GEORGE FORMBY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 39, 16 February 1939, Page 3

GEORGE FORMBY

A NEW CONTRACT SIGNED £lOO,OOO IN THREE YEARS “It's In the Air” was the seventh picture which George Forby has made in live years. Formby's first film was a modest affair called "Boots,” which was popular chiefly in the North of England. Since that day it is calculated that he 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 £lOO,OOO in three years. George Formy is the son of the celebrated music-hall artist, George Formby. The father had a strong objection to his son following in his footsteps, 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, iso tried his luck on the dirt track. I When he was sixteen his father died, I and he decided to take on the halls under the name of Hoy. Some years later, 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.

Frederic March, just finished his part in "Trade Winds,” has gone to New York, where he intends to take a stage role. # #

Universal have bought two new possible stories for Danielle Darneux, "Half American,” and “Manhattan Masquerade.”