George Formby
George Formby (
May 26,
1904 â€"
March 6,
1961) was a
British singer and
comedian who became a major star of both
cinema and
music hall.
George was born in
Wigan,
Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). His father (born James Booth) was
George Formby (Senior) (1875-1921) one of the great music hall comedians of his day, fully the equal of his son's later success. His father not wishing him even to watch his performances, he was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race at ten when he weighed under four stone.
On the death of his father in
1921, George abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music hall career using his father's material. He originally called himself George Hoy (George Hoy was also his father in-laws name). In
1924 he married
dancer Beryl Ingham, who managed his career (and it is said his personal life to an intolerable degree - see biographies below) until her death in
1960. He allegedly took up the
ukulele, for which he was later famous, as a hobby and first played it on stage for a bet.
George Formby endeared himself to his audiences with his cheeky
Lancashire humour and folksy
Northern England persona. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent.
What made George stand out, however, was his unique and often mimicked musical style. He sang comic songs, full of
double entendre, to his own accompaniment on the
banjolele, for which he developed a catchy
syncopated style which became his trademark. Some of his best-known songs were written by
Noel Gay.
He made his first record in
1932 with the
Jack Hylton Band, and his first sound film
Boots! Boots! in
1934 (Formby had appeared in a sole silent film in 1915). The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further 11 with
Associated Talking Pictures, earned him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 per year. A subsequent contract with Columbia Pictures earned him a further £500,000.
Between
1934 and
1945 George was the top box-office attraction in British cinema. He appeared in the
1937 Royal Variety Show, and entertained troops with
ENSA in
Europe and
North Africa during
World War II. He received an
OBE in
1946. He had received a
Stalin Prize in
1944, prompted by the popularity of his films in the
USSR. His most popular film, and still regarded as probably his best, is the espionage comedy
Let George Do It, in which he is a member of a concert party, takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway as a secret agent. A dream sequence in which he hits Hitler on the nose and addresses him as a 'windbag' is one of the most enduring moments of film comedy ever.
George suffered his first heart attack in
1951. His wife Beryl died of
leukaemia on
24 December 1960 and he planned to marry Pat Howson, a 36-year-old schoolteacher, in the spring of
1961. However he had a second
heart attack before then and died in hospital on
6 March 1961. His funeral was held in St Charles' Church in
Aigburth,
Liverpool and an estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as his coffin was driven to
Warrington Cemetery, where he was buried in the Booth family grave.
* One of his best films is
No Limits and is shown every year in the
Isle of Man TT week. George rides a disguised
Ariel in the film and it is said to be most amusing. In real life he owned a
Norton International 500cc OHC single sports model, one of the most desirable machines of the day.
*"Auntie Maggie's Remedy"
*"Chinese Laundry Blues"
*"The Isle of Man"
*"The Window Cleaner"
*"Leaning on a Lamppost"
*"With my Little Ukulele in my Hand"
*"With my Little Stick of Blackpool Rock"
*"Mother What'll I do Now"
*"Mr Woo's A Window Cleaner Now"
*"Mr Wu's An Air Raid Warden Now"
*"Our Sergeant Major"
*"My Grandad's Flanalette Night Shirt"
*
Boots! Boots!*
Off The Dole*
The Song That Made A Star*
No Limit*
Keep Your Seats Please*
Feather Your Nest*
Keep Fit*
I See Ice*
It's In The Air*
Trouble Brewing*
Come On George*
Let George Do It*
Spare A Copper*
Turned Out Nice Again*
South American George*
Much Too Shy*
Get Cracking*
He Snoops To Conquer*
Bell Bottom George*
I Didn't Do It*
George in Civvy StreetA fictional George Formby appears in the
Thursday Next series by
Jasper Fforde. In the "Nextiverse", Formby was part of the resistance during the Nazi occupation of England, broadcasting inspirational songs and jokes to the occupied English on "Wireless Saint George" (essentially the opposite of Lord Haw-Haw). Such was Formby's popularity, Hitler ordered "all banjos and ukeleles burned."
Following the collapse of the occupation, Formby was appointed President-for-Life, to replace the (presumed defunct) Royal Family as an inspirational figurehead for the country (and unlike the Royal Family, was genuinely beloved by the vast majority of his subjects). The Nextiverse version of Formby held the rank until his death in 1988.
*
The Guardian: Naughty but nice (George Formby by David Bret)*
'Ukulele king' Formby dies (
BBC News)
*
The George Formby Society*
homage to Mancunian Films*
George Formby's Gravesite
