GEORGE FORMBY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 January 1939, Page 13

GEORGE FORMBY

SIGNS NEW CONTRACT “It’s in the Air” is the seventh picture which George Formby has made ; in five years. Formby’s first film was a modest af- ; fair called “Boots,” which was popular chiefly in the North of England. Since that day it is calculated that he 1 has brought to the English box office : £1,500,000. and he recently signed a ( six-picture contract that will give him : a minimum of £IOO,OOO in three years, j George Formby is the son of the < celebrated music-hall artist, George Formby. The father had a strong ob- 1 Jection to his son following in his foot- 1

steps, declaring that the life was too arduous. That is the reason George Formby, jun., came to be sent to a racing stable in Ireland. At fifteen he was too heavy for a jockey, so tried his luck on the dirt track. When he was sixteen his father died, and he decided to take on the halls under the name of Hoy. Some years late, Basil Dean, of Associated Talking Pictures, saw a crowd waiting in the rain outside a provincial theatre. He asked what was the attraction and was told “Young George Formby.” So George and the now famous banjolele came to the screen, beginning in “No Limit,” on which Dean spent £40,000. This year has seen him in the position of England’s best box-office star.