Pictures of oliver hardy festival 2018

Thousands of people, from across the country and just down the road, crowded into Harlem on Saturday for the 30th annual Oliver Hardy Festival.

The Columbia County city of about 3,000 pays tribute each year to its most famous native, who teamed with Stan Laurel to make more than 100 movies as perhaps the most famous comedy duo in the history of Hollywood.

Hardy was born in Harlem in 1892.

For Canadian Paul MacLachlan, it was his sixth visit to the festival, but the first time he drove all the way from his home in Windsor, Ontario. He became a Laurel and Hardy fan as a child and began collecting 8 mm prints of their films as a teenager.

“They’re timeless,” McLachlan said.

“Even though these films were made 80, 90, 100 years ago, they’re still funny. They’ll never lose their humor. If you get a large crowd, they still produce wall-to-wall laughter.”

Many of the duo’s films were shown throughout the day at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in d