Stepping Out With Formby

In 1959, on intense medication, Beryl accompanied George to the BBC studios in London for the making of yet another TV production, "Stepping out with Formby". She could hardly walk and George was suffering with dizzy spells and kept having to sit down between songs. However, he performed seven songs, just as blithesome as ever. In June 1959 George opened in a summer season at the Windmill Theatre in Great Yarmouth. A comedienne was employed as George's stooge and Beryl sat in the wings in an armchair, ruling over the proceedings. In August George traded in his old cruiser for "Lady Beryl II". The owner of the boatyard wanted £500 from George but Beryl said that George's appearance at the yard was worth more than £500 in publicity and George did the trade for nothing. He did, however, take the boatyard staff into a men only bar and paid for a round of drinks, with Beryl remaining outside the bar unaware of George's extravagance!

Car Accident

During the run of the show George made a quick trip home to St. Annes and on his way back his Jaguar was in collision with another car. Beryl was asleep in the back seat but George went into cataleptic shock and the doctor thought that George was having a heart attack and drove them both to the hospital in Kingswear rather than wait for an ambulance. George spent three days in Intensive Care and one week in a private ward. He then discharged himself and returned to the Windmill Theatre, taking up where he had left off. His place in the show had been taken up at short notice by Tommy Trinder who had been on holiday in the area. When the manager heard that George was coming back he sent a loudspeaker car around the town proclaiming "George is back, George is back!" The truth was that George was in a bad way, his blood pressure was sky high, his lungs were irreparably damaged through smoking upwards of 40 Capstan full strength and Woodbines daily. He was three stones overweight and his heart was in such a poor state that they didn't expect him to survive. A reporter asked him why he didn't give up smoking and George's reply was "Eee, lad, what good would that do me now?"

November 1959 - Showtime

When the season ended George learned that he had broken the theatre all time attendance record. There was a further TV show on 29th November 1959, "Showtime" on BBC TV where George sang three songs, "Believe it or Not", "It Serves you Right" and "Lamp post". He then played the harmonica with Morton Fraser and his Harmonica Rascals. After the 1959 season, orders came pouring in from theatres all over the country, a summer season at Blackpool, a twenty week tour of Australia and a new recording contract with Pye records. He turned down the Australian tour on the grounds that his dog, Willie Waterbucket, was 15 years old and he would never forgive himself if the dog was to die when he was out of the country. This seems a strange explanation for turning down a tour abroad when in November 1959 they were planning a winter cruise, first to New York and then to the West Indies. After the TV show they left from Liverpool on the Empress of Britain, but because Beryl was quite ill they stayed on the ship as it made short cruises between New York and the Caribbean Islands. The American passengers thought that they were members of the crew. When they returned to Liverpool after the three months' cruise Beryl was suffering from pleurisy and George had a heavy cold. The trip cost them £3,200.

The Queen’s Theatre, Blackpool

The summer season at the Queens Theatre, Blackpool, was accepted and so too was the recording contract which he attended in May 1960. Harry Gifford had recently died and George had difficulty finding songs to record. In the end he only recorded two mediocre songs, "Banjo Boy” and "Happy Go Lucky Me.” It is said that George never took off his coat to record these songs but there are pictures in the George Formby Society archives which show George in his shirt sleeves during this recording session. It is also said that he didn't wait to hear the playback of the final take. I cannot believe that but he was in a very depressed state of mind at the time, not the time to be singing a song called "Happy Go Lucky Me” with an infectious laugh as part of the lyrics! It did, however, get into the charts.

Time of your Life

"The Time of your Life” opened at the Queen's Theatre, Blackpool, on 4th June 1960. I was privileged to see the show and I have a recording of the soundtrack of a TV production from 14th July 1960. A friend of mine, who didn't like Formby very much when the show started, was an assistant stage electrician at the Queen's during that summer and after watching George from the wings and from a gantry above the stage, saw him in a different light after only a few weeks and became a firm fan. He told me that he was amazed at the way George handled the audience, ad libbing through his act, telling different jokes and changing the songs throughout the run, always leaving the audience shouting for more. The thing I remember most about the show was George's playing of "She's Got Two of Everything,, on the high tuned Baby Gibson. "The Time of your Life” should have closed in September, but it broke all box office records and it was extended until November. During these last years George struggled with ill health and was unable to work as much as he did in the early years. He told a close friend that he was now content with £3,000 per year because the Inland Revenue took too big a slice after that. He said "I have to earn a pound before I can buy two packets of crisps and seven pounds to buy a packet of fags!" When the average wage was around £500 a year, £3,000 would have amounted to about £100,000 a year in today's money.

Last Public Performance

On 30th November George sang in public for the last time at the Water Rats' Ball at the Dorchester Hotel in London and then commenced rehearsals for his last television appearance, The Friday Show, which was televised on 16th December. George was signed up to do a series of one- man shows in which he was to relate his life story and sing many of his songs including some of his earlier ones which I have no doubt were new to a great majority of the viewing audience. In one show one of his lines was, "Well folks, this seems to be confession night, and they say confession is good for the soul." He certainly seemed to enjoy telling millions of people lots of little things about his life and work, perhaps this was because this was the one thing in his life that he had done all on his own without Beryl there to monitor everything. Beryl bought a new large screen TV to watch the show from her sick bed. Her hairdresser had been in the afternoon and she sat up in bed wearing a new bed jacket and jewellery, to watch the show which, of course, was live. In places she showed obvious signs of displeasure at some of the things George said or did on that show, but many true fans know in their hearts when they watch it on the newly released video or DVD that this was the real George and the dialogue came straight from the heart. I still get a lump in my throat every time I watch it, not because of the performance, but because of the warmth and honesty that comes over. This was to be George's last appearance on the screen and the penultimate appearance on any stage. Then George drove back to Manchester's ABC studios to film three two minute introductions for the first three films to be shown in December as part of the Formby festival - "I See Ice", "Spare a Copper" and "It's Turned Out Nice Again".