George Formby
Encyclopedia
George Formby, OBE
(26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961), born George Hoy Booth, was a British comedy actor, singer-songwriter, and comedian. He sang light, comical songs
, accompanying himself on the banjo ukulele or banjolele. He was a major star of stage and screen
in the 1930s and 1940s.
, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). Formby was born blind because of an obstructive caul
; his sight was restored during a violent coughing fit or sneeze when he was a few months old. His father James Booth
, who also used the stage name George Formby, adopted from the town of Formby
, Lancashire, and was one of the great music hall
comedians of his day, fully the equal of his son's later success. His father, not wishing him to watch his performances, moved the family to Atherton Road in Hindley
, and it was from there that Formby was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race aged ten when he weighed under 4 stones (25.4 kg).
The family then moved to Stockton Heath
, Cheshire
on a property on London Road. It was from there that the young Formby embarked on his career as an entertainer.
Three months after the death of his father in 1921, Formby abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music-hall career using his father's material. He originally called himself George Hoy (the name of his maternal grandfather, who originally came from Newmarket, Suffolk, a town known for horseracing, where the family were involved in racehorse training). In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham
, who managed his career (and, it is said, his personal life) until her death in 1960. He allegedly took up the ukulele
as a hobby; he first played it on stage for a bet.
Formby endeared himself to his audiences with his cheeky Lancashire humour and folksy north of England
persona
. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent who used the phrases: "It's turned out nice again!" as an opening line; "Ooh, mother!" when escaping from trouble; and a timid "Never touched me!" after losing a fight of almost any description.
What made him 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 and complicated musical syncopated
style that became his trademark. His best-known song, "Leaning on a Lamp Post" was written by Noel Gay
. He recorded two more Noel Gay songs, "The Left-Hand Side of Egypt" and "Who Are You A-Shoving Of?" Over two hundred of the songs he performed, many of which were recorded, were written by Fred Cliff and Harry Gifford, either in collaboration or separately, and Formby was included in the credits of a number of them, including "When I'm Cleaning Windows". Some of his songs were considered too rude for broadcasting. His 1937 song, "With my little stick of Blackpool
Rock
" was banned by the BBC
because of the suggestive lyrics. Formby's songs are rife with sly humour, as in 1932's "Chinese Laundry Blues," where Formby is about to sing "ladies' knickers" and suddenly changes it to "ladies' blouses"; and in 1940's "On the Wigan Boat Express," in which a lady passenger "was feeling shocks in her signal box." Formby's cheerful, innocent demeanour and nasal, high-pitched Lancashire accent
neutralised the shock value of the lyrics; a more aggressive comedian like Max Miller would have delivered the same lyrics with a bawdy
leer.
George Formby had been making gramophone records as early as 1926; his first successful records came 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
, earning him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 (roughly USD 4 million in 2009 terms) per year. Between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema
, and at the height of his movie popularity (1939, when he was Britain's number-one film star of all genres), his film Let George Do It
was exported to America. Although his films always did well in Britain and Canada, they never caught on in the United States. Columbia Pictures
hired him for a series, with a handsome contract worth £500,000, but did not circulate his films in the US.
Formby appeared in the 1937 Royal Variety Performance
, and entertained troops with Entertainments National Service Association
(ENSA) in Europe and North Africa during World War II
. He received an OBE
in 1946. His most popular film, 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
(mistaking Bergen
for Blackpool) as a secret agent. In one dream sequence he punches Hitler
on the nose and addresses him as a "windbag".
For many years Fred Knight was Formby's chauffeur, driving him to the studios and music halls across the country. At that time Formby had a prestigious Lanchester
car.
Formby suffered his first heart attack in 1952, during the run of his successful stage musical "Zip Goes a Million." He withdrew from the show, and confined his performances to occasional guest appearances on stage and TV. In 1960 he scored a jukebox hit with the pop tune "Happy Go Lucky Me." His final television appearance, broadcast in December 1960, was a 35-minute solo spot on BBC Television's The Friday Show.
Formby's wife Beryl died of leukaemia on 24 December 1960. In the spring of 1961 he planned to marry Pat Howson, a 36-year-old schoolteacher whom he had known since the 1930s, but he suffered a second heart attack and died in hospital on 6 March 1961. His funeral was held in St. Charles's Church in Aigburth
, Liverpool. 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. Pat Howson was well provided for in Formby's will, but died in 1971 after a long legal battle with Formby's family, who contested the will.
