用戶:Catherine Laurence/喬治·福爾比

1919年的福爾比

喬治·福爾比（英語：George Formby，1875年10月14日—1921年2月8日），本名傑姆斯·勞勒·布斯（James Lawler Booth），英國著名的喜劇演員、音樂劇歌手。他被譽為二十世紀初最偉大的音樂廳表演者之一。他的喜劇多以蘭開夏郡的典型生活方式為藍本，戲劇平易近人，很受英國大眾的歡迎。由於他在表演中把自己患有的支氣管炎導致的咳嗽轉化成一種行為藝術，人們又稱呼他「維根·南丁格爾」。 福爾比出生於英格蘭西北部的工業區的一個貧苦的家庭。他年少時經常被母親虐待。為了賺錢，他在街頭賣唱。十幾歲時，他曾加入一個聲樂二人組。到了19世紀90年代，他開始發展自己的表演藝術，並在蘭開夏郡的演出獲得了一批粉絲。他還創造了一系列舞台角色， 包括「約翰·威利」。文化史學家傑弗里·理查茲評價福爾比手下這些角色的特點：「典型的笨頭笨腦的蘭開夏郡小伙子……妻管嚴，笨手笨腳，容易惹出事故，但還能混日子。」福爾比也有過一段成功的歌手生涯，而他在1916年，卻從表演音樂劇轉變為表演滑稽劇。

他的健康狀況一直很差，1916年的一場舞台意外又使他肺部受傷，而且在接下來的幾年裏病情惡化，他的表演能力因此大幅度下降。1918年流感大流行中又因為流行性感冒和肺結核導致肺部收縮，進一步削弱了他的體質。1921年，因肺結核去世，享年45歲。 受福爾比的表演和他獨特的服飾的啟發，卓別林創造了流浪漢這一角色，並由此家喻戶曉。福爾比的兒子在他的舞台表演初期也模仿了父親所創造的人物角色，模仿大獲成功之後，他也把他自己的名字改成喬治·福爾比。小福爾比於1937到1943年間為英國票房收入最高的男明星。

簡介

早年生活

"Mine is not an isolated story of the stage. Which of the 'bhoys', I wonder, can say they never knew days of privation and distress? But which of them, I wonder, can tell a more pathetic story than I?"

Formby on his childhood

福爾比在1875年10月4日出生於蘭開夏郡的阿什頓安德萊恩市。他是莎拉·簡布斯的私生子也是她唯一的兒子。他的父親弗朗西斯·勞勒是一個煤礦工人，沒有出生證明。他的母親是個貧困而又不識字的織布工。在福爾比出生後的六個月之後。他們才結婚。年齡都在19歲左右。莎拉是個妓女，她身材非常矮小，身高約為4英尺（1.2米）。她還是個酒鬼，為了能喝到酒，她經常在酒吧裏面唱歌來換取酒。她多次因盜竊、賣淫、酒後鬧事和打架鬥毆而被判刑約140次。因為父母婚姻動盪，福爾比常被父母忽視、虐待，甚至還患上營養不良症。因為莎拉不是經常離家出走就是被當地警察局所拘留，福爾比經常被迫露宿街頭。這導致他患上哮喘，可能在那時他就已患有支氣管炎。他在晚年回憶錄里提到：他的童年是人類一生中最悲慘的時期。

福爾比在八九歲時就接受了正規教育，但直到十幾歲時才學會如何閱讀。為了養家餬口，福爾比在街頭為求得銅板而開始賣唱。1890年10月，父親勞勒死於肺結核，享年33歲。在這之後，福爾比去了一家紡織廠工作,當了兩年的紡織廠員工。同時他在酒吧、酒館和一些晚餐歌舞廳唱歌來賺取更多的錢，之後又去了娛樂性非正式場所。大約在這個時候，他和另一個男孩組成了一個叫「格倫雷兄弟」（也被稱作「格倫·雷兄弟」）的二人組合。這個組合所創造的價值足以吸引一名經紀人前來經營。後來，福爾比開始變聲不能繼續演唱，兩人也各自單飛。

新的舞台

福爾比第二任妻子伊麗莎·安娜·福爾比（婚前姓霍伊，1879–1981)

