George Formby

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George Formby's film debut was in the racing drama, 'The shortest Of Miles in 1914', he was the son of a popular music hall entertainer George Formby Senior (Logical, eh!). And from that humble beginning and his first starring film (Boots, Boots, in 1934) he rose to become the best paid and most popular entertainer in England for many years and kept the British spirit high during the second world war.

His instument of choice was the ukelele, which he played on hit songs such as 'When I'm Cleaning Windows', 'Leaning On A Lampost' and assorted song about a character called Mr. Wu. His shy persona in films and naivety towards the opposite sex is quite at odds with the risque lyrical content of his songs which today would not raise an eyebrow but in his time must have felt the touch iof a BBC blue pencil or two.

To get really pretentious we could sit and discuss the phallic symbolism of 'My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock' all day, but I feel it is little more than harmless seaside postcard fun.

His films often followed the same formula, George is the hapless accidental hero, who gets the girl, outwits the smugglers/fifth columnists/criminals (delete as applicable) and sings a couple of songs while he goes about it.

His catchphrases included 'Never touched me', after just escaping from a scrape, 'Mother', while in the middle of a scrape, and 'It't turned out nice again, hasn't it?' usually at the end of the film when all of the scrapes have been dealt with.

His wife, Beryl, was fiercly jealous and ruled him with a rod of iron, she would not allow him to kiss his leading lady on screen and she controlled all of the finances, and considering his level of income that must have been quite an amount.

In 1961 he died aged just fifty seven leaving a legacy of songs and films many of which crop up on television either on a lazy afternoon or at some godless hour of the morning, but nothing can change the fact that for many years George Formby was Lancashires favourite son.

The Films Of George Formby

Boots Boots (1934)
No Limit (1935)
Keep Your Seats PLease (1936)
Feather Your Nest (1937)
Keep Fit (1937)
I See Ice (1938)
It's In The Air (1938)
Trouble Brewing (1939)
Come On George (1939)
Let George Do It (1940)
Spare A Copper (1940)
Turned Out Nice Again (1941)
South American George (1941)
Much Too Shy (1942)
Bell Bottom George (1943)
Get Cracking (1943)
He Snoops To Conquer (1944)
I Didn't Do It (1945)
George In Civvy Street (1946)

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