Oliver Hardy in north Georgia in the 1905 fall semester when he was 13. He had little interest in formal education, although he acquired an early interest in music and theater. He joined a theatrical group and later ran away from a boarding school near Atlanta to sing with the group. His mother recognized his talent for singing and sent him to Atlanta to study music and voice with singing teacher Adolf Dahm-Petersen. He skipped some of his lessons to sing in the Alcazar Theater for $3.50 a week. Hardy began styling himself "Oliver Norvell Hardy", adding the first name "Oliver" as
Oliver Hardy than the actors that he saw. A friend suggested that he move to Jacksonville, Florida, where some films were being made, which he did in 1913. He worked in Jacksonville as a cabaret and vaudeville singer at night, and at the Lubin Manufacturing Company during the day. It was at this time that he met Madelyn Saloshin, a pianist whom he married on November 17, 1913 in Macon, Georgia. The next year, he made his first movie "Outwitting Dad" (1914) for the Lubin studio, billed as O. N. Hardy. In his personal life, he was known as "Babe" Hardy, and