19世紀90年代，福爾比開始活躍於舞台，並在蘭開夏郡建立了龐大的粉絲後援團。他創造了很多角色，並結合這些角色的性格設計了相應的服飾，並譜寫了一系列詼諧曲。截至1896年，他的任務簿就已經有了他收集購買版權詼諧曲、保護唱歌權利的記錄。1897年之前人們稱他為詹姆斯·布斯（J.H. Booth），後來他把藝名改為喬治·福爾比（George Formby）。儘管有謠言說，福爾比這個姓的來源是他看到一個鐵路運輸目的地叫做福爾比，於是以此作為新藝名中的姓。但是人們都認為這個故事可能是虛構的。福爾比這個姓的起源更有可能是由時任{{Link-en|菱形花纹剧院|Argyle Theatre}}經理丹尼斯·克拉克所提出的，而喬治這個名則是為了向喬治·羅比致敬。1897年，福爾比在伯肯希德第一次使用他的新藝名登台演出。

福爾比最早創建的角色名字為約翰·威利。戲劇教授巴茲·柯肖把這個角色描述為「舞台上的福爾比」。 文化歷史學家傑弗里·里查德斯則將他描述為描述為「穿着寬鬆的長褲和緊身的夾克，帶着一頂圓頂禮帽。說話慢吞吞，妻管嚴，易惹事故，但還能混日子」。他的服裝包括：不合身的衣服、穿錯腳的大靴子和各種帽子，他還經常帶着拐杖。1908，他把一件衣服借給了卓別林，當他和弗萊德·卡爾諾的劇團一起巡迴演出時，卓別林也把福爾比的快速旋轉和鴨子步融入到他的表演中。

1897年，福爾比遇到了他人生中第一任妻子，20歲的音樂廳演員：瑪莎·瑪麗亞·索爾特（英語：Martha Maria Salter）。他們於八月份在瑪莎的家鄉哈利法克斯結婚。儘管1901年的人口普查表明索爾特仍和父母住在一起，但關於索爾特的事無人知曉。這場婚姻似乎並不成功，但根據福爾比的傳記作家蘇·斯瑪特（英語：Sue Smart）和李察·博思威·霍華德（英語：Richard Bothway Howard）所寫的傳記來看，沒有證據表明這對夫婦離過婚，也沒有任何關於夫妻離婚的說法。

在1897或98年，福爾比與蘭開夏郡的布萊克本的蘭心大戲院（英語：Lyceum Theatre）簽約，客串於魔術師沃爾福德·博迪的演出。很快他又開啟了為期四十周的巡迴演出，在巡演中福爾比每周能賺30先令。1898年在維恩劇院（英語：Wigan Empire）演出時（這場演出是巡演的一部分），福爾比遇見了伊麗莎·霍伊，這家劇院的一位收銀員的女兒。 同年八月，福爾比和伊麗莎登記結婚。因為福爾比在兩年前曾經和瑪莎結過婚，所以這場婚姻是福爾比的第二次結婚。 他們結婚幾個月後，伊麗莎成功說服福爾比皈依天主教，以此幫助福爾比克服她父母剛開始對他的不信任。 福爾比和伊麗莎育有十三個孩子，最後只有七個活了下來，其中四個是女兒，三個是男孩。歷史文學家大衛·布雷評價福爾比時說道：「他具有驚人的，無法消耗完的性能力」, 並且他和其他的性夥伴有七個孩子， 但在福爾比的私生活中，伊麗莎變得越來越重要，在福爾比表演時她會幫他做好演出服並在身旁鼓勵他。同時她還做針線活，午餐時到街上賣薯條，以此來維持生活。

在倫敦，人氣日益增長

1902年，福爾比被泰德·格蘭威爾（英語：Ted Granville）（景寧鎮艾伯特皇家音樂廳的老闆）邀請演出，這是福爾比第一次在倫敦演出，此時他出場費是每周3英鎊; 格蘭威爾隨後成為福爾比在倫敦的經紀人。伊麗莎後來回憶說： 克里彭博士的妻子（後來被他殺害）看過福爾比的表演, 受到福爾比表演的深深感染，看完表演後聯繫格蘭威爾，讓他去利茲特地觀看福爾比的下一場表演。據泰晤士報記載，這不久後，福爾比轉到倫敦帕維里昂音樂廳演出，在這裏他不久就大獲成功，他也逐漸變成了「全鎮的偶像」。樂廳中一個有聲望的女演員兼歌手瑪莉·勞埃曾經評價福爾比說道：「我只看兩個人的表演，一個是福爾比，另一個是丹·雷諾。」福爾比的名聲由此日益增加。勞埃把福爾比推薦給了蒂沃利音樂廳的老闆，老闆隨後和福爾比簽了十周的合同。 福爾比也給羅比留下了深刻的印象，因此在1905年他把福爾比推薦為紐卡斯特爾的啞劇首席表演者，福爾比在那一周能賺到35英鎊。 1920年，他一周能賺325英鎊。

