to hide
the gold. George and Tom try to hold off Jake and his henchmen. After a
series of adventures in the frozen tundra, where the boys thwart the
gang, the gold's finally lost when the sled sinks into a crevice in the
ice. With nothing to fight over Stillman, Joe and Rosette become
friends again and plan a wedding celebration. Fish Hooked Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode Abbott and Costello are arctic fishermen who get into a big struggle with a hungry polar bear over a fish. Ollu and Buzsla went to Alaska as described in the film Lost in Alaska with the events occurring mainly as stated in the synopsis of the film. While in Skagway they briefly crossed paths with their descendents who were calling themselves Chester and Duke. They were wise enough not to get too deeply involved in the problems of those two trouble magnets and moved on. Although the fortune in Alaska turned out to be a bust there was a gold strike on so they went prospecting. They became lost and went further north than they intended and ended up in the lands of the Esquimaux. The cartoon adventure Fish Hooked is a representation of their hardships in the Alaska wilderness. When they finally made it to the gold regions they were too late. Although they met such worthies as Smoke Bellew and Wyatt Earp up in the gold region, their efforts were primarily a bust. In Nome, they bought shares in a mine from Frankie Canon only to discover that they were worthless. They joined the locals citizens group along with Sam McCord and George Pratt which drove Frankie Canon out of Alaska. They returned to San Francisco and arrived there just before the news of the USS Maine being sunk. In a patriotic fever they upped and joined the navy. They were assigned to the USS Oregon in port in San Francisco. The USS Oregon sailed around South America to Cuba, took part in the Spanish-American war in that region. After a minor refit at the New York Naval yard it sailed back around South America to the Philippines and took part in fighting the Philippine Insurrection It also patrolled the East Asia and was in China in part for the Boxer Rebellion. |
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1898-1902 Two Tars Laurel and Hardy short subject The USS Oregon has allowed its intrepid mariners ashore. Two of them Stan and Ollie are dangerous enough in a rented Model T before they meet the further distraction of two girls who are having problems with a gum machine. Ollie attempts to shake the contraption into submission sending the contents spilling all over the pavement. He attempts to hide the catastrophe from the store proprietor. He gets into an alteration with the store owner. They beat a retreat to their car. They become involved with a traffic jam caused by a truck that is out of fuel. Obliged to back up they cause a series of collisions. The girls disappear when the police arrive. Stan and Ollie flee the scene of the accidents into a train tunnel and end up with their car squashed sideways by a train. Although this short is depicted as taking place in the United States it actually occurred while Ollu and Buzsla were on shore leave in Manila in 1899. The two girls in question were senorita's of Spanish descent. The automobile was actually a carriage that they had rented but the horses only understood Spanish commands. They made a snarl of the Manila traffic and as they blithely left the traffic jam behind they crossed some railroad tracks and a train hit the carriage. While they were in Manila, Ollu and Buzsla met and befriended a man, a boy really, who would be a friend of theirs for many years. The young man was named Al Runyan, a kid reporter from San Francisco who had lied about his age to join the army. Al Runyon would be a friend of theirs for many years. (30) Fisherman Willie Brisling (Laurel) is happily engaged to Nelly until she is abducted and taken aboard ship by her ex-boyfriend a visiting sea captain. Following them, Willie finds a means of disguise in a theatrical trunk belonging to a female impersonator in whose costume he lures each member of the crew to a knockout blow. Last in line is the Mate (Hardy) who is left eyes closed expecting a kiss while Willie makes his way to the Captain's cabin. The mate reopens his eyes to see a female leg clambering aboard. Grabbing it he discovers that it belongs to the Captain's wife who has reappeared after being left at the last port. Having flattened the Mate, she enters the Captain's cabin to discover him with the female clad impostor. She is ready to shoot them both but Willie removes his wig and declares his impersonation to have been a test of the wife's love. Although off the hook the Captain mutters a threat to Willie who in retaliation produces Nelly and declares that three other women