Oliver Norvell Hardy's College Educaton & Youth:
			+ History of Schools in USA
				-J.P.L. Lubek
	    ---------------------------------------------------------


	There is lots and loads of confusion on Hardy's early life and his
education. My story will try to clear things up. We may never know for sure
but this is the closest you will ever get to the truth.

	Hardy's mother wanted Oliver Norvell Hardy to attend college but there
is no concrete evidence that he ever did or did not. We are talking here about a 4 year
university not a grade school. We are talking about a different, budding era in American
education system. In 1905/1906 school year (first semester only), when he was only 13,
Oliver spent fall semester at Young Harris College in north Georgia (he completed 
semester successfully in January 1906) however he was in the junior high component of that institution 
aka Academy, not the the two-year college part we have today, at that time there was no 
2 year jr college. First JR college began operating in Illinois in 1901, associate degrees
came into existence in 1930's). That means he attended another school before he attended
this one. But where at? In 1905, Hardy was 13 and in the 7th grade,
he was in the first year of the academy aka HS; it means he finished
the 9th and final grade in 1907/1908 school year, equivalent to today's HS.
Some sources say Hardy attended school in 1910, until he was 18.5 years old.
Assuming he passed all the grades, that means he also finished at least 2 years
of college (part of the bachelor degree of arts) in 1910, passing
the 10th and 11th grades, thus he was half way towards getting his
bachelor's degree... That would have been L or Associate Degree today.
At the time these colleges were giving away the A.B. degree;
in Latin it means - Artium Baccalaureatus.
But what schools did he really attend ? I'm sure he had at least one semester of college.
How many school years did he complete, did he
pass them all ? Yes, he passed them all but rumors of him attending
college seemed to have emerged after he became famous, thanks to Hardy himself.                        
Babe occasionally embellished (did not want to reflect bad impressions,
feared backlash of 'high society,' sometimes prefered intellectual circles,
he wanted to look smart too) stories about his youthful days
and his press agents jumped right in and added more fantasy.

	In 1912, he dreamed of a career as a singer, though he was
increasingly interested in motion pictures. We do know that in 1911,
he was briefly hired to sing at a little movie theater in Macon, Alabama.
By 1913, he was working at Lubin Studios in Jacksonville. Biographer
Simon Louvish suggests that after he left Milledgeville but before he
ended up permanently in bright lights movie industry of Jacksonville,
he may have done some club work in Atlanta & I think Louvish makes
a good case. Anyway, no evidence of him ever attending university there.
Hardy was obviously bright and literate chap but he was a so-so student,
at least according to records at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville .
Maybe the confusion comes from the fact that both Georgia Military
College and Young Harris had lower grades - elementary through high school.
As far as Harlem, Georgia goes he did not attend Harlem Grady HS at all.
In 1903, when he was 11 years old, Norvell Hardy moved to Milledgeville.
His mom Emily 'Emmie' Hardy was hired to manage the Hotel named Milledgeville.
They probably lived there for free. Norvell, as he was then known started
classes at Georgia Military College in the fifth grade and it seems he never
even finished grade school at that school. For many that was not too unusual
in those years as kids had to help parents with work around the farm.
Hardy graduated from preparatory & primary school, 9 grades.
What do people at GMC know today, not much. Everybody is gone.
They say fire destroyed everything in the school. If fire burned down everything,
then that means the list of graduates burned as well, but they claim
to have the list of (or at least most) all graduates.

	Norvell attended the first four or five years of elementary school in Madison,
Georgia. That School Building is now the Madison's Culture Center.
One can even visit Norvell's classroom, and look out the window as
any first grader would do on a hot Georgia day as the room has been
restored. One can also stand on the auditorium stage in Norvell's foot steps
and look out at the assembled audience.
The Madison Georgia, Morgan County Records Archives Center has Norvell's
first grade report card in the files for 1898/1899 school year, when he was 6 & 7.
Research accounts for Norvell being in Milledgeville, Georgia from 1903-1913.
He had at least of 4 years of education there. And now, things begin to add up...
Oliver started grade school not at the age of 7 but at 6 in 1898. And if
he stayed in school until 1910, that would amount to modern 12 school years.
When Oliver entered the fifth grade at GMC, Milledgeville, he was 11 and the year
was 1903. He lived there until he reached the legal age of 21 and then, most likely in
spring of 1913, he left home in search of fame and fortune.
Thankfully (for him and us the fans), he found it. Oliver Hardy's
first move was to Jacksonville, Florida. There he found some roles as a heavy
in those early silent one & two reel shorts. He stayed there for most of 1914.
Then in 1916, he petitioned to join some masonic solomon lodge # 20 F&AM, signing
his petition as "Oliver Norvell Hardy," with his famous full name signature he was now using.
Solomon Lodge helped him with room & board until he was able to stand on his own feet.