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福爾比的三個女兒英年早逝後，1904年，他的第一個兒子喬治·霍伊·布斯出生了。 Although the boy was born unable to see owing to an obstructive caul, he gained his sight during a violent coughing fit or sneeze when he was a few months old. Over the course of 1904 Formby purchased the singing rights to 57 songs, more than his normal annual number of between 10 and 20; the average cost of his songs was around a 堅尼.。 Two years later he made his first recordings, on 留聲機圓筒, for the Louis Sterling Cylinder Company, and in 1907 he signed a recording contract with Zonophone. He was one of the few performers who had no difficulties recording clearly with the primitive equipment, and he performed in a relaxed fashion for an invisible audience. He would sing his song and then talk to the listener using a variant of his normal stage patter. Some of those songs, such as "Playing the Game out West" and "Since I Parted my Hair in the Middle" have been identified by Dave Russell, the social historian, as "clever depictions of a provincial innocent let lose （原文如此） in the capital".

1908年的一月～二月的大部分時間，福爾比出現在倫敦的各種音樂廳，每周他可以賺到30英鎊。 在第二年，福爾比留在了倫敦的市中心繼續他的表演, 他一晚連續在三個音樂廳進行表演，這時他每周可賺到45英鎊。 One such venue was the Tivoli with Lloyd and Little Tich as the headline acts. 當倫敦沒有表演任務時，福爾比會繼續在省級的音樂廳進行巡迴演出。1910年，福爾比再次出現在了蒂沃利音樂廳， 並複習The Times的劇本, 記者認為此舉是： 「為了重新成為歌手而複習如何唱歌。」 這一年以後，福爾比開始記錄哪些歌曲將可能是他的著名歌曲, 這其中包含了"Standing at the Corner of the Street"到了1913年他的記錄出售的歌曲版權足夠他再簽一個300英鎊的合同。

1913年，福爾比的喜劇生涯開始走向高峰。在喬治五世和特克的瑪麗之前，福爾比已經成為了諾斯利音樂廳皇家指揮部中的第七個人，其地位接近於利物浦。The Times 顯示出：「福爾比式幽默獲得了出乎意料的成功，表演結束後，他們對表演者福爾比本人讚不絕口。」但是福爾比本人對他的演出感到尷尬。他平時部分的表演通常都是由樂隊指揮人來指揮的，這一次的演出也不例外：樂隊們坐在晚會的後台，並樂隊中的一些人認為福爾比並沒有對他們尊重。 國王明白福爾比在和誰說話，但他依然給福爾比一個別針作為榮譽。該年十一月份，福爾比出現在了音樂廳皇家指揮部的年度表演現場上, 在法國女演員[莎拉·伯恩哈特]]組織的一場慈善演出時，福爾比再次出現。 他總共參加了兩場演出： "Ten Little Nigger Boys All in a Row"的演出冰和其他演員一起演出。例如羅比，馬可·謝雷登，西西莉·考特尼奇和喬治·格雷夫斯，緊跟着是短篇單人小表演。

File:George Formby with friends – April 1915.JPG

Formby Jr (right) while employed as a jockey, aged 10, in 1915

1914年3月，福爾比出現在了一部名為「No Fool Like an Old Fool」的電影中，這部電影是一部20多分鐘的滑稽默劇; 這是他唯一出現在電影裏面，且拍攝時他對人物和情節的了解少之又少。 當八月份時一戰爆發後，福爾比曾試圖參軍。但卻因為體檢不過關而被拒絕申請，他並沒有因此灰心喪氣，而是積極參加徵兵運動，在群眾集會上發言, 特別是成為得比計劃的聲明者之一。

福爾比經常因他的兒子喬治看他的演出感到為難，因為他不希望兒子將來也和他從事喜劇演員，他曾經說過：「家裏有一個傻瓜就夠了。」 儘管如此，但他兒子依然想進軍喜劇演員。雖然他費心盡力把兒子送出去當一名騎手。直到1915年的時候他才允許他兒子出現在舞台和銀幕上，在伯特·霍爾丹指導的By the Shortest of Heads中他以一個穩健的男孩的形象出現在了銀幕里，a thriller directed by Bert Haldane. 拍攝結束後，福爾比把他兒子送回愛爾蘭來繼續完成他兒子的賽馬訓練，還把當年為兒子買的五匹訓練用的馬匹送了過去。