had left earlier. Willie and Nelly depart and a gunshot tells us of the Captain's demise. In an earlier unfilmed version the director's notes detail a different scenario. Laurel and Hardy are in the US navy and are united in their efforts to recover Stan's Chinese girlfriend to be played by Anna May Wong from a Japanese money lender played by an actor named Sojin. During 1900, while the Oregon served as station ship at Wooing, Buzsla met and fell in love with a Chinese girl. She was abducted by a Japanese money lender who intended to take her Japan to become a prostitute. Going AWOL, Ollu and Buzsla commandeered a fishing ship, manned it with some of the girl's relatives and followed the slaver. Ollu hailed the ship and told the Captain that he had a woman to sell, one of his crew members had smuggled the girl aboard. In a female disguise Buzsla was sent over to the ship. As the Captain and Japanese moneylender took Buzsla to the main cabin to examine her. Ollu and some of his crew members freed the women and captured the crew. Ollu and Buzsla disabled the engine of the slaver ship. One of the girls who had been abused by the money lender grabbed a gun and shot him. As Ollu and Buzsla's ship sailed they could hear fighting and gunshots break out on the slaver ship. They returned to China with the captives. Although their actions saved the girl from a life of prostitution, it effectively ended their relationship. Ollu and Buzsla were denied shore leave for rest of the time they were in Asia. In early June 1901 the Oregon returned the West Coast of the United States for overhaul. Ollu and Buzsla were transferred to the USS Alabama. The
Alabama, each year from 1901 to 1907, conducted Fleet exercises and
gunnery drills in the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies in the
wintertime before returning north for repairs and operations off the
northeastern coast during the summer and autumn. So Ollu and Buzsla
spent the last part of their naval careers near the United States.
In the Navy (1941) Abbott and Costello feature film
Radio's number one crooner, Russ Raymond decides to abandon his career
and his swooning fans to join the navy under an assumed name. Tommy
Halstead. But he is spotted in San Francisco by a newspaper
photographer, Dorothy Roberts, who relentlessly pursues him in hopes of
getting candid shots of the rookie seaman. Russ Raymond was of course not a radio star rather he was a renown concert pianist and musical composer whose fame was but fleeting. Yet at the time he was a celebrity and a female reporter who had ambitions to be the next Nellie Bly pestered him as he chose to give up a promising musical career to become a swabbie. She stowawayed on the ship and Ollu and Buzsla managed to hide her until they returned to shore. Ollu also did lie to a girlfriend about having a higher rank than he actually did and the relationship ended. The maneuvers in the dream sequence were part of the Alabama's fleet exercises however they were not directed by Ollu. Ship Ahooey Abbott and Costello Animated Series episode Sailors Abbott and Costello are AWOL from their naval ship. In trying to catch up with the ship in a small motorboat they take a shortcut through a target area and are bombarded by their own ship. Ollu and Buzsla were AWOL as they put the female reporter back ashore. They attempted to return to their ship only to become caught in gunnery practice. They were however merely reprimanded for their being AWOL; the Captain felt that their reckless attempt to get the ship deserved some consideration. Men O' War (1929) Laurel and Hardy short subject Sailors Stan and Ollie visit a park while on shore leave. They meet two girls and find a pair of bloomers which have fallen from a laundry basket. Assuming that they belong to one of their new acquaintances, the boys engage them in vague inquiries as to whether one of the girls has lost anything. As one girl has mislaid her gloves, the conversation become confused, assuming embarrassing proportions when she claims to have just cleaned them with gasoline. When a cop returns the lady's gloves the boys realize their mistake and dispose of the bloomers as they take the girl to a soda fountain. A budget of fifteen cents will not finance four drinks so Ollie instructs Stan to refuse a drink. The proprietor becomes increasingly annoyed at their order is interrupted by Stan's inability to comprehend the ruse. Eventually the boys share a drink which Stan drains because his half was on the bottom. Ollie is surprisingly forgiving, leaving Stan to pay the bill which comes to 30 cents. Stan risks his meager funds on a fruit machine which after an agonizing pause provides enough money to cover the bill and a trip to the boating lake. For professional mariners, Stan and