George Formby (now known as George Formby Senior) (1875 - 1921) was the father of ukulele playing star George Formby, and a star in his own right. 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Ukulele The ukulele (pronounced , or the Anglicised ), or uke, is a fretted string instrument which is, in its construction, essentially a smaller, four-stringed version of the guitar. ... George Formby George Formby (May 26, 1904 - March 6, 1961) was a British singer and comedian who became a major star of both cinema and music hall. ...

It is now forgotten that Formby Senior was a star fully the equal of his son in the Edwardian Music Halls. Singing (if that is an accurate description) in a sardonic, naive but somehow knowing style, plagued by ill-health (he coughed blood on stage and made light of his tuberculosis) he was one of the highest paid entertainers of his day. The Edwardian period or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period 1901 to 1910, the reign of King Edward VII. It succeeded the Victorian period and is sometimes extended to include the period up to the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the start of World War... Music Hall is a form of British theatrical entertainment which reached its peak of popularity between 1850 and 1960. ... Tuberculosis (commonly shortened to TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (Miliary tuberculosis), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

George Formby Senior was born in 1875, in Ashton-Under-Lyne,near Manchester as James Booth, the illegitimate son of an illiterate working class mother. Some months after his birth, his mother married, but the marriage turned out to be turbulent and violent, and the young boy was frequently ill treated and half starved. In later life, he remarked "My childhood was the most miserable that could have happened to any human being." Ashton-under-Lyne is a town in Greater Manchester with a population of 44,400 (2001 estimate). ... Manchester is a city in the United Kingdom, considered by some to be the countrys second city [1][2]. It is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and big business. ...

Not surprisingly, James Booth ran away from home at the earliest opportunity, and as a lad of thirteen, started his stage career in the rough pubs and ale-houses around Wigan, as the soprano half of ‘The Brothers Glenray – the songbirds of the Music Halls.’ Map sources for Wigan at grid reference SD583055 Wigan is a large town in the North West of England, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, lying in the historic county of Lancashire. ... Look up Soprano in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

For three years the duo made a meagre living by singing sentimental tear-jerkers to the hard audiences of the Midlands and the North. By 1892, The Brothers Glenray had escaped from tap-rooms and free and easies and were now appearing in real music-halls – far from the top of the bill, but none the less, in regular work, until their voices started to break and they got more laughter than applause for their vocal harmonies. In general, the midlands of a territory are its central regions. ... The three northern Regions Northern England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. ...

As audiences seemed determined to laugh at him James Booth decided that they might as well laugh with him, so The Brothers Glenray parted and he adopted a folio of comic songs adapted from Methodist hymn tunes, grotesque stage make-up, and a new name. The name came to him while he was seated on a draughty railway platform waiting for a train to take him to his next engagement. He idly noticed a goods train passing on the opposite platform, with the wagons labelled to FORMBY, the small town on the outskirts of Southport. He liked the name, and ‘George Formby’ he became until his death twenty-four years later. The Methodist movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... Formby Beach Formby is a town in Sefton, Merseyside, England on the Irish Sea coast. ... Map sources for Southport at grid reference SD3317 Southport is a seaside town on the north-west coast of England, to the north of Liverpool and the south of Preston. ...

At first, bookings were few, but George Formby gradually built up a following as a droll dry comedian. His material was simple he had four or five basic costumes, all more or less clown-like, and in between songs he would do little more than come to the front of the stage to chat to the stalls as if talking over a pint in the bar of the local pub. His personality was engaging and his audiences loved him. In 1899, George met and married Eliza Hoy, who became the mainstay of his life. She encouraged him to keep on trying whenever he got depressed; supported their young family by dressmaking when bookings were low; and provided a happy and fulfilled family background. Liza was just the prop he needed to go outside the provinces and attack the big management's in London. London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ...

When George Robey saw Formby working in Manchester, soon after the marriage, he liked what he saw and recommended the young comedian to the manager of the London Pavilion. From the time of his first London appearance in 1899, George Formby was a star. As his audiences became more metropolitan, George emphasised the role of the provincial semi-imbecile...'’Good Evening, I'm Formby fra’ Wigan I’ve not been in England long’. George Robey was British Music Hall star. ... Facade of the London Pavilion in 2002 The London Pavilion is a building located on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street in the northeast of Piccadilly Circus in London. ...

When not boasting of his feats as a Palatine Casanova, he could be heard as a shop-worn man about town describing the valiant and heroic events that occurred on his bacchanalian rampages. Two fine examples of this latter persona can be heard on the records, ‘Did You See The Crowd In Piccadilly’ and ‘Looking For The Mugs In The Strand’, both from his 1916 revue, ‘Razzle Dazzle’ at the Alhambra.

George Formby first made records in 1907, for Louis Sterling’s cylinder company, and he was one of the first artists not to be overawed by the complexities and restrictions of the recording studio. Some artists found it hard to come to terms with performing to an invisible audience, and gave only pale renderings of their numbers, the attack and sparkle with which they delighted thousands at the Empires and Palaces just was not there. Not so with George, he took it all in his stride.

Having finished his song he would go closer to the horn and confide to the listener that "These machines are very awkward to put ‘em down. I’m just talking now so as to waste time while this record’s going through, because I’ve nowt else to say at all. There’s a chap behind me who’s recording this, and he’s opened a little trap door and he’s told me that we’ve only got a quarter of a minute, so I don’t think we can get anymore in now. Let me know when I’ve finished and I can go home" George Formby drove himself hard throughout his career despite a constant battle against ill health.

The years of poverty and neglect in his childhood had left him with a harsh rasping cough, which he would work into his act whenever he had an attack on stage. ‘I’m coughin’ better tonight’; he would say and plug his favourite patent medicine, ‘Zambuk’. At other times he would explain it away as ‘It’s not the coughin’ that carries you off it’s the coffin they carry you off in!’ the audiences loved it, not realising that George was already fatally stricken with tuberculosis.

While playing in pantomime in 1918 and 1919, he had to leave the cast due to his agonising chest complaint. He usually managed to come back, but during the run of the 1920/21 Christmas show at Newcastle, he collapsed. Liza took him back to their home in Stockton Heath, Warrington, but despite her careful nursing, he died on Shrove Tuesday, 8 February 1921. Towards the end of his career, George sang a song entitled ‘I’m Not Quite So Daft As I Look’ - he wasn’t. He left over £21,000 and his date book was filled solidly for the next five years. © Kevin Daly 1981 The Christmas Pantomime colour lithograph bookcover, 1890 Pantomime Pablo Zibes In Great Britain, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand pantomime (informally, panto) refers to a theatrical genre, usually performed around the Christmas and New Year holiday season. ... A typical meal of pancakes In the Christian calendar, Shrove Tuesday is the English name for the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which in turn marks the beginning of Lent. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

External link

• George Formby, Senior