	Hardy's older step-brother, "Bardy" Tant also graduated high school at GMC
and was the more popular of the two. Georgia Military College was originally called
Middle Georgia Military and Agriculture College in 1879. GMC was 1
through 9 elementary & grade school. There was no kindergarten and there
was no such thing as high school at the time. Even grade school had different name.
You were allowed to start high school aka academy at the age of 12 or 13.
There were 3 years of high school. That means you started grade school
at 6 or 7. You graduated college at 19. Wow, in reality
that was 13 years of schooling. Equal to today's high school + 1 year.
(Similar to recently proposed The L Degree) If you were good enough
and passed examinations well, you could have skipped most of grade school
(Cool, I wish I had that choice, especially with high school, 4 full
years I could have spent in college instead, I waste 4+ years of my time and life).
Again the yesteryear 'college' word is not what it means today. The school originally
opened as what we would now be termed as High School. The graduates were able to
enroll into the University of Georgia and other institutions of higher learning
with advanced standings. There was no associate's degree at that time. The degree
became somewhat a reality in the late 1910's. The school's purpose was to prepare students
for "higher classes at Athens." It taught agriculture, mining, and it trained
teachers. It probably had a similar system of education as Young Harris did.
Today GMC is a combination of middle, junior and high school.
The primary/preparatory school now offers 6 through 12 grades &
2 years of college. College classes & associates degrees were not introduced
until 1932. At the time school had grades 8 through 12. Like I said, it was
called college but in reality it was an early form of high school.  
The school's name changed to Georgia Military College in 1900.                  
 
	It seems to me, just like Young Harris, this college was divided into
separate grade levels. Let's not confuse GMC with University of Georgia and
Georgia State University. Oliver Hardy never attended those institutions.
Norvell walked across the street from the hotel to attend classes at GMC.
The question remains... If Hardy did not attend school after 1905,
what was he doing ? The only viable hypothesis is that he was sent
to live with his sister. It's possible he went to some school there
and continued his music lessons. Around the turn of the century at
Young Harris college, grade levels were called: Grades 1-6 was
Preparatory aka It's Elementary school 'my dear Watson...'
It's possible different states had different requirements, elementary school
might have been 1-5 grades. I am sure good students could have easily passed
entrance examination and skip final 6th grade or even more
of grade school and enter academy. Grades 7-9 were at the academy. Grades 10-13 were
college/collegiate. There was no such thing as K-12 at that time.
Young Harris stopped granting their version of Bachelor's degree in 1912.
The Primary school (elementary) was discontinued at about the same time.
The fire destroyed most of the records in December 1912. The high school
portion of the curriculum was phased out by 1940. The school year usually lasted
from early September until around 20th of May.
Some parts of Georgia might have had a 10 grades system. At the time there
was no such thing as we today broadly describe: Kindergarten.

	As far as Hardy's full college education goes, we may never know
for sure... Both Young Harris and GMC had fires which destroyed the documents.
GMC had fire in 1941, Harris also had it in December 1912. The archives burned down.
Some information might have been saved. Schools claim they keep names of
their graduates but even they claim they are not sure who attended,
who graduated, who did not. Maybe there are some collectors who have
his school papers, diplomas and they do not even know they have it.
So it seems, the military college had K-12 as well, impossible.
Not kindergarten. As far as the Young Harris college goes, at the time it was
an elementary school and at that time even elementary schools were called
colleges, not much has been written nor explained on the educational system
before the 20th century in America and how the educational system evolved
or how schools were called. For many, High schools were colleges too.
In Oliver's case Young Harris college was a 13 year institution, GMC was 1-9 grades
school. The 2 year college at GMC came in later in the 1930's.
Besides, nobody is allowed to attend any college without passing some tough exams.
It's the common sense. These days one can take classes at colleges,
but only if you did not sign up for a degree (or even certificate) program.
Well... There you have it, some light shed on boys' lifes, careers and
especially Hardy's mysterious education.

    Here's alternative explanation on Laurel & Hardy's education + boys' bios:
   
	Oliver Hardy:

	 Oliver Hardy was born in Harlem, near Atlanta, Georgia on Jan 18 1892.
In his early years, his parents were living and employed in Madison, Georgia.
His father, the Original Oliver Hardy died when Norvell was only 10 months old.                                                            
	Nobody in Oliver Norvell Hardy's family was in show business but they
certainly loved music. Oliver Hardy's mother always encouraged her son's interest
in singing. In 1900, when he was only eight, (for a brief period,
probably during summer vacation) Oliver Norvell Hardy, at the age of 8 ran away
from home and toured the South as the 'boy soprano' with Coburn's Minstrels
(any of a troupe of performers typically giving a program of black
american melodies, jokes, and impersonations and usually wearing blackface).
Oliver graduated from grade school at 13. At that time many schools were
called colleges, including grade schools, thus the misunderstanding that
Hardy attended academy, what is today known as high school, at 13.
In the middle of 1910, at 18 he began working for a movie theater in
Milledgeville, Georgia. Many say he owned the theater, but that is a
misconception, he was an employee over there for a year; combination
of ticket seller/taker, manager, projectionist, singer. At times he also
cleaned up the place and kept it in order. (janitorial management position :)
He also joined an amateur group of singers called the 20th Century Four.