, Lancashire. She was a champion clogdancer
and actress, winning the All England Step Dancing Title at the age of 11. Later she formed a dancing act with her sister, May, called "The Two Violets". It was in 1923 while they were appearing in music hall in Castleford
, Yorkshire that she met Formby. They married in Formby's birth town of Wigan, Lancashire the following year.
The couple worked together as a variety act until 1932, when she became his full-time manager and mentor, though she appeared in two of his films for which Formby was paid up to £35,000 per performance. It was Beryl's business skill that guided Formby to be the UK's highest-paid entertainer.
In 1946 Beryl and George toured South Africa shortly before formal racial apartheid was introduced, where they refused to play racially-segregated
venues. According to Formby's biographer, when George was cheered by a black audience after embracing a small black girl who had presented his wife with a box of chocolates, National Party
leader Daniel François Malan
(who later introduced apartheid) phoned to complain; Beryl replied "Why don't you piss off you horrible little man?".
Beryl continued to manage Formby's career until she contracted leukaemia, and died on 24 December 1960 in Blackpool, Lancashire. After her death, Formby publicly confessed that "My life with Beryl was hell". Two months later he became engaged to schoolteacher Pat Howson, 20 years his junior, declaring that he had achieved a happiness which had never existed with Beryl.
Among the several syncopation techniques that he used, the most commonly emulated stroke of Formby's is a rhythmic technique called the "Split stroke
", which produces a musical rhythm easily recognised as Formby's. He sang in his own Lancashire accent. Other strokes in Formby's repertoire include the triple, the circle, the fan, and the shake. In his act, George often had several ukuleles on stage tuned in different keys, as in some solos it requires an open string to be sounded, not possible when using Barre chord
s.
On George's last TV appearance, in The Friday Show, he modestly told the audience that he could play in only one key. Research has shown that this statement is false, as George himself plays transposed solos on songs such as "On the HMS Cowheel", a melodic solo on "I Told my Baby with the Ukulele", and many more.
. On 15 September 2007 another bronze statue was unveiled in Formby's birthtown of Wigan, Lancashire in the Grand Arcade shopping centre.
motorcycle owned by Formby, registration HVU 111 (Formby was superstitious, and insisted that all his motorbikes had the same three numbers in their registration, although he was not bothered which number), sold for £30,582 at an auction on 3 December 2007. The 1947 Norton International was one of several motorcycles owned by Formby, who starred in the film No Limit
, a spoof of the 1935 Isle of Man TT
motorcycle race, and had been presented to him during a visit to Norton’s Bracebridge Street factory in Birmingham in July 1947.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961), born George Hoy Booth, was a British comedy actor, singer-songwriter, and comedian. He sang light, comical songs
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...
, accompanying himself on the banjo ukulele or banjolele. He was a major star of stage and screen
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
in the 1930s and 1940s.
Career
Formby was born at 3 Westminster Street, WiganWigan
Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...
, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). Formby was born blind because of an obstructive caul
Caul
A caul is a thin, filmy membrane, the amnion, that can cover a newborn's head and face immediately after birth.-Obstetrics:A child "born with the caul" has a portion of the amniotic sac or membrane remaining on the head. There are two types of cauls. The most common caul is adhered to the head...
; his sight was restored during a violent coughing fit or sneeze when he was a few months old. His father James Booth
George Formby, Sr.
George Formby , born James Booth, was an English comedian and musician. He was a star in Edwardian music halls, singing and clowning in a sardonic style that influenced the young Charlie Chaplin. Formby was plagued by ill-health and suffered from tuberculosis, but despite this was one of the...
, who also used the stage name George Formby, adopted from the town of Formby
Formby
Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It has a population of approximately 25,000....
, Lancashire, and was one of the great music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
comedians of his day, fully the equal of his son's later success. His father, not wishing him to watch his performances, moved the family to Atherton Road in Hindley
Hindley, Greater Manchester
Hindley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Lying three miles east of Wigan it covers an area of 1044 hectares. Historically a part of Lancashire, Hindley which includes Hindley Green borders the towns of Ince-in-Makerfield and Leigh within Wigan...
, and it was from there that Formby was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race aged ten when he weighed under 4 stones (25.4 kg).
