Product Description

This is the story of the spit and sawdust places where they served their showbiz apprenticeship, told through the reminiscences of the people they met along the way.

Morecambe and Wise Untold contains brand new interviews with Ken Dodd and Bruce Forsyth (who worked with Eric and Ernie in Variety) plus Michael Grade, Ernest Maxin and John Ammonds, who got to know them as a live act, and went on to mastermind their phenomenally successful TV shows. There are interviews with Gail and Gary Morecambe (Eric's children), Joan Morecambe (Eric's widow) and a rare and revealing interview with Doreen Wise - the first time that Ernie's widow has ever been interviewed for a book about Morecambe & Wise.

The text is accompanied by a wealth of rare and previously unseen photos by Gary Morecambe from his father's family archive and from the collections of friends, fellow performers and fans who captured the emerging story of a legendary showbiz partnership in the making.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172082 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
The illustrated story of Eric and Ernie's early years as variety entertainers, and the first ever biography to reveal how they became Britain's best loved comedy double act. Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise were Britain's greatest ever double act, but there's never been a book which really revealed the era that made them such a special part of our national culture. Until now. Although they ended up on TV, they started out in variety, and their record-breaking Christmas shows were a secret homage to that forgotten world. For a quarter of a century, from the early Forties until the late Sixties, they were a live act first and foremost, playing pantomime and summer season, variety theatres and seaside piers. 'You're making us look like a cheap music hall act,' Ernie used to complain, in mock protest. 'Well, we are a cheap music hall act,' Eric would reply. Morecambe and Wise Untold is a book about Eric and Ernie's live years. What was it really like, that lost world which they came from? How did it shape them? What were the other acts like? And the theatres? And the shows? Why did they survive, while so many other variety acts vanished?This is the story of the spit and sawdust places where they served their showbiz apprenticeship, told through the reminiscences of the people they met along the way.

Morecambe and Wise Untold contains brand new interviews with Ken Dodd and Bruce Forsyth (who worked with Eric and Ernie in Variety) plus Michael Grade, Ernest Maxin and John Ammonds, who got to know them as a live act, and went on to mastermind their phenomenally successful TV shows. There are interviews with Gail and Gary Morecambe (Eric's children), Joan Morecambe (Eric's widow) and a rare and revealing interview with Doreen Wise -- the first time that Ernie's widow has ever been interviewed for a book about Morecambe & Wise. The text is accompanied by a wealth of rare and previously unseen photos by Gary Morecambe from his father's family archive and from the collections of friends, fellow performers and fans who captured the emerging story of a legendary showbiz partnership in the making.

From the Publisher
In a career lasting decades, Eric and Ernie have endeared themselves to the British public. With the support of both families, this is the most revealing and definitive book on Morecambe and Wise.

Contains over 100 previously unseen photos and exclusive interviews with Bruce Forsyth, Ken Dodd and Michael Grade.

This is the companion volume to ERIC MORECAMBE UNSEEN

About the Author
William Cook is the author of Ha Bloody Ha - Comedians Talking (Fourth Estate), The Comedy Store - The Club That Changed British Comedy (Little, Brown) and 25 Years of Viz (Boxtree). He edited Tragically I Was An Only Twin - The Complete Peter Cook and Goodbye Again - The Definitive Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, both published by Century, and Eric Morecambe Unseen. He has worked for the BBC and written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman and Conde Nast Traveller.

Customer Reviews

Evocative and Entertaining
An extremely interesting and entertaining insight into the early career of Britain's best-loved double-act, and also an evocative overview from mostly first-hand accounts of the pre-war world of variety and its ultimate post-war demise. Contains some lovely previously unpublished photos and is a must for any fan of Morecambe & Wise or British comedy/variety in general.

Christmas Cheer!
I loved this book just as I loved William Cook's previous effort, Eric Morecambe Unseen. Morecambe and Wise Untold isn't quite as revealing as the title suggests, but it is rivetting stuff all the same, because it takes the reader back to the early days when the boys' first teamed up. Interviews with the likes of Ken Dodd and Bruce Forsyth - fellow variety hall board-treaders, gives the book great credibility, and we get a sense, perhaps for the first time, as to where the strength of what we are more familiar with (the wonderful seventies sketches like Shirley Bassey and Andre Previn) first originated. As with his previous book, Cook has managed to access through various sources, though presumably mostly through the estates of M&W fantastic photos, many never before published. This takes the book to a higher level and makes it a real collector's work for those who are fans of comedy genius, and those who simply collect worthwhile illustrated books. Greatly rate it.