George Formby

Musical comedian George Formby ranked among Britain’s leading entertainers throughout the initial decades of the twentieth century, leaving behind more than two hundred recordings and over twenty box-office successes. Born George Hoy Booth on May 26, 1904 in Lancashire, England, he was the son of Edwardian music-hall favorite George Formby, Sr. After beginning an apprenticeship as a jockey, the younger Formby shifted course when his father died suddenly in 1921; he launched his own stage career first under his birth name, then took his father’s professional moniker after wedding dancer Beryl Ingham, who promptly assumed management of his professional affairs. Early attempts to mirror his father’s routine met with scant response until an unexpected banjo ukulele opened a fresh path, and Formby’s distinctive, self-instructed technique on the instrument quickly became central to his emerging character.

Pundits soon labeled the gap-toothed, lighthearted performer “the beloved imbecile.” Following a growing music-hall following, he achieved his breakthrough pop success with the 1932 release “Chinese Blues,” later retitled “Chinese Laundry Blues” and thereafter regarded as his defining number. Two years afterward he debuted on screen in Boots! Boots!, a hit that led to an eleven-picture contract with Ealing Studios. Subsequent features such as the 1935 production No Limit, 1937’s Feather Your Nest and 1938’s It’s in the Air established him as Britain’s foremost attraction, reportedly earning £100,000 annually, while supplying a steady stream of suggestive hit songs that included “The Window Cleaner,” “Fanlight Fanny,” “Riding in the T.T. Races” and Noel Gay’s “Leaning on a Lamp Post.”

When World War II began, Formby performed tirelessly for servicemen across Europe and the Middle East, becoming one of the first entertainers to appear in Normandy after its liberation; his wartime service earned him the OBE in 1946. In 1951 he headlined the West End musical Zip Goes a Million at the Palace Theater, where the show enjoyed immediate acclaim until a severe heart attack six months in forced him to withdraw. Following a year-long recuperation he resumed club work, though recurring health problems persisted through the remainder of the decade. Formby returned to the studio in 1960 with “Happy Go Lucky Me,” his first recording in fifteen years. On Christmas Eve of that year his wife died; two months later his engagement to a schoolteacher more than twenty years his junior stirred public debate. Formby himself died on March 6, 1961 at age 56.