The family then moved to Stockton Heath
Stockton Heath
Stockton Heath is a civil parish and suburban area of the Borough of Warrington in Cheshire, England. It is located to the north of the Bridgewater Canal and to the south of the Manchester Ship Canal, which divides Stockton Heath from Latchford and north Warrington...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
on a property on London Road. It was from there that the young Formby embarked on his career as an entertainer.
Three months after the death of his father in 1921, Formby abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music-hall career using his father's material. He originally called himself George Hoy (the name of his maternal grandfather, who originally came from Newmarket, Suffolk, a town known for horseracing, where the family were involved in racehorse training). In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham
Beryl Ingham
Beryl Ingham was a champion clogdancer and actress, as well as the wife of singer/actor George Formby, Jr.....
, who managed his career (and, it is said, his personal life) until her death in 1960. He allegedly took up the ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
as a hobby; he first played it on stage for a bet.
Formby endeared himself to his audiences with his cheeky Lancashire humour and folksy north of England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent who used the phrases: "It's turned out nice again!" as an opening line; "Ooh, mother!" when escaping from trouble; and a timid "Never touched me!" after losing a fight of almost any description.
What made him stand out, however, was his unique and often mimicked musical style. He sang comic songs, full of double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
, to his own accompaniment on the banjolele, for which he developed a catchy and complicated musical syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
style that became his trademark. His best-known song, "Leaning on a Lamp Post" was written by Noel Gay
Noel Gay
Noel Gay was born Reginald Moxon Armitage. He also used the name Stanley Hill professionally. He was a successful British composer of popular music of the 1930s and 1940s whose output comprised 45 songs as well as the music for 28 films and 26 London shows...
. He recorded two more Noel Gay songs, "The Left-Hand Side of Egypt" and "Who Are You A-Shoving Of?" Over two hundred of the songs he performed, many of which were recorded, were written by Fred Cliff and Harry Gifford, either in collaboration or separately, and Formby was included in the credits of a number of them, including "When I'm Cleaning Windows". Some of his songs were considered too rude for broadcasting. His 1937 song, "With my little stick of Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
Rock
Rock (confectionery)
Rock is a type of hard stick-shaped boiled sugar confectionery most usually flavoured with peppermint or spearmint. It is commonly sold at tourist resorts in the UK ; in Ireland in seaside towns such as Bray and Strandhill; in Gibraltar; in Denmark in towns such as Løkken and Ebeltoft; and in...
" was banned by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
because of the suggestive lyrics. Formby's songs are rife with sly humour, as in 1932's "Chinese Laundry Blues," where Formby is about to sing "ladies' knickers" and suddenly changes it to "ladies' blouses"; and in 1940's "On the Wigan Boat Express," in which a lady passenger "was feeling shocks in her signal box." Formby's cheerful, innocent demeanour and nasal, high-pitched Lancashire accent
Lancashire dialect and accent
Lancashire dialect and accent refers to the vernacular speech in Lancashire, one of the counties of England. Simon Elmes' book Talking for Britain said that Lancashire dialect is now much less common than it once was, but it is not yet extinct...
neutralised the shock value of the lyrics; a more aggressive comedian like Max Miller would have delivered the same lyrics with a bawdy
Ribaldry
Ribaldry is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to gross indecency. It is also referred to as "bawdiness", "gaminess" or "bawdry"....
leer.
George Formby had been making gramophone records as early as 1926; his first successful records came in 1932 with the Jack Hylton
Jack Hylton
Jack Hylton was a British band leader and impresario.He was born John Greenhalgh Hilton in the Great Lever area of Bolton, Lancashire, the son of George Hilton, a cotton yarn twister. His father was an amateur singer at the local Labour Club and Jack learned piano to accompany him on the stage...
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
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
, earning him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 (roughly USD 4 million in 2009 terms) per year. Between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
, and at the height of his movie popularity (1939, when he was Britain's number-one film star of all genres), his film Let George Do It
Let George Do It
Let George Do It is a 1940 British, black-and-white, comedy musical war film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, with Ronald Shiner as the clarinetist...
was exported to America. Although his films always did well in Britain and Canada, they never caught on in the United States. Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
hired him for a series, with a handsome contract worth £500,000, but did not circulate his films in the US.
Formby appeared in the 1937 Royal Variety Performance
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
, and entertained troops with Entertainments National Service Association
Entertainments National Service Association
The Entertainments National Service Association or ENSA was an organisation set up in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes...
