I love the old classics like Laurel and Hardy. My great-great uncle was Bill "Kewpie" Ross, and starred in a number of films in the 1920s with an obese trio of comedians called "Tons of Fun". My mother has some great old Hollywood phots of him in character that I'd love to post here sometime if I can get my hands on them and scan them. I do believe he is playing a tuba in one of the pictures. He also played accordian.
I guess I know what side of the family I got my thyroid from.
Here are a few photos I found of "Tons of Fun" on the web. There wasn't much, but it was fun finally looking him up.
That is uncle Bill in the middle of the bottom picture. My mother tells me that he was the fattest of the three. She also said that he lost a ton (pun and dumb rhyme intended) of weight after his movie years and she only knew him as a skinny old guy. Apparently he lived to be a ripe old man.