Max Miller (comedian)
Thomas Henry Sargent (21 November 1894 – 7 May 1963), known professionally by his stage name Max Miller and billed as The Cheeky Chappie, was an English comedian often considered the greatest stand-up of his generation.[1] He came from humble beginnings and left school at the age of twelve. At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for the army. During his time in the forces, he started a troupe concert party. On leaving the army, he took up work as a light comedian, dancer, and singer. He toured extensively, appearing in variety, revues and by the early 1930s reached the top of the bill in the large music halls including the London Palladium.
Max Miller
Thomas Henry Sargent
7 May 1963 (aged 68)
Brighton, England
Downs Crematorium, Brighton, England
He recorded many songs, some of which he wrote. He appeared frequently on radio and starred in fourteen feature films. He was known for his flamboyant suits, his wicked charm, and his risqué jokes often led to difficulties with the censors. He made his last recording in January 1963 and died four months later.
Early years[edit]
Miller was born as Thomas Henry Sargent on 21 November 1894 in Hereford Street, Kemptown, Brighton, Sussex. He was the second child of James Sargent, a labourer, and Alice (née West), a flower seller; Miller had three brothers and two sisters. His parents were poor and often unable to pay rent, so were forced to move to other parts of the town. Owing to this, Miller frequently changed schools, until he reached 12 when he left altogether. He tried jobs such as labouring, delivering milk, selling fish and chips, caddying at the Brighton and Hove Golf Course, and finally trained to be a motor mechanic.[2] As a youth, he was nicknamed "Swanky Sargent".[3]
On the outbreak of the war in 1914, Miller volunteered for the army. He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment[4] and, after serving in France, was posted to India and a year later to Mesopotamia, where he was temporarily blinded for three days. This experience stayed with him all his life, and in later years he did much work to help the blind including giving his home in Brighton over to St Dunstans during World War 2. During his time in the army, he started a troops' concert party.[5]
Career[edit]
Early performing experiences[edit]
Demobilised from the army, Miller found work to be in short supply, and he had lost his mother to the 1918 flu pandemic. He had his sights on performing in London, and obtained a booking at the Shoreditch Hall in 1919. He was not experienced enough for the type of venue, however, and lasted only a week. Returning to Brighton, he saw an advertisement for artists to join Jack Sheppard's concert party in an alfresco theatre on Brighton beach. He applied and joined as a light comedian for the 1919 summer season.[5] While with the concert party, he met his future wife, Frances Kathleen Marsh, who was a contralto in the group.[6]
Kathleen Marsh came from a middle-class family whose parents came to Brighton from Dorset shortly before she was born in 1896. Her elder brother Ernest Marsh served as a Brighton alderman for 43 years and became mayor of the then town from 1949 to 1950.[7]
In the summer of 1920, Harry toured nationwide in The Rogues, a concert party. The following year, Harry and Kathleen toured in a revue called The Girl.[8] While in Plymouth, the couple married at the parish church in Tormoham, Devon on 17 February 1921. (Tormoham is better known today as Torre in the seaside resort of Torquay.) As well as being a performer, Kathleen was an astute businesswoman, and thereafter did much to develop her husband's career. She suggested that he should change his name to Max Miller. Later, a press notice described Max as the Cheeky Chappie, and the nickname stuck.