病情惡化，死亡

福爾比在1916年六月的時候排演諷刺滑稽劇Razzle-Dazzle的時候意外受傷，他在皇家劇院綵排的時候意外從舞台上摔了下來。 他的肺部受損嚴重並被緊急送到蓋伊醫院進行肺出血搶救。 雖然他是這次演出的主角， 蛋撻在戲劇正式上演的時候並沒有出現，這使得他受到了許多批評。and The Observer thought that "some of it seemed to have strayed in by mistake out of a second-rate provincial pantomime". Formby returned within a week and the reviews were more positive, with The Observer stating that it was "one of the successes of the season ... Razzle-Dazzle is now one of the liveliest revues in London, and the most spectacular". By August the production had transferred to the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square.

File:George Formby snr, 1921.jpg

Formby, c. 1921

這次的事故導致了他的肺結核病更加嚴重，致使他出場的次數越來越少。在1917年的紹斯波特帕爾因為福爾比未能演出合同里所約定的戲劇表演而對他提起訴訟，因此福爾比的律師在法庭上對帕爾說說福爾比現在因為肺結核而處於生命垂危的狀態，並且他為了能在短時間內完成工作犧牲了他在家庭里的休息時間。但這樣福爾比還是敗訴了。他的答辯因為他在這段時間裏接受了別的合同而顯得蒼白無力。

1918年流感大流行後福爾比的身體持續惡化， during which he contracted the disease while appearing at the Manchester Hippodrome and was unable to work for a month. He was taken ill during the runs of pantomimes in both 1918 and 1919, was forced to rest for three months in 1919, and collapsed on stage during a performance in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1920–21 pantomime season. Formby was advised by doctors to emigrate to South Africa for the benefit of his health, but he preferred to stay in Britain, with his wife and children, and continued to work. During his performances his wife would wait in the wings with ice for him to suck to stop internal bleeding, and an oxygen tent was present in the stage wings ready for emergencies.

In early 1921 Formby was appearing at the Newcastle Empire in Jack and Jill when he collapsed after a show. He returned to his home near Warrington, where he died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 8 February, at the age of 45. He was buried in a family plot in the Catholic section of Warrington Cemetery. He left over £25,000 in his will, listing Eliza as executrix. As their marriage had been bigamous, he described her as "my reputed wife Eliza Ann Booth, otherwise Eliza Ann Hoy".

The obituarist for The Manchester Guardian wrote that Formby was one of the "great drolls" of the music hall whose humour "always seemed to take its rise in a sympathetic perception of human vanities and weaknesses". The Dundee Courier considered him a great comedian, made all the greater by his continuing to perform through his illness, while the drama critic J. T. Grein, writing in The Illustrated London News, thought that Formby, "along with [Harry] Lauder, Robey and [Albert] Chevalier, formed the leading quartette （原文如此） of the profession".

Stage persona and technique

"His art seemed absolutely guileless and childish, in the vein of the Hatter's madness, but there was method in it—that wonderful form of humour which the Londoner appreciates, but cannot imitate. It was racial of the Lancastrian soil".

J. T. Grein, The Illustrated London News

Formby was the first comic to use a delayed entrance as a joke to make the audience laugh before he arrived: his orchestra played his entrance music, and then he failed to appear on stage. His act included songs, described by Smart and Bothway Howard as "characteristically simple, some with tunes derived from Methodist hymns, and with catchy choruses", and he would chat to the orchestra conductor and front rows, punctuating his stage patter—delivered in a deadpan style—with his cough. He used his health—particularly the coughing—as part of his act, and would say that he was "Coughin' well tonight!" He also created the phrase "It's not the cough that carries you off – it's the coffin they carries you off in!" One of Formby's nicknames, "The Wigan Nightingale" was coined because of the way he used his bronchial cough in his act.

The "John Willie" character, like much of Formby's act, used pathos as one of the comedic drivers, "but it was not contrived and was never mawkish", according to Alan Randall and Ray Seaton, two of Formby Jr's biographers. In his examination of British screen stars, Geoffrey Macnab agrees, and identifies that although Formby's jokes were about himself, "there was grit in the routines, a resolute denial of self-pity". The Times examined the performer's style of humour, and considered it "often crude, and always simple, but it was always true humour, and, what is more, it was invariably clean."

