NEW KARNO BIOGRAPHY
My new biography of Karno is finally complete after ten years of hard work. It is available at all good bookstores and online or you can email me via the contact us page, and I’ll send you a signed one!
There have been two previous biographies of Karno ‘Remember Fred Karno? – The Life Of A Great Showman’ published in 1939 and ‘Fred Karno - Master of Mirth and Tears’ published in 1971. Both accounts of Karno’s life are flawed in that the former was written by Karno’s own staff writers who paint an incredibly rosy picture of the man, the later was written by a tabloid journalist fed a diet of vitriol and slander by the friends of Karno’s late ex-wife. Neither set of sources can be considered objective, these books tell two extreme accounts at opposite ends of the spectrum and neither are fair.
Gallagher fails to adequately cite his sources for many of the stories and allegations made in the book and admits that he has ‘imagined’ some of the conversations and events which ‘may’ have taken place. My research has proved that many of Gallagher’s claims are untrue. Adeler and West avoid any mention of Karno’s family affairs or personal life merely documenting Karno’s rise to greatness.
Sadly the information widely available on Karno, and almost everything written since, is coloured by the dark portrayal painted by Gallagher. Karno has taken on almost monstrous qualities in the minds of those interested in music hall and this has unfairly overshadowed his significant impact on comedy, film history and modern culture.
The last piece of information available on a subject becomes the authoritative source and so information on Karno on the Internet, such as it is, is generally taken from Gallagher’s account. Those interested in Laurel and Hardy or Chaplin who occasionally take a sojourn into Karno territory for a talk at a club meeting or to write an article, rarely go further than this material and so the image of Karno as a cruel, heartless, philandering brute is perpetuated.
This doesn’t mean of course that Karno was an angel, far from it. His story is a roller coaster rags to riches back to rags again with plenty of personal angst, love, betrayal, infidelity, pride and ultimately ruin. These elements of the story make the honesty and integrity of the tale all the more important.
I have travelled around the world to interview surviving Karno relatives, including his two grandsons in America and have had access to never before published or seen personal documents and testimony. This information was not available to Gallagher in 1971 and he did not interview any of Karno’s direct descendants despite being aware of their existence.
However, I remain keen to establish any truth in Gallagher’s darker accusations and with this in mind two key sources for Gallagher have remained elusive, firstly one Mrs Madge Proctor, Edith Karno’s closest friend and confidant – does she have surviving family with a box full of Madge’s letters and keepsakes? Secondly Gallagher cites well known writer Naomi Jacob, another close friend of Edith, and her ‘famous interview with Fred’ – despite having access to some of Jacob’s personal files, I have been unable to find this interview. If anyone can help on either of these, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Those interested in finding out more about Karno should also beware that history is confused by the fact that Fred Karno (Frederick John Westcott) senior begat Fred Junior (Frederick Arthur Westcott) who also begat Fred Karno Westcott the third. Fred senior’s brother also had a son he named Frederick. There are therefore at least four Fred Westcotts in the archives. This has led to confusion in many of the stories about Karno and I’ve found many references to individuals who ‘worked with Fred Karno’ which I’ve found to be in fact Fred junior or cousin Fred both of whom were music hall performers in their own right.
I hope that my new book can at last get this right, certainly the family’s side of the story is told for the first time and their documents have confirmed much of my previous reservations about the Gallagher account. I can’t thank the family enough for allowing me to tell their story for the first time.
Of course for many the real interest in Karno’s story is in his influence on his two most famous protégé’s Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. What more can be said about these two great comedians that has not already been written? Very little, and in attempting to write anything about either, one feels like a young biology student about to dissect the same old frog. Like thousands before him he wields the scalpel, only this time knowing that his findings will be read and commented on by every eminent biologist around the globe. So I am indebted to David Robinson, biographer of Chaplin; A.J. Marriot who’s research has added so much detail to Chaplin’s stage career; and Kate Guyonvarch of the Chaplin archive, who were so helpful and supportive of me throughout this venture, generously sharing their archive material with me and assisting in many aspects of this book. My understanding of these two great comics is largely down to the tireless research of these lovely people and their excellent books which I heartily recommend (see links page).
