It’s hard to believe that when I started with the ukulele four months ago I hadn’t heard of George Formby, but … I hadn’t. Because now that I’ve learned of him, I’ve fallen in love with his personality and ukulele skills, and in fact, I’m kind of addicted.<\/p>\n
I only heard of him five weeks ago, which is hard to believe, considering how obsessed I’ve become with him since then. But it wasn’t until, right before my three-month uke anniversary, when I announced I would post a video of me playing and asked you to choose a song, that someone suggested I play “Leaning on a Lamp Post,” which led me to discover (via Wikipedia<\/a>) that “between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema,” and that in 1939 “he was Britain’s number-one film star of all genres.” <\/p>\n But he didn’t travel well, it seems, and he never caught in in the States. I quickly fell in love with him, though, thanks to what I found on YouTube, which included this recent documentary that explains his appeal and revealed that after his death in 1961, the George Formby Society began holding quarterly conventions in Blackpool.<\/p>\n