Canada-bound George offers his talents for free
Another piece in the Formby jigsaw was firmly put in place last week
when the long lost 50’s film “Atlantic Showboat” was tracked down by this
website and now a first rate video copy is safely stored within the archives
of the George Formby Society.
I am sure that many Formby fans (including Society members) will have
no idea what this film is even about.
In the late 1950’s Hughie Green star of the hit TV show’s “Double Your
Money” and “Opportunity Knocks” produced a variety film based on a
voyage on the recently launched cruise ship ‘Empress Of Britain’. The
destination of the cruise was Canada, which was Hughie Green’s
homeland.
Hughie had organised the
film around some of the
leading lights of show
business at the time
including Shirley Bassey,
David Whitfield, Lionel and
Joyce Blair and Duke
Ellington. When George
Formby (who was a friend
of Hughie) learned of the
cruise he asked Hughie
why he hadn’t been
invited, Hughie told
George that the budget
wouldn’t stretch to
George’s fee but George
came straight back and
said that he would do the
trip for just the ticket!
The film lasts around 50
minutes and whilst
Formby doesn’t feature
until the last reel, the
whole film is a fascinating
look at the style of
television programme that
was being made at that
time. This would be shortly
after the birth of
commercial television in
the UK and of course
Hughie Green was a
major figure within the
commercial television scene.
George Formby is actually seen walking into the ship at the start of the
film and then isn’t seen again until the final reel when the camera opens
on him signing an autograph for a little girl. Hughie then comes to chat to
George and Formby tells him that he knows a song about their final
destination. George then sings “Hello Canada” a song that he never
officially recorded. After this he sings “Pleasure Cruise” what else? And
then the film goes into the final scenes.
My thanks to Chris Webster who emailed me to inform that the film was in
fact shown on ITV on January 10th 1959 and even sent a cutting from the
TV Times advertising the film.
The Society was allowed to make one copy of the film and it will be shown
at a Society convention later this year.
I am delighted that we have been allowed access to this film especially in
the 40th year of the Society’s existence.
I believe that Hughie Green loaned the film to the Society to be screened
at a convention many years ago but I would think most of our members
would never have seen it.
Empress of Britain - Queen Anna Maria -
Carnivale - Olympic - Topaz
The Empress of Britain was built in 1956 by Fairfields of Glasgow,
preceding sister Empress of England into service by one year. She was
Britain's first fully air-conditioned liner. Initially running on the North
Atlantic from Liverpool, she ran her first winter Caribbean cruise from New
York in January 1960. As time passed, more of her time was spent
cruising as air travel hit the Atlantic market, and her final Atlantic voyage
was number 123, completed in October 1963, only seven years after her
maiden voyage. She was sold to the Greek Line, and re-entered service
for them as Queen Anna Maria in 1965, running a fortnightly service to
New York calling at Naples and Lisbon. Following the collapse of the
Greek Line, she was sold to Carnival, joining the the Mardi Gras (ex-
Empress of Canada) in 1975 as the Carnivale. Following the numerous
new deliveries to Carnival, she was transferred to subsidiary Fiesta
Marine Cruises as Fiesta Marina. She was sold again in 1994 to Epirotiki
as Olympic, and has recently been on charter to British tour company
Thomson as the Topaz.