GEORGE FORMBY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1940, Page 9

GEORGE FORMBY

AGAIN HEADS POLL.

George Form by, England's No. 1 Gloom Chaser, the star of “Gunner George," topped the poll for the second year in succession with 977 votes, his nearest rival being Gracie Fields whose total was 684. Then followed Robert Donat, Will Hay, Anna Neagle, Leslie Howard, Charles Laughton, Gordon Harker, Ralph Richardson and Will Fyffe. In 1936, which was the first occasion that Formby figured in the plebiscite which is conducted by the “Motion Picture Herald” and accepted throughout the motion picture industry as an official indication of the box-office vaiue "of an actor or actress. Formby occupied fourth position.! The following year he was runner-up to Gracie Fields,

and in 1938 and 1939 this famous son of a famous father, secured the honour of heading the list of money-making stars in English films.

Formby’s success is significant on its own merits. His personality is naturally comic, nearer to the clown, and like all true clowns, sympathetic and likeable. Further, and perhaps most significantly, his films have sought to keep him simple instead of'surrounding him with an aura of glamour.

So it is that the wide-mouthed Lancashire lad, wearing the same sheepskin grin, twanging the same ukelele and cracking the same old family gags, i remains screen’s fun favourite No. 1.