Mike Malyon - Seems Like a Nice Boy: The Story of Larry Graysons Rise to Stardom

Title Page

Seems Like a Nice Boy

The Story of Larry Graysons Rise to Stardom

Written by

Mike Malyon

Foreword by

Lord Michael Grade CBE

Publisher Information

Published in 2016 by

Apex Publishing Ltd

12A St. Johns Road

Clacton on Sea, Essex

CO15 4BP, United Kingdom

www.apexpublishing.co.uk

Please email any queries to

Digital edition converted and distributed by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2016 Mike Malyon

The author has asserted his moral rights

Cover design: Hannah Blamires

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

About the Author

Mike Malyon is a great nephew of William Sully White, better known as 1970s comedian and TV presenter, Larry Grayson.

Mike first saw his uncle performing on stage around the local clubs under the name of Billy Breen. Mike then followed and shared the camp comics dramatic rise to stardom, when Larry topped the bill at the London Palladium, headlined sell-out shows throughout the UK, appeared on This Is Your Life and eventually hosted the chart-topping TV programme The Generation Game.

Larry was adored by millions but the person who knew him best was his foster sister, friend and companion, Flo. Mike was close to both his uncle and aunt and inherited all their personal photographs, scrapbooks and memorabilia. He has also taken on the role of preserving the memory of a man whose ambition, from an early age, was to be an entertainer and who spent his life desperately seeking attention.

Mike is a retired journalist who lives in the Nuneaton area.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Joyce Malyon, who was there through all the ups and downs of Larrys life and who delighted in celebrating his eventual success.

I would like to thank my wife, Lynn, for her support and understanding as I spent time during our cruise holidays to work on this project and my good friend, Sean Kelly, for his encouragement in getting the ball rolling.

Acknowledgements are also due to all of Larrys friends, colleagues and associates for their reminiscences which helped me to compile a personal tribute to my kind, much-missed uncle.

Mike Malyon

October 2015

Foreword

I was a young agent in the late 60s helping my partner, the legendary Billy Marsh, manage Morecambe and Wise, Bruce Forsyth, Frankie Vaughan, Harry Worth, Tony Hancock and more. I built up a client list of my own and was always on the lookout for new talent.

Through my client, Leslie Crowther, I got to know Peter Dulay who was writing gags and sketches for the Crackerjack star. Peter rang me one day to ask me to see a comedian he had signed as manager. That was the good news. The bad news was he was appearing very late one Sunday night at the Stork Club, in Londons West End - what an end to the week! But I respected Peters judgement and trudged up west. To my surprise, the cabaret was a drag show, and Peters discovery was given a couple of short spots to enable the ladies to change costume. It didnt matter. After two minutes I knew Peter had found a rare talent.

I met Larry after the show and could see that he lived for showbiz and had taken many false dawns in his stride. I signed up as his agent the next morning and set to work. Billy and I were planning variety weeks at the Palladium and I persuaded him to give Larry a ten minute slot on a bill. I was worried ahead of opening that Larrys innuendo and double (single?) entendres might get him the wrong reputation so we carefully edited his material. He was an instant hit with the audience. They loved him, the chair, Everard Farquharson, the marrow et al. He never looked back. TV spots followed and the rest is history.

I adored Larry. His stories of variety, his generous temperament, his surprise at his late success and his appreciation marked him out as special, and I am not in the least surprised, that as the public got to know him as I did, they took him to their heart. A true original, Larry earned his place in the entertainment hall of fame the hard way. What a grey day when he left us.

Lord Michael Grade CBE

Prologue

To everyone else scurrying through the West End streets, it was a damp, dismal, grey day. But for one man, standing in a shop doorway, the weather was of no consequence. He felt he was in another world, of fantasy and delight - like being over the rainbow.

With his raincoat collar turned up, he stood there and stared across the street, his face aglow with wonder, his heart tingling with excitement. In front of him was the famous London Palladium. The showbiz Mecca; the place where the worlds greatest entertainers had all appeared. And there, adorning the entrance, was a huge billboard, announcing the theatres latest attraction, Graysons Scandals , starring Larry Grayson, the newly-crowned king of camp comedy.

The man in the rust-coloured mac was transfixed. Here, in front of his very eyes, was proof that dreams really do come true. But even this was beyond his wildest expectations. From amusing his young pals in the wash-house yard, from traipsing around the working mens clubs, from years of struggle and despairing ambition... to this. Now he stood on the threshold of the ultimate achievement. The star of his own show... at the Palladium!

It was 15 October, 1974; opening night. He had already trod the Palladium stage before, in down-the-order spots, on his way up the ladder to fame, as well as being honoured with a Royal Gala appearance. But this was different. This was the big one. His photograph was twelve feet tall, above the theatres faade. His name was in the title, up in lights. He had reached the peak of his profession.

More importantly, one very special lady was going to be out front, in the stalls, for the proudest moment of his life. She had been the closest person to him for as long as he could remember, who had become his surrogate mum, who had devoted herself to looking after him and who was now going to witness his defining triumph. That meant more to him than anything else.

And so the curtain lifted. A white Rolls Royce appeared on the stage. The door was opened by a liveried chauffeur and out stepped the star of the show... Larry Grayson. The audience erupted into raptures of applause.

Sitting among them was a straight-faced little lady, wearing a plain brown coat over a patterned dress, who wondered what all the fuss was about... Florence Hammonds.

Larry and Florence made the oddest couple; the strangest double act. He was flamboyant, out-going, eager to amuse, always happy to be the centre of attention. She was shy, inward, quiet, completely unselfish and only interested in his well-being. He was full of personality and wit, with a natural talent to make people laugh. She was totally devoid of any sense of humour and rarely showed emotion, content to remain totally detached from everything going on around her.

But here, on this glamorous night, as Larry performed on stage and Florence stared across the footlights, there was a magical connection.

This glamorous occasion, in the centre of Londons neon-lit West End, was a far cry from those austere days among the old terraced cottages of Abbey Green, Nuneaton, when twenty-year-old Florence Hammonds helped seven-year-old William Sully White face his first ever audience...