Early Years

Sid Field was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 comedy entertainer. He was born Sidney Arthur Field in Ladywood

Ladywood

Ladywood is an inner-city area in Birmingham, England. It is a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Ladywood ward and the wards of Aston, Nechells and Soho. In June 2004, Birmingham City Council conducted a city-wide "Ward Boundary...

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, son of Albert (a canemaker) and Bertha (a dressmaker). Field spent most of his childhood at 152 Osborn Road, Sparkbrook

Sparkbrook

Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.-Etymology:...

, Birmingham.

Field had entertainment in his blood from an early age. As a child he charged his friends "admission" to his back garden impression shows. Also, he was busking

Busking

Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...

 and performing to the lines at his local cinema dressed as Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 (once being cautioned by police for his activities). Few would have guessed that this precocious boy would one day be feted for his own comic genius by thousands of fans, including Chaplin himself, at whose parties Field was a regular invitee.

Field grew up in Birmingham, where he was educated at Conway Road, Stratford Road and Golden Hillock Road schools, and attended Sunday school at Emmanuel Church, Walford Road. His cousins, "the Workmans", performed in concerts at Moseley Road Swimming Baths in the city, where Field made his stage debut, singing "What A Life" at the age of nine.

His first professional engagement, with "The Kino Royal Juveniles", at seven shillings and sixpence (37½p) per week, came in July 1916, after his mother responded to an advert in the Birmingham Mail

Birmingham Mail

The Birmingham Mail is a tabloid newspaper based in Birmingham, UK but distributed around Birmingham, The Black Country, Solihull, Warwickshire and parts of Worcestershire and Staffordshire. The newspaper, which was re-branded from the Birmingham Evening Mail in October 2005, is one of the biggest...

. He later worked as an understudy

Understudy

In theater, an understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a regular actor or actress in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part...

 to ventriloquist Wee Georgie Wood

Wee Georgie Wood

George Wood, better known as Wee Georgie Wood, was a British actor and comedian who appeared in films, plays and music hall revues. Wood, who was a midget, worked most his professional life in the guise of a child, appearing in comic and sentimental sketches. He also wrote a column in the weekly...

 in a Birmingham pantomime, then appeared in review at the Bordesley Palace and the Mission Hall in Church Road, Yardley

Yardley, Birmingham

Yardley is an area in east Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee.Birmingham Yardley is a constituency and its Member of Parliament is John Hemming.-Features:...

. To assauge the young Sid's stage fright, Bertha gave him a glass of port to drink: by the age of 13, he was dependent on alcohol.

Success and Legacy

Field was unusual among comedy performers of the day, as his act was a multitude of characters and impersonations, at a time when most variety

Variety show

A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

 (vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

) acts were "one trick ponies". Despite this comedic and acting flair, it was not until he had spent decades touring provincial music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

s that Field finally broke into the big time, appearing in London's West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 as Slasher Green, the Cockney

Cockney

The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

 "wide boy

Wide boy

Wide boy is a British term for a man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is synonymous with spiv. The word 'wide' is in this sense means wide-awake or sharp-witted...

" or "spiv

Spiv

In the United Kingdom, a spiv is a particular type of petty criminal, who deals in stolen or black market goods of questionable authenticity, especially a slickly-dressed man offering goods at bargain prices...

". He became an "overnight" star.

In Strike a New Note (1943), Strike it Again (1944) and Piccadilly Hayride (1946), he had his audiences roaring with laughter. One reviewer commented that he was the only comedian who had the audience literally "falling off their seats with laughter". He was loved for his routines involving a naive approach to the billiards table and the golf course, played with his straight man

Double act

A double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...

, Jerry Desmonde

Jerry Desmonde

Jerry Desmonde was an English stage musical, film, and television actor principally in comedies and drama. He is probably best known as a straight man to Norman Wisdom.Jerry is sometimes credited as Jerry Desmond....

. (For example, Desmonde, sternly, as golf pro: "Address the ball!" Field: (trying hard) "...Dear Ball....")

On 5 November 1945, Field appeared in the Royal Variety Performance

Royal Variety Performance

The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...

. Appearing again in 1946, he became one of the few artists to make an appearance in two consecutive Royal Performances. 18 months later in 1948, Field was topping the bill at the London Palladium

London Palladium

The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...

, replacing Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

.

Field had a starring role in That's the Ticket (1940) but London Town (1946) is often referred to as his first film in error. Some of his best remembered sketches are preserved here. Field made another film in 1947, The Cardboard Cavalier (as Sidcup Buttermeadow), co-starring with Margaret Lockwood. However, the cinematic world was not Field's most effective medium, and his films were neither critical nor commercial successes.
It is perhaps because of this lack of recorded material, that Field is now largely forgotten. Only the three films and some recorded variety material survive. He inspired a generation of comedians and pioneered the use of character acting in comedy. He was cited as a comic favourite by Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

, Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

, Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...

, Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

, Tony Hancock

Tony Hancock

Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...