(ENSA) in Europe and North Africa during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He received an OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1946. His most popular film, 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
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
(mistaking Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
for Blackpool) as a secret agent. In one dream sequence he punches Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
on the nose and addresses him as a "windbag".
For many years Fred Knight was Formby's chauffeur, driving him to the studios and music halls across the country. At that time Formby had a prestigious Lanchester
Lanchester Motor Company
The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a car manufacturer based until 1930 at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England. It operated from 1895 to 1955....
car.
Formby suffered his first heart attack in 1952, during the run of his successful stage musical "Zip Goes a Million." He withdrew from the show, and confined his performances to occasional guest appearances on stage and TV. In 1960 he scored a jukebox hit with the pop tune "Happy Go Lucky Me." His final television appearance, broadcast in December 1960, was a 35-minute solo spot on BBC Television's The Friday Show.
Formby's wife Beryl died of leukaemia on 24 December 1960. In the spring of 1961 he planned to marry Pat Howson, a 36-year-old schoolteacher whom he had known since the 1930s, but he suffered a second heart attack and died in hospital on 6 March 1961. His funeral was held in St. Charles's Church in Aigburth
Aigburth
Aigburth is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Located to the south of the city, it is bordered by Dingle, Mossley Hill, and Garston.-History:...
, Liverpool. 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. Pat Howson was well provided for in Formby's will, but died in 1971 after a long legal battle with Formby's family, who contested the will.
Beryl Ingham: wife and manager
Beryl Ingham was born in 1901 in HaslingdenHaslingden
Haslingden is a small town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels', though the town is in fact set on a high and windy hill. In the early 20th century Haslingden had the status of a municipal borough, but following local government...
, Lancashire. She was a champion clogdancer
Clogging
Clogging is a type of folk dance with roots in traditional European dancing, early African-American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance in which the dancer's footwear is used musically by striking the heel, the toe, or both in unison against a floor or each other to create audible percussive...
and actress, winning the All England Step Dancing Title at the age of 11. Later she formed a dancing act with her sister, May, called "The Two Violets". It was in 1923 while they were appearing in music hall in Castleford
Castleford
Castleford is the largest of the "five towns" district in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It is near Pontefract, and has a population of 37,525 according to the 2001 Census, but has seen a rise in recent years and is now around 45-50,000. To the north...
, Yorkshire that she met Formby. They married in Formby's birth town of Wigan, Lancashire the following year.
The couple worked together as a variety act until 1932, when she became his full-time manager and mentor, though she appeared in two of his films for which Formby was paid up to £35,000 per performance. It was Beryl's business skill that guided Formby to be the UK's highest-paid entertainer.
In 1946 Beryl and George toured South Africa shortly before formal racial apartheid was introduced, where they refused to play racially-segregated
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
venues. According to Formby's biographer, when George was cheered by a black audience after embracing a small black girl who had presented his wife with a box of chocolates, National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
leader Daniel François Malan
Daniel François Malan
Daniel François Malan , more commonly known as D.F. Malan, was the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. He is seen as a champion of Afrikaner nationalism. His National Party government came to power on the program of apartheid and began its comprehensive implementation.- Biography...
(who later introduced apartheid) phoned to complain; Beryl replied "Why don't you piss off you horrible little man?".
Beryl continued to manage Formby's career until she contracted leukaemia, and died on 24 December 1960 in Blackpool, Lancashire. After her death, Formby publicly confessed that "My life with Beryl was hell". Two months later he became engaged to schoolteacher Pat Howson, 20 years his junior, declaring that he had achieved a happiness which had never existed with Beryl.
Playing styles
Formby's trademark was playing the ukulele-banjo in a highly syncopated style, referred to as the 'Formby style'.Among the several syncopation techniques that he used, the most commonly emulated stroke of Formby's is a rhythmic technique called the "Split stroke
Split stroke
The split stroke is a style of playing the ukulele which is peculiar to the George Formby style of playing. It is a syncopated rhythm where the player will strike all of the strings, and then on the return, catch the first string, and then before starting again hit the last string:3..3000..-..0This...
", which produces a musical rhythm easily recognised as Formby's. He sang in his own Lancashire accent. Other strokes in Formby's repertoire include the triple, the circle, the fan, and the shake. In his act, George often had several ukuleles on stage tuned in different keys, as in some solos it requires an open string to be sounded, not possible when using Barre chord
Barre chord
In music, a barre chord is a type of guitar chord, where one or more fingers are used to press down multiple strings across the guitar fingerboard , enabling the guitarist to play a chord not restricted by the tones of the guitar's open strings...
s.
