The Music Box (film)
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The Music Box is a 1932 three-reel (thirty minute) short subject, produced by Hal Roach, directed by James Parrott, and released to theatres by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as part of the Laurel and Hardy series. The film, starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Billy Gilbert, is the most recognizable film in the Laurel and Hardy series, in which Stan and Ollie must deliver a heavy player piano up a preposterously tall flight of stairs. It is a remake of their 1928 silent short Hats Off, which is today considered a lost film. It also stars Gladys Gale, Billy Gilbert, William Gillespie, Charlie Hall, Lilyan Irene and Sam Lufkin.
The short won the very first Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (Comedy) in 1932. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
The Music Box has the comedy duo working for "The Laurel & Hardy Moving Co.". Its opening title cards tell the audience: "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy decided to reorganize and resupervise their entire financial structure -- so they took the $3.80 and went into business."
The steps are still in existence. A plaque was set into one of the lower steps between 1993 and 1995. The "Music Box" steps are a public staircase, and do not lead to a single residence (as in the film), but instead connect Vendome Street (at the base of the hill) with Descanso Drive (at the top of the hill). The address is 923-935 Vendome Street near the intersection of Del Monte Street.
Trivia
The "Music Box" steps are not the ones later used in the Three Stooges 1941 short "An Ache in Every Stake", in which the Stooges are hired to prepare a dinner (though they are both public staircases that at first glance appear similar). The "Ache in Every Stake" stairs are about two miles North of the "Music Box" steps, and are found between 2257 and 2258 Fair Oak View Terrace, and ascend 147 steps towards Edendale Place. One running gag in "An Ache in Every Stake" is to use tongs to carry a large cake of ice up the stairs. Of course, being a hot day in Los Angeles, the ice block is reduced to a cube by the time they get it up the 147 steps.San Francisco is known for its hills, but Los Angeles has a few formidable hills of its own which have figured in comedy films. In addition to the two described above, the apparent "skyscraper" in the famous Harold Lloyd picture Safety Last! was filmed on a structure that was located on a steeply sloping street near the downtown, which made Lloyd's stunts look much more dangerous than they were.
A series of TV ads for a windshield wiper company featured actors who looked much like Laurel and Hardy. One of the ads referred to this film by portraying them trying to safely deliver a piano.
Quotes
(The ProfessorOllie: Why don't you walk around?
The Professor: What, walk around? Me, Professor Theodore von Schwarzenhoffen, M.D., A.D., D.D.S., F.L.D., F.F.F. and F., should walk around?!
Stan (to policeman): Don't you think you are bounding over your steps?
Policeman: Whadd'ya mean, "bounding over my steps?"
Ollie (trying to cover up for Stan): Oh, I think he means "overstepping your bounds"!
Ollie: (cheerfully) Why, we just delivered your piano.
The Professor: Piano? Piano?! I hate and detest pianos! They are mechanical blunderbusses! Take it out of here before I commit murder!
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