1892-1957
HIS TALENT BROUGHT JOY AND LAUGHTER TO ALL THE WORLD
Oliver Norvell Hardy 1910	Oliver Norvell Hardy 1915	Oliver & Myrtle Hardy1925
Norvell Hardy was born on Jan 18th 1892 in Harlem Georgia , He added the name Oliver in honour of his father , who died shortly after he was born , as a child he developed the habit of "Lobby watching" in the Hotel that his mother ran in nearby Madison , Observing peoples mannerisms and quirks , which stood him in good stead later on in life when he portrayed these same quirks on screen , Music was his first love in life , and briefly toured as a boy soprano with Coburns Minstrels	About 1910 , when Babe was 18 he began running the first movie theatre in Milledgeville Georgia , from what he saw on the screen , he decided that he could do much better , so in 1913 he headed for Jacksonville Florida , where , from 1914 to 1917 he made over 100 comedies for the Lubin and Vim companies , nearly all of which have since been destroyed in accidents ,it was in Jacksonville that Ollie picked up the nickname "Babe" , the story goes that Ollie took his daily shave at the shop of a Italian Barber	who , as he danced round Ollie rubbing talc into his face would say Nice-a-Baby , which soon became shortened to Babe , a nickname Ollie was to carry the rest of is life , Ollie never forgot old friends and in later life he learned that a friend from the Vim comedies days had fallen on hard times , he created a job for him as the teams wardrobe man , Bobby Burns , the blind man in "Below Zero" was a colleague from the Jacksonville days and later worked with Ollie at the Hal Roach Studios
This Plaque was placed near Ollies Grave by the Sons of the Desert in 1977		Babe and Larry Semon
We Recommend for further reading
Mr LAUREL & Mr HARDY BY JOHN McCABE ISBN 0-7607-0224-1 Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy: An Affectionate Biography