George Formby - The chirpy and gappy-toothed man who has been my hero since I was 5 years old. The man who really got me hooked on black and white films ( followed closely by Fred and Ginger), the man who conjures up an immense feeling of affection and love for him more than any other star of his time and the man who made me truly appreciate comedy in it's best form. Needless to say I'm one of his biggest fans and have just recently completed my collection of every single Formby film that has ever been released ( sadly some are yet to be realised to DVD but hopefully it will happen one day). Watching him play the gormless yet loveable chap who 'always gets the girl' in his films made me realise that whether I liked it or not I had to find out whether he was as nice as I had always hoped and imagined. So when David Bret's book came along to my library I pounced on it. David Bret is a very controversial writer because he is known for exaggerating the lives of the stars he writes about ( his Jean Harlow book was read earlier in my blog) and not always in the most favourable terms. However as this was the only George Formby book within a 100 mile radius to me I decided it was better than nothing.
To put it bluntly ( and happily) Bret writes about George in exactly the way I had hoped he would. He covers George's problems with working with attractive female co-stars in his films, pointing out how overbearing and paranoid his wife Beryl was about him even looking at another woman. Because of this I think a number of his fellow actors came away with a less than favourible impression of him as being unfriendly and dull when in reality he was so controlled by Beryl that he tried to avoid trouble from her whenever was possible making it almost impossible for him to communicate normally with members of the opposite sex. To say he was 'dull' was a gross misunderstanding as many of his male friends and acquaintainces would agree on. Bret also recalls one particular incident that Dinah Sheridan who was George's co-star in 'Get Cracking' mentions in the official Formby website about her going to the set for what she thought was a quick chat with George and finding Beryl there instead. " Soon after, she had a call to meet with George Formby. "I walked into the office, there was no Formby. No director. Only Mrs. Formby, sitting behind a desk. She looked at me and asked immediately if I was married. I said 'Yes.' 'How long?' 'Three months, 'I replied, and she said, '"You'll do.' I was so newly married that I presumably posed no threat!" I find this to be a typical example of how horrible and uncompromising Beryl was to any female near the set. So much so that George wasn't allowed even to kiss his co-stars in the final scenes because she didn't allow it and in a few incidents Beryl was called away to the 'telephone', leaving George to finish the film with the kiss that was appropritate and much needed. She was a tyranical and pitiful excuse for a female in my opinion, seemingly there only for the fame and fortune that greeted George when he became famous and desperate to control every aspect of his life. Sadly, George never knew anything else other than her controlling and dominating ways as well as her cruel refusal to let him be a father and it was only when she died many years later that he felt he could finally be happy. Such a dreadful waste for a man who made millions laugh and never shared any of the joy in his own private life. David Bret actually does a great job here exploring all George's early life as well as his later life after and through his popular films where he risked his life consistantly to fly to dangerous areas of the country to perform to the troops and people, even at the risk of his health. Bret then goes on to mention in detail the horrible war than ensued between George's fiancee Pat Howson and George's mother after he died and his inheritance had to be broken up. His mother was another dispicable excuse for a human being.
Of course George made mistakes - he was known to have had affairs throughout his marriage to Beryl which is never the right thing to do, but I believe that if Beryl hadn't been the way she was he wouldn't have seeked solace with other people and I support him 100% on his choices. I only wish he could have escaped his turbulent marriage a lot earlier which would then at least, have given him a fews years or so of happiness. George was never boastful or arrogant, he was kind and considerate to those who knew him, and although he was hard to work with (mainly because of his domineering wife), he was never intentionally unkind to anyone for no reason preferring to stay out the way of his co-stars in case arguments erupted on set. He was totally misunderstood by many people and in no way gormless or thick. He had a warm and loveable quality that calmed many and helped hundreds of thousands through the war. It goes withought saying of course that he was a genius, and one of the most unforgettable people I have ever had the pleasure of seeing on film or reading about, I would have dearly liked to have met him to tell him how loved and appreciated he still is today.
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