1960: Vaudeville entertainer GEORGE FORMBY | The Friday Show | Comedy Icons | BBC Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- The actor, musician and variety show star George Formby mused on his career when he was the special guest on The Friday Show - just three months before he died at the age of 56.
The Wigan born entertainer reminisced about his beginnings in showbusiness and how he got his big break in the movie business.
In more personal moments, he explained why his wife Beryl was so influential in his life, let us in on the ukulele related secret he'd been hiding for many a year and stated how very grateful he was to be considered a 'star'.
Clip taken from The Friday Show, originally broadcast on BBC Television, 16 December 1960.
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The power of humility!
Queen Elizabeth 2nd and George Harrison were massive George Formby fans.
Most the people of Britain was fans
“When I’m cleaning windows” loved watching George! 💙☀️
My grandfather always said that he signed up to fight Hitler in 1939 in order to get away from Gracie Fields and George Formby singing at him!
It is astonishing now to think what a big star Formby was in his heyday in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He was a film star as well as a vaudeville entertainer. Ahh... simple times and simple pleasures!
I honestly didn't know George was only 56 when he passed away. Same age I am now!
He wasn't just famous back in the day - he really was a super-star. And yet, kept his feet firmly on the ground, despite the fame.
Now he’s in heaven playing his ukulele. You can’t hear him though.
I really enjoyed watching that . Seems a nice down to earth guy and what he said about being a movie star is spot on.
He's was as modest as modesty gets on the BBC recording, I can't imagine he could have a bad word or lose his temper to anyone, what a legend.❤
Vaudeville is American terminology. The British term is Music Hall. George's father was the Music Hall star.
George Formby was one of the highest paid film stars of the 1940s.
An often reported story is that when he died there was a suitcase containing £50,000 under his bed.
He was a really talented musician and the double entendres in his songs are legendary (watch the clip of "Fanlight Fanny").
No Limit, Much Too Shy and George in Civvy Street, are worth watching.
Political correctness now keeps some of his films from being seen on TV.
An awesome British talent that went too soon.
He seemed like a genuinely nice person. Although I am 70, I've never seen one of his films and only know his through a few of his songs.
What a lovely man
What a nice fella. Loved him as a kid.
this is delightful, honest and sincere.
finally a higher quality version
A measure of how brilliant George was the song he wrote ‘Bless ‘Em All’ when sang it is funny but when Dame Vera Lynn sang it it became a power ballard! That’s very rare because both versions are amazing!
George’s wife Beryl died over Christmas 1960 and he himself had a fatal heart attack in March 1961.
Too modest to mention his anti-apartheid stand on his 1946 S Africa tour. #legend
The George Formby grill was his true legacy.
"Bless 'em all"
When I'm cleaning burgers music 🎶
'Turned out shite again.'
@@heraldeventsandfilms5970Mark Lamarr reference? 😊
@@Illustraful Fast Show.
Died: 6 March 1961 (age 56 years), Preston
Today's so called talent need to see this.
Music Hall, film and stage star! A true legend. A relative of mine was his doctor. Beryl couldn’t have children! Maybe that’s a reason why 5NN died so young?!
Vaudeville? George Formby started in Music Hall, we didn’t have vaudeville in Britain.
It's the same thing just a different title.
@@stuartryan610 I’d expect a British organization to be able to use the British term for a British music hall and film star. Formby wouldn’t have used the term vaudeville for what he did, and neither would his contemporaries this side of the Atlantic.
@@Stoggler in the 60s and 70s we had a tv show called Those Were The Days...... A live show recorded in a london music hall.
This was scarce a week before his wife, Beryl, would fall into a coma on Christmas Eve 1960. George himself would be dead within five months.
I read somewhere that "When I'm cleaning windows" was actually all about seeing couples getting it on through their bedroom window.
It was indeed!
Performers of the day were bound by a very strict set of archaic rules (i.e. no filth). But songwriters and performers could get around the rules by using lyrics with double entendres. So a perfectly innocent song could have an entirely different meaning if you had a 'dirty mind'.
Go search for the FULL set of lyrics to When I'm Cleaning Windows, and you'll see what I mean. 😄
The BBC wouldn’t play it at one point because it was seen as encouraging voyeurism. A fair few of his songs were a little bit smutty, all disguised with cheeky innuendo. For example My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock. The BBC would only allow Formby to sing it on air if certain lines were dropped. ‘With My Little Ukelele In My Hand’ was pulled by the record company and they made him record it with new lyrics, although I understand the original version can be heard out the somewhere.
@@GrilloTheFlightless - I wouldn't consider them "a little bit smutty" myself. Risqué maybe, tongue-in-cheek perhaps. All depends upon your sense of humour I guess. And the Beeb had precious little of that when considering themselves the bastions of public decency and taste at the time.
But the origin of the double entendres in George's songs (along with numerous other acts) harks back to the Music Hall days and the Victorian rules of what was and what wasn't allowed, lyrically speaking.
Personally, I find his dodgy lyrics both entertaining and hilarious, as indeed did millions back in the day. 😄
It's a shame that the songs were cut from the clip :(
Never underestimate he like Gracie Fields we’re top box office in the golden age! A list!
Hee Hee turned out nice again! He's the Emperor of Lancashire. Good old George coined the phrase Wigan Pier which was some old coal chutes at the side of a main road.
why was the song cut out ?
rights?
A truly humble superstar...
Copyright
Great to see this. Thank you, BBC Archive. Shame everyone can't get the full experience here. Have a word maybe.
I think they just wanted the story
I must be too young for this cos whenever I see George Formby all I think about is Frank Skinner impersonating him
Great northern lad.
He never got over Ali knocking him out in ‘74
I feel bad that I've just replaced my Lean Mean Grilling Machine with an air fryer.
George Formby came from Lancashire.
He died the following year.
Formby was from a very wealthy family