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It is this fact that inspires us to redouble our efforts to produce the finest comedy product that it is possible to create.” I believe that exhibitors are beginning to appreciate that good comedies will build a show of greater entertainment value than it is possible to produce through double featuring weak feature pictures. Right now, more than ever, comedies are being given greater credit for their true worth. From Motion Picture Herald, July 9th, 1932 It is only because of the large number of stars under contract to us that we are enabled to do this. The effort will thus be made to utilize our players so as to inject the utmost entertainment value into all comedy releases. Laurel and Hardy, for instance, appear with Pitts and Todd in one of their pictures Thelma Todd will appear with Charley Chase in his next. Our new policy of putting more big names in all comedies means that various comedy stars under contract will appear in the supporting casts of pictures with other stars in addition to starring in the units with which they are already identified. The directors are assigned to the five units comprised of Laurel and Hardy ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd Charley Chase Our Gang and The Boy Friends. This keeps all five units working with no time lost because of unprepared scripts. This results in each story having the benefit of at least four weeks of preparation in advance of the actual shooting schedule. While one director is engaged in the production of a picture which he has previously prepared, the second director is busy preparing, in conjunction with our staff writers and gag men, the story for the next production for that unit. The alternating directorial system provides two directors for each of our five comedy units. From Motion Picture Herald, July 30, 1932 I refer to our alternating directorial system and our innovation of placing more big names in all pictures. “Our studios recently inaugurated what I consider the most forward steps in comedy construction and production since the advent of sound pictures. However, rather than being another opportunistic bit of crow-barring by the studio, Stan and Babe’s appearance was apparently all part of a carefully planned ‘new comedy production system‘, as detailed by Hal Roach himself, writing in The Film Daily, November 29th, 1931:

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It was arguably inevitable, therefore, that the boys would be given cameos in more movies going forward, and sure enough at the close of 1931, they popped up again in what, to theatre audiences, would likely have been a surprise appearance in On the Loose, a picture from the Roach series starring ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd. In the early thirties, Laurel and Hardy were incredibly bankable, box office certainties, and an undeniably major asset to the Hal Roach Studios. Then, the following year, Stan and Babe made a fleeting appearance in 1931’s charity fundraiser, The Stolen Jools, and, once again, their performance, small though it was, stood out as being arguably the highlight of the entire movie.

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Although technically not a cameo, in 1930 and at the eleventh hour, movie giants, MGM, hired Stan and Babe from Roach, to bring some much-needed comic relief to The Rogue Song. Two years later, they were loaned out to MGM to appear in the ‘star-studded’ extravaganza that was The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and were easily the best thing in the picture. Back in 1927, just as their career together was getting going, they were crow-barred into the Max Davidson short, Call of the Cuckoo, seemingly just for the sake, or at the very least to give the boys some extra exposure in front of theatre audiences. Main Cast: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, John Loder, Claud Allister, William Gilbert, Charlie Hall, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardyīy late 1931, Stan and Babe were no strangers to making cameo appearances. Photographed by Len Powers, Dialogue by H.M. Produced by Hal Roach, Directed by Hal Roach Filmed: October 5 th to October 9 th, 1931

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