Much of Formby's humour was based in his north western roots, particularly Wigan, which he told people was where he was born, rather than Ashton. He would refer to taking his holidays at Wigan Pier, which was a small wooden platform on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal for loading coal, rather than a pleasure pier. The Manchester Guardian called him "Lancashire's accredited representative on the London variety stage ... clown-satirist of genius".

When he performed in London, Formby would change his act, introducing himself as "Good evening, I'm Formby fra' Wigan ... I've not been in England long"; he slightly modified his stage persona, and he played "the naïve boy trying to fit in with the sophisticated south". Smart and Boothroyd consider that "the contrast between his northern accent and metropolitan bravado was humorous, and the more urbane and sophisticated his audience the more George exaggerated his provincial gormlessness".

Legacy

File:Unveiling memorial to George Formby Snr.png

The unveiling of Formby's memorial

福爾比逝世六周後，其子喬治首次以前者的形象出現在舞台上。一開始喬治使用霍伊（Hoy，喬治母親的婚前姓），但不久後就改用福爾比。小福爾比最終成為1937至1943年間票房收入最高的英國男明星。

Chaplin, who derived some of his stage persona from Formby's, sailed in 1908 with Karno's troupe to the United States, where he developed the character of the Tramp, the image of which became universally familiar by 1915. George Orwell later used Formby's humorous concept of "Wigan Pier" in the title of his 1937 study of depression and unemployment in the area, The Road to Wigan Pier.

Formby left over 190 recordings, and after his death The Times commented, "There cannot be many people who have not heard at some time in their lives either the words or the refrain of 'John Willie – Come On', 'One of the Boys', 'I was Standing on the Corner of the Street', or 'Playing the Game in the West'", songs described by Fisher as "afizz with gaiety and champagne".

In October 1922 a large marble memorial was unveiled at the site of Formby's grave, in the presence of Formby Jr, Eliza and a large crowd. The memorial later became the resting place for both the younger Formby and Eliza. In June 2012 a blue plaque was unveiled at Hodgson Street, Ashton, Formby's birthplace.

參考文獻

• Bret, David. George Formby: A Troubled Genius. London: Robson Books. 1999. ISBN 978-1-86105-239-1. 
• Fisher, John. George Formby. London: Woburn-Futura. 1975. ISBN 978-0-7130-0139-6. 
• Gildart, Keith. Images of England Through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock 'n' Roll, 1955–1976. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 2013. ISBN 978-1-137-38425-6. 
• Kershaw, Baz. Theatre Ecology: Environments and Performance Events. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-87716-9. 
• Krishnamurthy, Aruna. The Working-class Intellectual in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century Britain. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7546-6504-5. 
• Macnab, Geoffrey. Searching for Stars: Stardom and Screen Acting in British Cinema. London: A&C Black. 2000. ISBN 978-1-4411-8425-2. 
• Quigley, Joseph. The Slogan – Sidelights on recruiting with Harry Lauder's Band. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. 1916. OCLC 35122379. 
• Randall, Alan; Seaton, Ray. George Formby. London: W. H. Allen. 1974. ISBN 978-0-491-01771-8. 
• Richards, Jeffrey. Imperialism and Music: Britain, 1876–1953. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-7190-6143-1. 
• Richards, Jeffrey. Formby, George (1904–1961). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press). 2004 [27 May 2014]. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33205.  需要訂閱或英國公共圖書館會員資格
• Richards, Jeffrey. The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain. London: I.B. Tauris. 2010. ISBN 978-1-84885-122-1. 
• Robinson, David. Chaplin: His Life and Art. London: Paladin. 1986. ISBN 978-0-586-08544-8. 
• Russell, Dave. Popular Music in England 1840–1914: A Social History. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1997. ISBN 978-0-7190-5261-3. 
• Russell, Dave. Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0-7190-5178-4. 
• Smart, Sue; Bothway Howard, Richard. It's Turned Out Nice Again!: The Authorized Biography of the Two George Formbys, Father and Son. Ely, Cambridgeshire: Melrose Books. 2011. ISBN 978-1-907732-59-1. 
• St. Pierre, Paul Matthew. Music Hall Mimesis in British Film, 1895–1960: On the Halls on the Screen. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8386-4191-0. 

外部連結

• 互聯網檔案館上的福爾比六首歌曲的錄音
• 愛好者網頁上的介紹
• 福爾比歌曲的歌詞
• 福爾比歌曲列表

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