Laurel and Hardy Collection--Thomas W. Sefton

Collection 083
Thomas W. Sefton Laurel and Hardy Collection

Administrative Information

COLLECTION TITLE AND NUMBER: Thomas W. Sefton Laurel and Hardy Collection. Collection 083
ACCESSION NUMBER: 2008.86
COLLECTION SIZE: 7 archival document boxes; 3 oversize boxes, 3 records storage boxes, 7 oversize folders
PROCESSING HISTORY: Processing begun January 2009; completed March 2009
CUSTODIAL HISTORY: Donated to Loyola Marymount University in 2003, but not accessioned by the Department of Archives and Special Collections until 2008.
LANGUAGES: English

Collection Description

Thomas W. Sefton was responsible for the creation of this collection, which consists of photographs, movie stills and posters, correspondence, memorabilia, and scripts related to the great movie comedy team of Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957). The datable materials in this collection run from 1933 through 1994.

Thomas W. Sefton (1917-2006) was president of a major San Diego, California, bank (San Diego Trust) and a leading San Diego philanthropist, who had a life-long devotion to Laurel and Hardy. Sefton's interest in Laurel and Hardy led to a friendship with Stan Laurel before his death in 1965. Sefton developed a correlative relationship with Hal Roach, the great producer of the 1920s and 1930s of, among other movie properties, the Laurel and Hardy films. This fact is reflected in the collection’s photographs of Roach and correspondence between him and Sefton.

His friendship with Stan Laurel meant that Thomas W. Sefton was able to accumulate from Laurel himself invaluable materials related to the comedian’s career, and, to a lesser extent, that of Oliver Hardy. Stan Laurel’s personally annotated scripts, Laurel’s opinions of his films and short films, and stills of Laurel and Hardy films: all came to Sefton from Stan Laurel and are now found in this collection. Extremely valuable as well, as a source for the history of Hollywood, is correspondence between the actor and Sefton and his family, containing much information on the production of Laurel and Hardy shorts and also movie production in the 1920s. Sefton collected a number of films of Laurel and Hardy, but these did not accompany the transfer of the materials to the Department of Archives and Special Collections in 2008.

Series

This collection is divided into eight series, based on type of material, eg, scripts, or else Thomas W. Sefton’s organization of materials into file folders, eg, Series 2: Subject Files. A description of each series, along with the box and folder list containing an index to the holdings in the boxes of each series, can be found by selecting the appropriate link below.

Research Access

The Sefton Collection is open by appointment to researchers. For information on making an appointment, please call the department at 310-338-5710; or e-mail the department: Special.Collections@lmu.edu. Our mailing address is Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045.