Ollie prove to be remarkably inept at rowing. A series of collisions culminate in a battle with everyone one the lake boarding Laurel and Hardy's boat which sinks with all hands. This incident details one of the last shore leaves that Ollu and Buzsla have as single men. They met their wives-to-be in this incident. This took place in Florida. Our Relations (1936) Laurel and Hardy feature film Respectable married men Stan and Ollie receive a note from Ollie's mother reminding them of their identical twins Alf and Bert who had run away to sea years before. The twins are believed dead, hanged after becoming involved in a mutiny. Stan and Ollie decide not to tell their wives. Alf and Ralph are not only alive but also heading for the locality aboard the Periwinkle. Before going ashore a wily shipmate Finn, persuades them to part with their wages on the pretense of helping them save. Alf and Bert make for Denker's beer garden where they have been asked to deliver a pearl ring for their Captain. They meet two charming and refined young ladies who run up a huge bill. The sailors need finances and prepare to leave for Finn's lodging. The proprietor requires one guarantee of their return, so they leave him the pearl ring. Finn is unwilling to return their money so they steal his clothes and pawn his clothes. Returning to Finn's lodging they discover that their money had been sewn into the suit's lining, so Finn insists on borrowing their clothes wearing one suit while pawning the other to pay interest on the first ticket. Stan and Ollie meet their wives in town and walk into Denker's beer Garden. Mistaken for their twins they are surprised to receive such a huge bill and a pearl ring on settlement. The attentions of the two girls are as great a surprise, this evidence of philandering being complicated by the arrival of Finn. The girls depart in disgust so do the wives planning on divorce. Stan and Ollie have Finn ejected and decide to punish their intolerant wives by staying out all night. They meet a drunk who had befriended the sailors earlier and head for the plush Pirate Club. Alf and Bert arrive at the Beer Garden dressed in clothes improvised from blankets in the manner of Singapore Eskimos. The proprietor insists that he has returned the ring and the resultant scuffle lands Alf and Bert in overnight court. A neighbor witnessing their arrest, telephone's Stan and Ollie's wives. The distraught women collect what they believe to be their husbands promising the judge that they will keep the boys out of trouble. Alf and Bert believing them to be social workers go along with their plans in exchange for freedom and a change of clothes. To avoid further trouble, they visit a high class establishment where Stan and Ollie, Stan and the drunk are living it up. Alf and Bert meet the girls who want know why they have been rejected for two old cronies. Exit the wives after Mrs. Hardy dumps a cake on Bert's head. As Bert goes to clean up Stan and Ollie meet the Captain who demands the pearl ring. After a fight, Stan is sent to fetch the manager. Alf hears Ollie's voice, thinking it to be Bert, he meets Ollie who taking him for Stan puts the pearl ring in Alf's pocket and tells him to beat it. The Captain pursues Alf but is ejected when Stan returns with the manager. Ollie asks Stan for the pearl ring back but he does not have it. Ollie thinks Stan is double crossing him but the club's owner, who saw Ollie put the ring in Alf's pocket offers to scare Stan into handing it over. They leave followed by the Captain and the police. Bert rejoins Alf and the girls and is horrified to learn of the Captains arrival. Worse still, Finn arrives with two thugs. Alf and Bert escape from the club as their twins arrive at the waterfront. The club owners are genuine crooks, the boys are left with a choice of handing over the ring or being drowned, the feet in round bowls of cement. Stan and Ollie are beside the dock when Ollie is punched. They start to teeter and push the gang into the water. They struggle to stay upright but are soon over the side. Bert and Alf finally lose Finn but are spotted by the Captain. The Captain sees Stan and Ollie and winches them up only to let them go when they deny having the ring. In the warehouse, Alf searches for a match and finds the ring. The hand it to the Captain who sees both sets of Twins and flees. Alf and Bert haul their brothers to safety. The reality of this episode is that there were not identical twins but rather Ollu and Buzsla had to play fast and loose with double roles. As would happen on occasion their pasts caught up with them. They had joined the navy and married under assumed names. While heading for home still dressed in their sailor suits, they ran into a pair of female acquaintances from San Francisco who