On George's last TV appearance, in The Friday Show, he modestly told the audience that he could play in only one key. Research has shown that this statement is false, as George himself plays transposed solos on songs such as "On the HMS Cowheel", a melodic solo on "I Told my Baby with the Ukulele", and many more.
Catchphrases
George's best-known catchphrase is 'Turned out nice again!', but he also had a few others such as 'Eeh, champion!' or 'Eeh, isn't it grand!' or, when managing to escape from anybody, 'Haha! Never touched me!' George often exclaimed, 'Eeh! Well, I'll go to our house!' or, 'Mother!'Tributes
There is a bronze statue of Formby leaning on a lampost on Ridgeway Street, close to the intersection with Lord Street, in Douglas, Isle of ManDouglas, Isle of Man
right|thumb|250px|Douglas Promenade, which runs nearly the entire length of beachfront in Douglasright|thumb|250px|Sea terminal in DouglasDouglas is the capital and largest town of the Isle of Man, with a population of 26,218 people . It is located at the mouth of the River Douglas, and a sweeping...
. On 15 September 2007 another bronze statue was unveiled in Formby's birthtown of Wigan, Lancashire in the Grand Arcade shopping centre.
Motorcycle
A Norton InternationalNorton International
The Norton International or Cammy Norton was a Norton Motors Ltd overhead cam motorcycle between 1931 and 1957.More than a TT replica sports roadster, the OHC Model 30, was 500 cc and the OHC Model 40 was 350 cc. During the 1930s it could be ordered from the Norton factory with all...
motorcycle owned by Formby, registration HVU 111 (Formby was superstitious, and insisted that all his motorbikes had the same three numbers in their registration, although he was not bothered which number), sold for £30,582 at an auction on 3 December 2007. The 1947 Norton International was one of several motorcycles owned by Formby, who starred in the film No Limit
No Limit (1936 film)
No Limit is a 1935 British comedy film which was released by Associated Talking Pictures. It starred George Formby and Florence Desmond.-Synopsis:...
, a spoof of the 1935 Isle of Man TT
1935 Isle of Man TT
For the 1935 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, Stanley Woods provided another surprise by moving again, from Husqvarna to Moto Guzzi.The 1935 Junior TT Race provided a Junior TT double win for Jimmie Guthrie at an average race speed of and Norton with a 1-2-3 race win with Walter Rusk and "Crasher"...
motorcycle race, and had been presented to him during a visit to Norton’s Bracebridge Street factory in Birmingham in July 1947.
Selected songs
- "Chinese Laundry Blues" (1932)
- "The Isle of Man" (1932)
- "With My Little Ukulele in My Hand" (1933)
- "The Window CleanerThe Window Cleaner"The Window Cleaner" is a comedy song performed by Lancastrian comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats Please...
"/"When I'm Cleaning Windows" (1936) - "Leaning on a Lamppost" (1937)
- "Hi Tiddly Hi Ti Island" (1937)
- "The Lancashire Toreador" (1937)
- "With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock" (1937)
- "Tan Tan Tivvy Tally-Ho!" (1938, wm Arthur Le ClerqArthur Le ClerqArthur Le Clerq was a British songwriter from the 1930s, responsible for several hits.* "Is Izzy Azzy Woz?" * "The Rocket Bus" - also known as "Alf's Carpet"...
) - "They Can't Fool Me" (1938)
- "Mother, What'll I do Now?" (1938)
- "Our Sergeant Major" (1938)
- "Imagine Me on the Maginot LineMaginot LineThe Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
" (1939) - "It's Turned Out Nice Again" (1939)
- "Mr Wu's a Window Cleaner Now" (1939)
- "My Grandad's Flannelette Nightshirt" (1939)
- "Count Your Blessings And Smile" (1940)
- "Auntie Maggie's Remedy" (1941)
- "Bless 'Em AllBless 'Em All"Bless 'Em All" is a war song credited to have been written by Fred Godfrey in 1917 and first recorded by George Formby, Jr...
