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1901-1962 |
| The son of a Rochdale organist, Norman Evans was for many years a Methodist lay preacher. He began his working life as a 25p per week office boy at the Arrow Mill in Castleton Rochdale. He went on to appear on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in New York and was one of England's favorite comedians 'Good Morning, Mrs Brown, Nice day. Ooh. Oh. Dear Me! Sorry about that. I slipped -fell off me brick... Aye. That's better. Both on top now. Far more comfortable.. It's that tom-cat you know. I'll kill it if I get hold of it. Whew. It does whiff .. I could smell it in t' custard on Sunday!' What did you say? That woman at number seven? Is she .. ? Gerraway! Well, Im not surprised, Not really. She's asked for it .. I knew what she was as soon as I saw her! And that coalman. I wouldn't put it past him, either Not since he shouted Whoa' to his horse from her bedroom window! Fanny Fairbottom, mop-capped harridan leaning over a back-street wall, is gossiping. She is having trouble with her ample bosom, which at one stage becomes wedged between two bricks! The audience at the Wakefield Opera House is in near hysterics. This was the usual audience reaction wherever the act appeared. Described as 'The greatest Pantomime Dame. since Dan Leno' Norman Evans was in great demand for his Dame speciality in pantomime and his solo act in Variety. He did a superb 'second spot' comprising a hilarious sketch 'At the Dentist's' in which (with the aid of a screen) he played the dual role of dentist and patient. To the dentist's assurances that 'This isn't going to hurt' came howls of anguish from the hidden victim, the act closing to roars of laughter when the dentist finally emerged in triumph, holding a giant molar between 'prop' forceps! Norman's encore was often an amusing scene with a glove puppet, a lovable little Panda named Teddy, with which he held an animated conversation. The son of a Rochdale organist, Norman Evans was for many years a Methodist lay preacher. He began his working life as a Five shillings-a-week (25p) office boy at the Arrow Mills in Castleton, later becoming a salesman and insurance agent. In his spare time he was a prominent member of the Rochdale Amateur Dramatic Society, putting on shows, and also appeared at 'smokers' in the area. Norman also gained experience with a local concert party called The Corruptimists, the name being a corruption of The Co-optimists of West End fame in the 1920's. The idea for 'Over the Garden Wall' came from a backyard clothes line, but it was a screen in the dressing-room at the Prince's Hall in Sowerby Bridge that inspired 'At the Dentist's' which was first tried out in a Dot Greaves show put on there. Gracie Fields first saw Norman Evans doing his Amateur specialities when she topped the bill in a charity show at the Rochdale Hippodrome in 1931. This was to raise funds for the Rochdale Football Club. Norman was a supporting act on the bill and Gracie was most enthusiastic. She suggested he could turn professional. This came about in 1934 after Gracie had cut twenty minutes out of her own act at the Chiswick Empire to give Norman' a taste of Variety'. Sir Oswald Stoll got to know, the result being that the budding comedian was given an audition at the London Alhambra. This he passed with flying colours and was given a contract. At this, the Rochdale paper tube salesman's salary jumped from £7 a week to £70! Norman Evans and his stage sketches fairly took the Variety world by storm and only three years after turning 'pro' he was 'first turn' at the Royal Variety Performance of 1937. He appeared in further such shows in 1947 and 1951. In 1949 he took his homely brand of Lancashire humour to America. He went down well and did a 'spot' in The Ed Sullivan Show in New York. Back home he toured with great success in the revue Good Evans and introduced his daughter Norma to audiences at the Leicester Palace as a vocalist. But the Rochdale comedian's real love was pantomime. He starred in the longest-running pantomime ever, at the Leeds Theatre Royal. This was when he was partnered by Betty Jumel in Humpty-Dumpty in 1944/45 which ran for twenty-two weeks - from Christmas to Whitsuntide - and set up a record which is unlikely to be broken. He had Francis Laidler to thank for this, and it was the Yorkshire impressario who first gave him a 'break' in pantomime. At Keighley Hippodrome in 1937 manager Bernard Beard telephoned Laidler to tell him that he had never heard such laughter in a Variety theatre. Mr Laidler was impressed and invited Norman to appear as Dame in pantomime for him. This turned out to be Aladdin at the Prince's Theatre in Bristol. Apparently the empty theatre was very cold during that December of 1937, and at dress rehearsal Francis Laidler sent out for hot soup and bread rolls for the company. Norman Evans was sitting there in his Dame outfit and unthinkingly made- as if to wipe a drop from the end of his nose with his apron. Mrs Annie Evans, sitting with her husband to help him learn his part, immediately called out: 'Norman, don't you dare. That's a 'prop' not a hanky!' This extract appears in the book "They Made Us Laugh" by G J Mellor Published by George Kelsall "The Bookshop" 22 Church St, Littleborough, |