 (an influence too), Eric Morecambe

Eric Morecambe

John Eric Bartholomew OBE , known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the award-winning double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death of a heart attack in 1984...

, Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

, Frankie Howerd

Frankie Howerd

Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...

 and Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper

Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was a very popular British prop comedian and magician from Caerphilly, Wales.Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians...

, among many others, and he was described by Bob Hope

Bob Hope

Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 as being "probably the best comedian of them all".

His first straight role came in 1950 in Mary Chase

Mary Coyle Chase

Mary Coyle Chase was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter, known primarily for writing the Broadway play Harvey, later adapted for film starring James Stewart...

's play Harvey

Harvey (play)

Harvey is a 1944 play by American playwright Mary Chase. Produced by Brock Pemberton and directed by Antoinette Perry, the play premiered on 1 November 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre on Broadway where it was staged for 1,775 performances before closing on January 15, 1949. The original production...

, (as Elwood P. Dowd, the role played in the 1950 film by James Stewart

James Stewart (actor)

James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

). On 3 February 1950, during the run of this play, Field died from a heart attack at his home in Richmond, Surrey. He was aged only 45.

Later that month, a memorial service was held at London's St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Its patron is Saint Martin of Tours.-Roman era:Excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave dated about 410...

, with lessons read by Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

 and Ted Ray

Ted Ray (comedian)

Ted Ray was a popular English comedian of the 1940s, 50s and 60s....

. A midnight matinee benefit for his wife and children, held on 25 June 1951, was attended by the Duchess of Kent, Aneurin Bevan

Aneurin Bevan

Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...

 and Noel Coward

Noël Coward

Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

. The cast list was stupendous: Danny Kaye, Laurence Olivier, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Orson Welles

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

, Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

, Jack Hylton

Jack Hylton

Jack Hylton was a British band leader and impresario.He was born John Greenhalgh Hilton in the Great Lever area of Bolton, Lancashire, the son of George Hilton, a cotton yarn twister. His father was an amateur singer at the local Labour Club and Jack learned piano to accompany him on the stage...

, Bud Flanagan

Bud Flanagan

Bud Flanagan was a popular English music hall and vaudeville entertainer from the 1930s until the 1960s. Flanagan was famous as a wartime entertainer and his achievements were recognised when he was awarded the O.B.E. in 1960.- Family background :Flaganan was born Chaim Reuben Weintrop in...

, Arthur Askey

Arthur Askey

Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...

, Ted Ray

Ted Ray (comedian)

Ted Ray was a popular English comedian of the 1940s, 50s and 60s....

, Tommy Trinder

Tommy Trinder

Thomas Edward Trinder CBE known as Tommy Trinder, was an English stage, screen and radio comedian of the pre and post war years whose catchphrase was 'You lucky people'.-Life:...

, all six of the original Crazy Gang

The Crazy Gang

The Crazy Gang were a group of British entertainers, formed in the early 1930s. In the mature form the group's six men were Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold...

, Judy Garland

Judy Garland

Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

, Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

, Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

, Peter Ustinov

Peter Ustinov

Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...

, George Robey

George Robey

Sir George Edward Wade , better known by his stage name, George Robey, was an English music hall comedian and star. He was marketed as the "Prime Minister of Mirth".-Early life:...

, cricketer Dennis Compton and many more, totalling over 240.

There is a blue plaque commemorating Sid Field on the front of 152 Osborn Road, where he grew up, and a memorial in the foyer of the Prince of Wales Theatre

Prince of Wales Theatre

The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...

 in London, which says:

To the memory of the great comedian Sid Field, who made his first appearance in the West End at this theatre on 18 March 1943 and who played his last performance here on 2 February 1950.

In 1994 the actor David Suchet

David Suchet

David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...

 played Sid Field in a stage play of his life ('What a Performance'), and in October 2011 Suchet followed this up as the presenter of a BBC4 documentary about Sid Field. In the programme Suchet meets stars such as Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

, Leslie Phillips

Leslie Phillips

Leslie Samuel Phillips, CBE is an English actor with a highly recognisable upper class accent. Originally known for his work as a comedy actor, Phillips subsequently made the transition to character roles.-Early life:...

 and Nicholas Parsons

Nicholas Parsons

Nicholas Parsons OBE is a British actor and radio and television presenter.-Early life:...

 who remember Sid's epic stage shows.

London Theatre Shows

• 1943 - Strike a New Note
• 1944 - Strike it Again
• 1946 - Piccadilly Hayride

Film Appearances

• 1940 - That's The Ticket
• 1946 - London Town
• 1949 - Cardboard Cavalier
  Cardboard Cavalier
  Cardboard Cavalier is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood and Jerry Desmonde. The film depicts a historical romance between Lord Lovelace and Nell Gwyne.-Cast:* Sid Field - Sidcup Buttermeadow...
  
  

Further reading

• What A Performance!, John Fisher's 1975 biography of Field (ISBN 0-85422-113-1)

External links