Frankie - early days

Francis Alick Howerd was born in York on 6 March 1917. His parents, Edith and Frank, also had two other children, Sidney and Bettina (Betty), with Francis the oldest. At the age of 2½ the family moved to Eltham in Kent (now a suburb of SE London). In fact not so far from my own birthplace, Woolwich. Francis' Dad had been posted there by the Army. Frankie's first taste of the stage was at the age of 4 when he was pushed onto the boards of a local Working Men's Club. All the kids had to "do something" and were rewarded by a bag of sweets. Frankie screamed the place down but got away with the sweets. Naughty naughty.
It was on a Christmas pantomime visit to the Woolwich Artillery Theatre, one Boxing Night, that Frankie became mesmerized by a performance of Cinderella.

Sitting in the eight penny seats, he was entranced by the fairy tale with its wonderland effects and sets. After the visit he would make cardboard stage sets, using actors cut out of magazines, and stage plays for his siblings.
He invited the next door neighbour's daughter, Ivy, to come and throw her lot in with the budding director. Soon the two of them were putting on plays in the garden, charging a farthing for the privilege. Edith caught the kids one Saturday and asked where the kids had got their money from and demanded Frankie return every coin! The concerts after this time were free.

With mother Edith

Frankie was offered a place at Shooter's Hill Grammar School, via a London County Council scholarship. At the age of 13 Frankie became a Sunday School teacher. The idea was that the vicar would brief the teachers on the subject to be delivered that week, but Frankie was usually off in space and forgot. Thus his sessions became a chance to invent stories (often nothing to do with religion) and so he became a popular teacher - and the vicar was none the wiser. Soon after he joined the Church Dramatic Society and was taken under the wing of Winifred Young. She took pity on the boy who constantly looked flushed and managed to barge into the scenery. She taught him how to "ee-nun-cee-ate" and concentrate - and turned him from an awkward boy into a somewhat more polished performer. Someone backstage said "you should be an actor" and that was it - Francis had a goal!

During the 30's and the Great Depression Frankie grew up, with Mum as the mainstay of the home. Dad had been invalided out of the Army, and his brother and sister were forced to leave school at 14 to start work. Dad died in 1934 leaving Edith to fend for the family. The London County Council ran evening classes for budding thespians and Frankie enrolled. He was invited to audition for RADA. The day came and Francis went off with some cheese sarnies his Mum had made, butterflies beginning to get a hold in his stomach. At the audition his nerves got the better of him, his left leg started to tremble and his bag of sandwiches burst, showering all with crumbs. He stuttered his way through a soliloquy , knowing from the glum expressions of the panel that he had fluffed it. Rather than go straight home Frankie sat alone in a field near his home crying. He knew that he was destined for the stage but not as an actor - he later recalls "If it's not to be an actor - what then?" and in a flash of inspiration thought "a comedian!!" Later at home Frankie got his mother's approval to turn his career around in another direction. He left school in 1935

His first job was a filing clerk at £1 a week. He lasted 10 week at the company, finally sealing his fate by dispatching some documents to Vladivostok and mistakenly sending a programme for "Frank Howerd's Gertchers Concert Party". At 19 Francis joined his first dole queue.He still put on his act as Variety Nights at Music Halls - trying monologues, impressions, comic songs and found out that the best laugh (if any came) were for jokes. At one show Jack Payne (later to be his agent) was still band leading - and Frankie watched other top acts before coming on and getting booed off, due to stage fright affecting his act. Nerves were to be his undoing but then in 1939 the War began, and a new avenue opened up for young Francis..

frankie howerd
early days	the twenties and thirties