" (1941) - "Mr Wu's is Now an Air Raid Warden" (1942)
- "You Don't Need A Licence For That" (1946)
- "Happy Go Lucky Me" (1960)
Filmography
- By the Shortest of Heads (1915)
- Boots! Boots!Boots! Boots!Boots! Boots! is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Bert Tracey and starring George Formby, Beryl Formby and Arthur Kingsley. It was made by Blakeley's Productions, Ltd. at the Albany Studios in London.Producer John E...
(1934) - Off the Dole (1935)
- George Formby Cavalcade (1935) (highlights from first two feature films of 1934-35)
- No LimitNo Limit (1936 film)No Limit is a 1935 British comedy film which was released by Associated Talking Pictures. It starred George Formby and Florence Desmond.-Synopsis:...
(1935) - Keep Your Seats Please (1936)
- Feather Your NestFeather Your NestFeather Your Nest is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring George Formby, Polly Ward and Enid Stamp-Taylor...
(1937) - Keep FitKeep FitKeep Fit is a 1937 British slapstick comedy film made at Ealing Studios.-Plot outline:George Formby again plays his working class underdog, gormless, gullible, indefatigable and triumphant hero....
(1937) - Christmas Greetings of 1937 (1937)
- I See IceI See IceI See Ice is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring George Formby, Kay Walsh and Betty Stockfeld. The film depicts the adventures of a photographer working for a local newspaper.-Cast:* George Formby ... George Bright...
(1938) - Christmas Greetings of 1938 (1938)
- It's in the AirIt's in the AirIt’s in the Air is a 1938 British slapstick comedy film. It was released in the United States as George Takes the Air in 1940.- Plot outline :...
(1938) - Trouble Brewing (1939)
- Come On George!Come On George!Come On George! is a 1939 British, black-and-white, comedy, farce, musical, racing film, directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring Ronald Shiner as Nat George Formby and Dirk Bogarde. It was produced by Associated Talking Pictures.-Synopsis:...
(1939) - Let George Do ItLet George Do ItLet George Do It is a 1940 British, black-and-white, comedy musical war film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, with Ronald Shiner as the clarinetist...
(1940) - Spare a CopperSpare a CopperSpare a Copper is a 1940 British, black-and-white, musical comedy war film, directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Ronald Shiner, as the Piano Mover and Tuner, and George Formby. It was produced by Associated Talking Pictures...
(1940) also known as Call a CopSpare a CopperSpare a Copper is a 1940 British, black-and-white, musical comedy war film, directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Ronald Shiner, as the Piano Mover and Tuner, and George Formby. It was produced by Associated Talking Pictures... - Turned Out Nice AgainTurned Out Nice AgainTurned Out Nice Again is a British comedy film starring Lancashire-born George Formby. The film was released in 1941 and filmed at Ealing Studios, London.-Sypnosis:...
(1941) - South American GeorgeSouth American GeorgeSouth American George is a 1941 British, black-and-white, comedy film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, Linden Travers, Enid Stamp-Taylor, Felix Aylmer, Ronald Shiner as Swifty, Mavis Villiers and Herbert Lomas. It was produced by Columbia Productions....
(1941) - Much Too ShyMuch Too ShyMuch Too Shy is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, Kathleen Harrison, Hilda Bayley and Eileen Bennett.-Cast:* George Formby - George Any* Kathleen Harrison - Amelia Peabody* Hilda Bayley - Lady Driscoll...
(1942) - Get CrackingGet CrackingGet Cracking is a 1943 British, black-and-white, comedy, war film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Ronald Shiner as Everett Manley and George Formby. It was produced by Marcel Varnel, Ben Henry and Columbia Productions.-Synopsis:...
(1943) - Bell Bottom George (1943/44)
- He Snoops To ConquerHe Snoops to ConquerHe Snoops to Conquer is a 1944 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, Robertson Hare, Elizabeth Allan, and Claude Bailey. An odd job man becomes mixed up in corruption in politics and town planning.-Plot:...
(1945) - I Didn't Do It! (1945)
- George in Civvy StreetGeorge in Civvy StreetGeorge in Civvy Street is a 1946 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, Ronald Shiner, Ian Fleming and Ronnie Scott...
(1946) - The Friday Show (BBC Television, 1960; restored 1994)
External links
- The Guardian: Naughty but nice (George Formby by David Bret)
- 'Ukulele king' Formby dies (BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
) - The George Formby Society
- Profile of George Formby Snr and Jnr
- George Formby's Gravesite
- George Formby Forum "the Resonator"