Forgotten comedy genius who had Olivier in stitches Brummie funnyman Sid Field hit showbiz heights despite becoming an alcoholic at 13

SID Field was the post-war comic genius time has forgotten. Three films and a scratchy scattering of live performances are all that remain of Field’s showbiz legacy. Yet this funnyman – a performer ahead of his time – was dubbed “possibly the best comedian of them all” by Bob Hope.

He was Tony Hancock’s favourite comic and also revered by Eric Morecambe, Eric Sykes, Frankie Howerd and Tommy Cooper. At his memorial service, held at London’s St Martin-inthe-Field, lessons were read by Laurence Olivier and Ted Ray.

Olivier paid the ultimate tribute. He said: “Of all people I have ever watched with the greatest delight, I think, was in another field entirely, was Sid Field...I still borrow from him, freely and unashamedly.”

His films do not pass muster and were panned by critics back in the day. But it was on stage that Field’s brilliance shone brightly. While most artistes of the time were “one trick ponies”, Field wowed audiences by adopting a variety of personalities and accents. Because he was frequently cast as a Cockney, many believed Field was London born.

In reality, he was a Brummie. He was a great that has been lost to showbiz history. And Field, who died of cardiac arrest when only 45, reached the very top with a monkey on his back. Behind the laughter, Field was addicted to alcohol. Incredibly, he was an alcoholic from the age of 13.

Field was born in Ladywood, Bir- mingham, on April 1, 1904, but spent the bulk of his childhood at 152, Osborn Road, Sparkbrook – a property that now bears a blue plaque. Father Albert was a canemaker, mum Bertha a dressmaker.

Field was born for the stage. When still a small boy he charged schoolmates an admission fee to watch his back-garden shows. Even then, he was a master at impressions and he would also make money by performing as Charlie Chaplin for queues outside local cinemas.

Later, Chaplin impression.

Field, educated at Conway Road, Stratford Road and Golden Hillock Road schools, wasn’t the only family member with a flair for entertaining. His cousins were a popular group called The Workmans who had a regular slot at Moseley Swimming Baths.

That was where the youngster made his stage debut aged nine, wowing the audience with his rendition of What A Life.

Field’s professional debut, with The Kino Royal Juveniles, soon followed, earning the future star seven shillings and sixpence a week. Incredibly, alcoholism would grip Field before his 14th birthday.

Mum Bertha responded to an ad in the Post’s sister paper, the Birmingham Mail, asking for an understudy to popular ventriloquist Wee Georgie Wood who was appearing in Birmingham panto. When his time came to stand-in for Wee Georgie, Bertha gave her son a glass of port to steady his nerves.

The glass cured Field’s stage fright at a terrible cost. By 13, Field was alcohol dependent – and remained so for the rest of his life. himself praised the

Booze did not hamper his rise to the top, however.

He cut his teeth in music halls across the country before breaking into the big time as Slasher Green. The West End role required the versatile comic to adopt a Cockney accent. He proved a sensation. He followed that success with West End hits Strike A New Note (1943), Strike It Again (1944) and Piccadilly Hayride (1946), all three compered by Terry Thomas. With straightman Jerry Desmonde, his signature routines included the plight of a firsttimer at the billiard table and on the golf course.

Such was Field’s growing fame that he appeared in two consecutive Royal Variety Performances – in 1945 and 1946. By 1948, he was topping the bill at the London Palladium as Mickey Rooney’s replacement.

He was most comfortable on stage and his handful of big screen appearances failed to hit the same dizzy heights.

In fact, 1946 musical London Town is regarded as one of British cinema’s greatest flops. Field played comedian Jerry Stanford who arrives in the big city wrongly believing he’s to be the star of a major show. In reality, he has been signed as an understudy.

The film was simply a vehicle for the talents of Field, child star Petula Clark and Tessie O’Shea – their individual performances bonded by a thin script.

Field was the big name and dictated terms on the film set. He insisted and got an American director. He insisted and got the best US songwriters for the long forgotten score.

But he and the American could not save London Town.

Critic Roger Mellor wrote: bigwigs “The movie became a legendary turkey! It was not that UK audiences stayed away in droves from London Town, just that the film needed to perform spectacularly well just to break even at the box office. Critics were dismissive, calling it tacky and tasteless.”

Time, however, has given historical interest to the film.

Mellor added: “Apart from the kitsch elements, the film is also interesting historically. After Britain’s victory in the war, it can be seen as a tribute to London and its citizens, and as a celebration of popular Cockney culture, especially music hall.

“It also, in a way in which the makers almost certainly didn’t intend, celebrates the sense of community, the ‘all classes in harmony’ as seen in the Riverboat sequence, filmed as a day out on the River Thames, below Windsor Castle.

“The symbolism of this is fascinating, as all are included, from the very high Royalty in the Castle, to an Eton schoolboy, to the Cockney folk, all living in harmony in this English Utopia. With its emphasis on community values, it could almost be an election commercial for Clement Atlee’s Labour government, which swept to power in the same year.”

Field had actually made his film debut six years before London Town. That’s The Ticket – a farce revolving around cloakroom attendants who foil spies in Paris – also starred Hal Walters and Betty Lynne. That comedy came and went unnoticed.

There was to be one more attempt at cinematic glory for Field, 1949’s The Cardboard Cavalier, also starring Margaret Lockwood and Field’s sidekick Jerry Desmonde. It was another slap-

Of all people I have ever watched with the greatest delight, I think, was in another field entirely, was Sid Field... Laurence Olivier