	Music was his primary interest during his youth, after running away
from home, his mother signed him up at the Conservatory of Music in Atlanta.
If he was 8 at the time, then this means he stayed there for 3 years, from
1900 until 1903, it's possible it was also a Preparatory school. It's possible
he passed some exams after first grade (and do not forget his size too) and
was moved to fourth grade. Babe became interested in acting until 1910,
when at 18 he began working in a theater in Milledgeville, Georgia). However,
later on in his life he had a movie theater of his at his residence called:
'Laurel n Hardy Fun Factory.' Hal Roach studios, dating back to 1914
was similarly called: 'Laugh Factory' and 'Lots of Fun Studio'.

	Music continued to preoccupy the young lad, to the extent that his
later schooling suffered. In summer of 1912, his mom agreed to send him to
Atlanta to take voice lessons. A couple of months later she came to Atlanta
to check on his progress, on her money 'well-spent' and discovered he did not attend
many classes for weeks. Most likely he only attended a couple of classes in
the beginning and found out he knew more than the instructors and obviously
he thought he knew everything so it was better for him getting a job singing
to slides in a theater for 50 cents per day. Thus was the end of his music lessons.
His mother tried to instill some discipline in him by enrolling him
in Georgia Military College in fall of 1903 - a government supervised
military academy. Ollie was destined for a military career. In 1912, he signed
up (taking one or two courses) at University of Georgia as a law major just 
to play football (I believe only football kept him going that semester).
While a student, Hardy excelled as a football player &
he never missed a game. He had aspirations to be an actor/singer but he
was too chubby/heavy for the army (well, these days, because of messed
up, illegal war in Iraq, armed forces do not care anymore who qualifies for the military,
they are just glad they can get one person, even somebody with a criminal
record. The maximum age for signing up is constantly on the rise).
Soon enough, he began winning minor film roles in late 1913 and by
1914, he was usually playing a villain or a heavy in short reelers.
 
	Stan Laurel:
	 
	 Stan Laurel was born on June 16th 1890, died on February 23rd 1965,
4 months short of his 75th birthday. He was ill for some time.
As far as Stan Laurel's schooling goes, it's different in Europe, (still is)
he did finish grammar school, I presume it was a 7 years institution, it was  
King James grammar school and attended Tynemouth college for 2 years or one and a
half. At that time there were no official high schools then, after grammar school,
there was college and that's that, it was similar in the USA until the late 19th century.
It's been said that Laurel left school at the age of 16. He said he knew all
he needed to know. World chess champion Paul Morphy received his master's
degree in law at the age of 19 in April of 1857.
 
	Laurel and Hardy were about to revive their careers in 1955. On the eve of
a proposed new television series to be filmed in color Laurel suffered
a minor paralytic stroke from which he later recovered, the 50 minute
reeler was titled: "Babes in the Woods." On September 12 1956, Hardy had a stroke
that led to his death on August 7 1957.
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were together, partners and friends since
1926 short they made together, called: "Duck Soup."

	Laurel and Hardy brought more laughter to the world than any other
comedy team. Martin and Lewis were zanny and spontaneous,
Crosby and Hope were witty with talkative humor, Abbott & Costello
had a funny fast act but with less heart & soul. Harold Lloyd had his charms,
intelligence and good twisted, at times scary comedy. Keaton was whittier
and cleverer than all of them, Chaplin was a great artist and comedy dramatist.
But in terms of sheer laugh content, timing and brilliance of
comic invention, Laurel & Hardy take the cake & top place.
When Oliver Hardy died on August 7 1957, Laurel was reportedly inconsolable,
vowing never to perform again. However, it was a misleading assumption of his
that Laurel & Hardy's image would be destroyed if he was to appear in a simple
role on the Tonight show or on other shows like Dick van Dyke show.
There would be no wrong impressions, it could have
boosted their image and memory. At least Laurel was loyal to his beliefs & his pal.

Copyright: 2004-2008-2018, Stalio i Olio, Flip i Flap, Gordo y Flaco.
If using this article, mention where it came from:
Author: Jan Lary Paul Lubek! Give credit where credit is due! 

For permissions to use this article, write to: rockymemorial@gmail.com