Max and Kathleen formed a double act for a while, but it became obvious to her that Max was the stronger performer and that he would be better as a solo act.[9]
Apprenticeship[edit]
Through the 1920s, Miller was regularly touring in revues. In 1922 he was in a show presented by the Sydney Syndicate, There You Are Then. The following year, he toured with the Ernest Binn Arcadians. 1924 saw him joining a revue called Crisps. However, during that summer, he returned to Jack Sheppard's Concert Party on the Brighton seafront.[10] In 1925, he continued in the revue Crisps, and in November that year joined the cast of Ten to One On, which starred Jimmy James. This show ran until February 1926, when Miller gained work in variety or cine-variety, the latter a show consisting half of film and half of live acts. In September, he was booked in the Holborn Empire, his first engagement there, where he was spotted by impresario Tom Arnold, who booked him to star in his next revue, Piccadilly. It opened in Birmingham and toured the country. His co-star was the 21-year-old Florence Desmond. After that, he was booked by Fred Karno to appear in The Show, and in May joined a touring cabaret revue called XYZ until the end of the year. After a few weeks in variety, he was back in revue, starring in Francis Laider's Tipperary Tim.[11]
This kept him busy until February 1929, when he appointed a new agent, Julius Darewski. This was a turning point in his career. In May, Miller made his first appearance at the London Palladium[12] in variety. He returned there in October and, in November, joined the cast of Fools in Paradise, which took him to March 1930. This would be his last revue for some time.
Miller much preferred to perform solo, and from 1930 onwards, he appeared in variety in large theatres, including the London Palladium and the Holborn Empire. In those days, instant success was unheard of, and Miller, like any other performer, had to earn his fame through a long apprenticeship. In May 1931, he appeared in his first Royal Variety Performance.[13] Radio broadcasts followed.
In 1932, he made his first recording, Confessions of a Cheeky Chappie, on the Broadcast Twelve Records label. After this initial success, he was wooed by HMV and recorded for them. In 1953, he changed to Philips, and then to Pye.
Miller was given a cameo role in the film The Good Companions (1933) in the part of a music publisher selling a song to a pianist, played by John Gielgud.[14] Although he was not credited for his role, his three-minute debut was impressive, got him noticed and led to his making a further 13 films working up from small parts to starring roles. Considered his best film, Educated Evans (1936), which was based on an Edgar Wallace story and filmed by Warner Bros., it has been lost. His last but one film was Hoots Mon! (1940). He played the part of a southern English comedian called Harry Hawkins. In the film there is a scene in which Harry Hawkins appears on the stage in a variety theatre. The act is Miller's, and the sequence is the only one in existence giving us an idea of his stage act. It is invariably included in any documentary made about him.
Legacy[edit]
Miller influenced many comedians during his lifetime and since. His jokes live on and are often told by other comedians. The comedian Walter William Bygraves became known as Max Bygraves after his impersonation of Miller.[32] Miller was one of the many famous people on the cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The biography, Max Miller the Cheeky Chappie by John M. East was published in 1977. A paperback version was issued in 1993 with additional material. Two paperbacks containing Miller's jokes have been published: The Max Miller Blue Book compiled by Barry Took and illustrated by cartoonist Trog (1975)[33] and The Max Miller Appreciation Society's Blue Book compiled by members with a foreword by Roy Hudd (2001).[34]
Several radio and television documentaries have been produced including Gerald Scarfe's The Girls Who Do (40 Minutes, BBC, 1989) and Heroes of Comedy: Max Miller (1995). Here's a Funny Thing, a play featuring John Bardon by R.W. Shakespeare, was staged at the Edinburgh Fringe,[35] and at the Fortune Theatre in London; it was broadcast on Channel Four in November 1982.
In 1999, the Max Miller Appreciation Society was formed in Brighton. Its main purpose is to keep his memory alive. It has erected a bronze statue sculptured by Peter Webster in the Royal Pavilion Gardens, New Road, Brighton (unveiled 1 May 2005; re-sited August 2007) and mounted two blue plaques on his former homes on Ashcroft in Kingston Lane, Shoreham-by-Sea (2000) and at 160 Marine Parade, Brighton (2006). In 2009, the Society curated an exhibition devoted to Miller's life and career in Bardsley's Fish Restaurant, Baker Street, Brighton.
In the British drama The Triple Echo from 1972, set during World War II, Glenda Jackson and Brian Deacon are listening to him (and laughing aloud) on the radio. He's telling a story about finding a man without any clothes on, standing in his house, and his wife said he's a nudist who came to use the phone.
He was renowned for his use of catchphrases, in performance
Since these recordings were released, most have been re-issues as compilations on LPs, cassettes and CDs)