Sometimes Love Smacks You on the Head

Oliver Hardy was the lovable 300-pound half of the famous comedy team Laurel & Hardy. While working on the film The Flying Deuces in 1939, the script continuity girl was a 30-year-old woman named Lucille Jones. (The script continuity girl made sure the scene being filmed matched up with the previous scene.)

Lucille and Hardy had never spoken on the set until one day she noticed a problem. Hardy was a big star, but since it was her job, Lucille timidly approached him.

"Mr. Hardy," she said, "in the last scene, your hat was in your other hand and your coat was over here..."

In a condescending tone, Hardy said to her, "It's all right, my dear. I know perfectly well how everything was."

Lucille was extremely embarrassed. She decided she did not like Hardy, and the two did not speak again during the shoot.

Then one day, Lucille was struck in the head by one of the lights.

In front of the entire cast and crew, she was knocked unconscious. Her body was outstretched on the ground.

As a doctor was summoned and amid a flurry of activity, Hardy looked down at the unconscious woman. He kept staring at her unmoving face. He said later he “had never noticed before how beautiful she was." At that moment, he fell deeply in love.

As Lucille was recovering in the hospital, Hardy visited her every day. Lucille quickly revised her opinion of him. They became very close friends, and after she recovered, they started seeing each other.

Their first date was on New Year's Eve in 1939. On March 7, 1940, the two officially tied the knot. They lived for 17 years together, very happily married, until Hardy passed away.

Eddie Deezen has appeared in over 30 motion pictures, including Grease, WarGames, 1941, and The Polar Express. He's also been featured in several TV shows, including Magnum PI, The Facts of Life, and The Gong Show. And he's done thousands of voice-overs for radio and cartoons, such as Dexter's Laboratory and Family Guy. Read all Eddie's mental_floss stories.