knew them as firemen who had gone to Alaska. Rather than risk exposure they played along and even agreed to meet the two acquaintances for dinner at a night club. The situation became even more complicated when their Captain asked them to deliver a pearl ring. They had no intention of going to the night club. However their wives informed them that they were dining out at the same club. Although they tried to get out of it, they were unable to. In a situation played out in many comedies since, Ollu and Buzsla juggled two dinner dates at one place. . Although Ollu and Buzsla are confronted by the two sets of women, attacked by gangsters and thrown in jail they still kept up the pretense of being two sets of people and delivered the ring. It is after this incident that they told their wives that they had identical twins that also joined the navy but were hung for mutiny. |
Timeline
NOTES
22 ." Colours purchased and with help from Col. Bindley {"Uncle Bindley"} Paget at Horse Guards, I became a Cornet in the 11th Light Dragoons {just posted home after years of service in India since long before I was born} Canterbury, New Regimental Commander Col. James Brudenell 7th Earl of Cardigan {"Lord Haw-Haw's" hatred fore India Officer's mirrors theirs fore him}. Superior Horseman already, drilled extensively in the Sabre, the Cavalry Drill Manual & the rules of camp life. Fit right in with the Plungers {i.e. the smart set}. "Lord Haw Haw's" condemnation in Punch about Capt. John Reynolds & "The Black Bottle Affair" in the Officers Mess brews; Bernier-Flashman Duell, Pistole's, Deloped {hip shot & blew the top off the Doctor's bottle at 30 ft.} I was sent abrace of barkers in silver mountings, with my initials engraved by an Oxford Street gunmaker; Cardigan suggests detached duty in Glasgow training the local militia till things cool off {no scandal's ya'see}, the 11th is to escort the arriving Albert, Prince Consort to London {redesignated 11th Hussars [Prince Albert's Own] & a new uniform is designed by him as honorary Regmtl. Col., dubbed the "the Cherrypickers" by the press}. Stayed with industrialist John "Old" Morrison & family in Paisley during the Scots Labor Riots, Chartist movement, met Allen Pinkerton {he was a nobody then}, wed "Old" Morrison's daughter Elspeth. Asked to leave "the Cherrypickers" by Cardigan {had a new Uniform made & everything ?!#*}, So it's off to India for me & Service in the Honorable East India Co.'s Army fore not marring into smart set {Raised to the Peerage, last laugh's on him}; London, Glasgow;
23.A description of the boiler explosion on the Gold Dust can be found in Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
24. Entry on Six Gun Gorilla The Pulp Heroes by Jess Nevins.
25.Station Keepers of the Pony Express by Tom Crews
26. As quoted in Henry Plummer: Man of Mystery.
27. Although records are scant, this may be the uncle of Henry (Huckleberry) Finn. This Michael Finn seems to be about a worthy compliment to his brother, Hank's loving Pap.
28. The fact that Billy the Kid was a Highlander type immortal may explain how he was seen walking around by many witnesses after being shot to death by Pat Garrett and buried. The incident that Billy referred to of meeting a strange man who sucked blood was Billy the Kid Versus Dracula. The Incident to which "Jesse James" referred to was Jesse James meets Frankensteins Daughter. For more detalis please see the Monstaah Timeline by Chuck Loridans. This Jesse James may not have been Jess James at all the dates for the incident for entitled Jesse James Meets Frankstein's Daughter do not jibe with Jesse James whereabouts nor does this incident. This Jesse James may in fact have been Jess Nash, Jesse James look alike cousin whose exploits are recorded in the novels of Ralph Cotton starting with While Angels Dance, St Martin's Paperbacks, 1995
29. Because the two intruders had escaped, the controllers of the robot, that is the people living in an underground city felt it necessary to establish greater security to protect themselves from the surface dwellers. They first created a televisor which would enable them to see events on the surface world. They were worried that the surface dwellers had advanced to the point that they had. They created a vast elevator system which could move troops to the surface in moments. They created an elite guard to protect the city, which trained upon horses stolen from the surface world. The land near the entrance to the underground city would eventually be bought by cowboy and radio star Gene Autry as part of the Radio Ranch. The citizens of Murania would attempt to capture Gene Autry believing that the Ranch would close and make them secure.
30. The Story of Damon Runyon
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