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Formby's trademark was playing the [[banjolele|ukulele-banjo]] in a highly [[Syncopation|syncopated]] style, collectively referred to as the 'Formby style'.
Formby's trademark was playing the [[banjolele|ukulele-banjo]] in a highly [[Syncopation|syncopated]] style, collectively referred to as the 'Formby style'.


Among the several syncopation techniques that he used, the most commonly emulated stroke of Formby's is a clever rhythmic technique, called the "[[Split stroke]]", a technique which produces a musical rhythm, that is easily recognised as Formby. He sang in his own [[Lancashire]] accent. Other strokes that are included in Formby's repertoire include the triple, the circle, the fan, and the shake. He was not however a virtuoso of the instrument such as [[Billy "Uke" Scott]]. Formby used the instrument only as rhythm accompaniment, not for playing melody, and would use several instruments tuned to different keys so that he could use the same fingering on each.
Among the several syncopation techniques that he used, the most commonly emulated stroke of Formby's is a clever rhythmic technique, called the "[[Split stroke]]", a technique which produces a musical rhythm, that is easily recognised as Formby. He sang in his own [[Lancashire]] accent. Other strokes that are included in Formby's repertoire include the triple, the circle, the fan, and the shake. He was not however a virtuoso of the instrument such as [[Billy "Uke" Scott]]. Formby used the instrument only as rhythm accompaniment, not for playing melody, and would use several instruments tuned to different keys so that he could use the same fingering on each.

It is ironic that mimics always play him as the traditional Lancashire cloth-cap comic (which his father had been), whereas Formby always dressed in well-tailored suits, a smart collar and tie and polished shoes.


== Tributes ==
== Tributes ==

Revision as of 00:13, 28 March 2009

George Formby

George Formby, Jr., OBE (26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961) was an English singer and comedian, famous for playing the ukulele and performing a variety of light, comical songs. He would eventually become a popular star of stage and screen.

Career

Formby was born at 3 Westminster Street, Pemberton, near Wigan, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). His father (James Booth) was George Formby, Sr. (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, moved the family to Atherton Road in Hindley (near Wigan) and it was from there that Formby was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race at ten when he weighed under four stone (56 pounds, 25.4 kg). The family then moved to Stockton Heath, Warrington and it was from there that George Formby jnr. embarked on his career in entertainment.

On 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 (George Hoy was also his maternal grandfather's name, who originally came from Newmarket, Suffolk, a famous horseracing town and whose family were involved in racehorse training). 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; 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 fistfight.

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 musical syncopated style that became his trademark. Some of his best-known songs were written by Noel Gay. 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 lyrics.[1] 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 demeanor and nasal, high-pitched Lancashire accent neutralized 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 phonograph 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, earned him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 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 Great 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 stateside.

Formby 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 (mistaking Bergen for Blackpool) as a secret agent. A dream sequence in which he punches Hitler on the nose and addresses him as a "windbag" is one of the most enduring moments in film comedy.

Formby suffered his first heart attack in 1952. 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.

Pat Howson was well provided-for in Formby's will, but when she died soon afterward, it was believed that the fortune was jinxed.

Beryl Ingham: wife and manager of George Formby

Beryl Ingham was born in 1901 in Haslingden, 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, which they called themselves "The Two Violets" [2]. It was in 1923 while they were appearing in music hall in Yorkshire that she met Formby. They married in Formby's home town of Wigan, Lancashire the following year [3].

The couple worked together as a variety act until 1932 when she became his full time manager and mentor, though she did in fact appear in two of his films for which Formby was paid up to £35,000 per performance. It was Beryl's business savvy that guided Formby to be the UK's highest paid entertainer (at a time of high taxation he was paying 97.5% of his earnings as revenues).

In 1946 Beryl and George toured immediately pre-Apartheid South Africa, where they refused to play racially segregated venues. One story of the tour relates that after George embraced a small black girl who had presented his wife with a box of chocolates, the National Party opposition leader Daniel François Malan personally phoned to complain about their behaviour. Beryl is said to have replied "Why don't you piss off you horrible little man?" [4].

Beryl continued to manage Formby's career until she contracted leukemia. She died on December 24, 1960 in Blackpool, Lancashire. He also had a dog called Willie Waterbucket.

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 Lanchester, a make long gone, but considered quite the limo of its day.

Playing styles

Formby's trademark was playing the ukulele-banjo in a highly syncopated style, collectively referred to as the 'Formby style'.

Among the several syncopation techniques that he used, the most commonly emulated stroke of Formby's is a clever rhythmic technique, called the "Split stroke", a technique which produces a musical rhythm, that is easily recognised as Formby. He sang in his own Lancashire accent. Other strokes that are included in Formby's repertoire include the triple, the circle, the fan, and the shake. He was not however a virtuoso of the instrument such as Billy "Uke" Scott. Formby used the instrument only as rhythm accompaniment, not for playing melody, and would use several instruments tuned to different keys so that he could use the same fingering on each.

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 Man. On 15 September 2007 another bronze statue was unveiled in Formby's hometown of Wigan, Lancashire in the Grande Arcade shopping centre.

Formby's Norton International

A Norton International owned by Formby sold for £30,582 at an auction on December 3 2007. The 1947 Norton International was one of several motorcycles owned by Formby, who starred in the film No Limits, a spoof of the 1935 Isle of Man TT race. The International was presented to him during a visit to Norton’s Bracebridge Street factory in July 1947.[5]

Selected songs

  • "Auntie Maggie's Remedy"
  • "Chinese Laundry Blues"
  • "Imagine Me on the Maginot Line"
  • "The Isle of Man"
  • "It's Turned Out Nice Again"
  • "The Lancashire Toreador"
  • "Leaning on a Lamppost"
  • "Mother, What'll I do Now?"
  • "Mr Wu's a Window Cleaner Now"
  • "Mr Wu's an Air Raid Warden Now"
  • "My Granddad's Flannelette Night Shirt"
  • "Our Sergeant Major"
  • "They Can't Fool Me"
  • "The Window Cleaner"/"When I'm Cleaning Windows"
  • "With my Little Ukulele in my Hand"
  • "With my Little Stick of Blackpool Rock"
  • "Hi Tiddly Hi Ti Island"

Filmography

References

  1. ^ "Ban this George Formby filth… how 30s comic fell victim to censors". Chortle.co.uk. 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
  2. ^ Beryl Formby
  3. ^ Lancashire Births Marriages & Deaths
  4. ^ Simon Louvish (Friday December 6 2002). "That lad will go far!". The Guardian. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Newbigging, Chris. "George Formby's Norton International". Motor Cycle News. Retrieved 2008-12-24.


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