A fascinating and unique archive of photographs charting the life of a comic genius is about to go under the hammer. Andrew Douglas reports.

A DREARY backyard is transformed into a glamorous stage, complete with painted backdrop, pot plant and what appears to be a sheepskin rug.

This grainy photograph shows Gordon Jefferson and his younger brother, Stan, acting a self-penned play, which also starred their sister, Olga.

However, the image – thought to date back to 1897 – displays a rather professional approach to this family production.

Perhaps not too surprising when you consider young Stan would go onto become one half of the world’s bestloved comedy double acts.

For the photo – one in a set of seven – is believed to be the first known image of the future Stan Laurel acting.

The photos are part of an unseen family archive of more than 50 photographs spanning the comic genius’s life, many never seen in public before.

Most were sent by Stan to his sister, Beatrice, also known as Bea or Olga, which was her middle name.

The most remarkable is the set of seven taken in the backyard of the Jefferson family home in Dockwray Square, North Shields, North Tyneside, where Stan lived for four years.

They show a performance of The Rivals of Dockwray Square, which was written by Stan himself.

The collection is to be sold in Newcastle by auctioneers Anderson and Garland, on September 7, and is expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000.

The archive is being put up for sale by Olga’s granddaughter, who lives in Sunderland.

It includes a photograph of Stan’s father, Arthur Jefferson, and portraits of Stan and Olga as youngsters, taken by H J Thorne and Co, of Spencer Street, North Shields.

Other photos include him with screen partner Oliver “Babe” Hardy and informal family snaps from Stan’s home in the US.

He lived in Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles, and there are pictures inside his house and of his new car. Steven Moore, of Anderson and Garland, said: “A lot of the material was sent to Stan’s sister, with notes and messages for her.

“They are private, family photographs of a famous star and they illustrate the personal life behind the famous face.

“These are extremely rare photographs which people are not going to see anywhere else, and I believe they will be of huge interest.”

Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in Ulverston, Lancashire, in 1890 and after his birth his mother, Madge, returned to Bishop Auckland, where his actor father, Arthur, was manager of the town’s Eden Theatre.

Stan, a sickly child, spent much of his early childhood with his grandmother in Ulverston, but spent holidays and Christmases at home, in Princes Street, Bishop Auckland, and later in South View, Waldron Street. He was later educated at Bishop Auckland’s King James I School and at Gainford Academy, in Gainford, near Barnard Castle.

Olga, who was born in Waldron Street, in 1894, married Bill Healey, and the couple ran The Bull public house near Grantham, in Lincolnshire.

Stan lived in old Dockwray Square, between the ages of seven and 15, when his father was leasee of several local theatres, including North Shields, Wallsend, Hebburn, Jarrow and Tynemouth.