When first coming to England to play on the London stage in 1947, Laurel and Hardy were former film comedians whose star was in the descendency, whilst at a nearby theatre was a young, unknown English comedian, who had yet to find his way in to films. An appearance on a charity show was to place him on the first rung towards that climb. On Sunday 27th April, the 'Grand Order of Water Rats' staged the Rats' Revel, at the Victoria Palace. This unknown comedian may have started the show unknown but, after finishing his act, wasn't to remain so much longer. The reaction he received was ecstatic. His name - Norman Wisdom. Below, Norman takes up the story:
I was in a show at the Hackney Empire. The producer asked me if I would do a charity concert on the forthcoming Sunday. I immediately said 'yes', as at that time I would have done anything to get on stage. I would have made the tea, if they'd asked me. On Sunday morning, I turned up for rehearsals, and there were all these big stars: George Doonan, Vera Lynn, Will Fyffe, and Laurel & Hardy. I did my rehearsal on about two foot of stage, and nobody took a blind bit of notice. Amongst all these stars, I wasn't known from Adam. In the evening, though - if I say so myself - I went extremely well, and had to take several bows.
The reviews certainly bear out Norman's recollections. The Performer said:
Then came one of the outstanding hits of the evening, young Norman Wisdom, who bounced himself up one more rung of the ladder towards stardom with yet another exhibition of uproarious foolishness.
The Stage said:
Vera Lynn, Laurel & Hardy, and Will Fyffe all provided of their best in this half of the show, but it was newcomer, Norman Wisdom, who took the house by storm with some of the funniest business possible.
Stan Laurel's immediate response was to approach agent Billy Marsh and say: You want to sign this man up. He's a great clown.
The three comedians' next chance
meeting was in Belgium.
Laurel
and Hardy had completed a twenty-five-week tour of England and
Scotland,
and were now acceding to European theatre demands. Stan and Ollie
weren't
due to appear at the Alhambra, in Brussels, until 19th December 1947
but,
between December 10th and December 18th, spent time rehearsing there.
Norman
was appearing in the then current show, Piccadilly Nights, part
of
which was a paper-hanging sketch. One night Norman's partner in the
sketch
slipped off the ladder, which had become slippery with wallpaper paste,
and
hurt his ankle. The following day, Stan, who stayed on to chat with
Norman
before each show, immediately volunteered to take over the role.
Nothing
could have thrilled Norman more, but it only served to horrify the
theatre
manager, who wasn't going to risk his following-week's headliner
getting
injured. The thought of 'Laurel and Wisdom' has, however, continued to
fill
Norman with warmth and pride to this day. [For anyone who wishes to
visualise
what Stan's part in the sketch would have been, you need only get hold
of
a copy of the 1961 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium'
television
special, in which Norman performed the said sketch with Bruce Forsyth.]
A couple of years later, Norman himself had metaphorically slipped down the ladder, and felt that his fortune lay in America. Putting together all the money he had, which amounted to little more than the air fare, he flew to Hollywood, and started to do the rounds of agents and studios. Getting nowhere he thought he would at least salvage something, and visit his idol, Stan Laurel. Stan was delighted to receive the phone call, and told Norman: 'Yeh! come on over. Jump in a cab. I'm only just round the corner.' Stan's definition of 'just round the corner' worried the heck out of Norman as the cab just kept going and going, and the meter kept running and running. Checking the cash in his pocket, Norman was all for abandoning the cab upon realising that the fare exceeded his resources. Thus it was, upon his finally arriving, that Norman had to rush inside Stan's apartment and borrow the excess.
Another two years on and we find Laurel, and Hardy too, returning to England after finding that Hollywood doesn't always recognise genius. The two comic legends disembarked from the Queen Mary at Southampton, on Monday 28th January, 1952, and went immediately to London. The following night they were given a reception, hosted by Bernard Delfont, at the Washington Hotel; where several show-business acts came for an audience with the two superstars. Norman was appearing as 'Buttons' in the pantomime 'Cinderella', at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, but somehow managed to get down to London for the reception. Time and distance weren't going to stop his reunion with his all-time greats.
Photo shows STAN LAUREL, NORMAN
WISDOM, and OLIVER
HARDY,
at the Washington Hotel, London
..
On Sunday 5th October 1952 the 'Water
Rats' held a dinner
at the Park Lane Hotel, in London. Amongst those present was Charlie
Chaplin;
and the highlights of the evening were shown on television. Laurel and
Hardy,
for whom the occasion would have been an ideal farewell, did not
attend.
With the Boys conspicuous by their absence, it is strange to learn that
the
following night they were in London - at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
It
was a few minutes before the star of the show spotted them sitting in
the
audience but, when he did, he ad-libbed his way into coming off the
stage
and doing some comic business with them. Needless to say, the house was
in
uproar.
.
.
NORMAN comes off-stage to meet his comic idols.
After the show Stan and Babe went backstage to congratulate the comic genius on his fantastic success. In 1947, the comedian had been taking his first faltering steps into comedy. Now, only five years later, he was headlining a show which was to run for over eighteen months. What was lovely to see was that, after their own phenomenal career, Laurel and Hardy's last gesture before they left Britain, was to go and pass on their best wishes to him. Norman Wisdom had come a long way.
NORMAN
WISDOM with LAUREL &
HARDY
Photo taken backstage at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London
(6 October 1952)
Next time you say the name Norman Wisdom, say: 'SIR'.
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