II. Anmerkungen zum Buchtext, Teil II - Einsnull

or the new dub tracks, Walter Bluhm, now an elderly man, was back in the dubbing studios once more. If
he was now slightly too old to voice a Stan in his 30s, Ollie´s new voice, Michael Habeck (‹Berenger› in the
1986 film THE NAME O THE ROSE), was talented, but clearly too young a choice. Worse, music and effects
were rather aseptic, texts were sometimes copied – without necessary improvements – from previous editions,
and occasionally scenes were still missing, e.g. still gone were the war references in the finale of THE
BIG NOISE – in the German adaptation, the submarine was supposed to be a dangerous whale! Still, the very
attempt to remain closer to the original was a welcome return to adaptation in the Schwier/Atlas approach.
In 1979, Caloué presented his last ‹new› Laurel and Hardy show, Meisterszenen; a show focusing, as the
title indicates, only on «masterwork scenes» excerpted from the comedians’ oeuvre.
While the ZD was slowing down on silent film comedy product, other TV stations jumped in. What started
as Stars der Stummfilmära («Stars of the Silent Era») and Abenteuer mit Larry («Adventures with Larry»)
soon became Klamottenkiste («Slapstick Chest»), one of the most long-lasting shows of this kind, airing for
15 years and even licensed to East Germany. Actor, omnipresent dubbing voice and trailer narrator Hartmut
Neugebauer prepared the adaptations and supplied all the voices. Laurel or Hardy were usually back via the
Larry Semon films, but on one occasion the show also presented Hardy supposedly supporting «Charlie Chaplin»
(in fact Billy West!) in HIS DAY OUT. The show even featured the elusive THE RENT COLLECTOR, aSemon-Hardy
short long erroneously believed also to feature Laurel in the supporting cast.
Decades of TV presentations had still left out a few selected items from the Laurel and Hardy filmography,
so fans were pleased when a huge packet of MGM films licensed to Germany brought about German
premieres of HOLLYWOOD PARTY and PICK A STAR. At the same time, East Germans enjoyed new releases of
RA DIAVOLO and NOTHING BUT TROUBLE. At about the same time, 1985, the Laurel and Hardy appreciation
society SONS O THE DESERT also finally had their first official chapter. Even theatrically, Laurel and Hardy
had a little renaissance. A new distributor, Kinowelt, tried their luck at something quite unusual in Germany,
that is releasing the original versions of numerous Laurel and Hardy classics in the original English with
German subtitles. Pietrek did not fail to notice the renaissance and threw in reissues of his old, dubbed
Laurel and Hardy feature film versions for good measure.
But another medium was to contribute to fresh Laurel and Hardy exposure. Home video was to make the
title chaos even worse. Dubbed, retitled, colorized, the video boom also profited from another highlight.
Hal Roach himself was to visit Berlin for the 42 nd
Berlinale film festival to promote the controversial if colourful
new video versions.
The opportunity was not to be missed by the KirchGroup. Not only did Kirch own the rights for most of
the Laurel and Hardy comedies by 1971, he had in fact started to collect all of Roach’s output since the 60s.
Eventually, Kirch had accumulated material of essentially all of the surviving films in the Hal Roach Library,
in what was an archival accomplishment as much as a marketing enterprise. The head of the Roach Library
was an in-depth expert familiar with the films – Heinz Caloué. Together with American film historian Richard
Bann, Caloué managed to obtain pristine Laurel and Hardy material from the Library of Congress in
America.
Now this wealth of material was ready for commercial release, and to accompany Roach’s visit, colorized
Laurel and Hardy films first appeared on German TV. A Roach birthday portrait, some Rascals material and
non-Laurel and Hardy Roach features were thrown in for good measure. Cinephiles’ concerns about the colorization
were addressed by assuring them of late night, glorious black-and-white repeat showings, but
these actually sported a suspiciously washed out image – the colourised version minus colour, plus of course
any additional artifact from NTSC-to-PAL conversion. An abundance of video releases followed, and in
1993 Christian Blees published the first German book entirely devoted to Laurel and Hardy (that is, if one
does not count Dick und Doof,aHeyne mini book by Heinz Caloué, which is more a nice collectible and practical
joke, «the smallest Laurel and Hardy book in the world»). Soon, German Sheik Harry Hoppe added his
bilingual Laurel and Hardy Life and Magic book, notable for quite a few rare photos.
The video wave continued full steam. Likely inspired by a Dutch video series created largely due to
Dutch Sons’ efforts, a complete, subtitled and restored Laurel and Hardy collection on VHS was launched in
1995. This included all their silents, in restored copies of variable quality but often wonderfully scored by
the Dutch-based Beau Hunks Orchestra, using the Hatley & Shield music of somewhat later, talkie vintage,
rather than from the silent era.