A Brighton super-star
As these pages show, Max Miller was considered to be Brighton’s greatest comedian. For the record, he also spoke with a typical Brighton accent. He is often said to have been the greatest stand-up artist of his generation. Max lived in Brighton and travelled back and forward, by train, to London when he was performing there.
Considered obscene by my father’s church
People in my father’s church said Max was obscene. They must have gone to see him a few times to check. He was not of course obscene, but was certainly mildly vulgar at times. He did not say anything your grandmother would object to. Clips of his routines can be found on the net and are still funny after all these years.
The last train held for him
On one occasion, Max’s show in London overan, and he had to make a dash to Victoria station to catch the last train home. He got to the station too late but found that they had ‘held’ the train for him. It is hard to imagine any other star being able to have that courtesy paid to them. I was too young to have seen Max Miller but I wish I could have done.
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Max was often joking about his wife, she in fact was a lovely lady, and in fact we went to the same church. They lived on the seafront just along form Atlingworth Street. I did see him at the Hippodrome on many occasions. It is said that when he was on the London Palladium he was given 10 minutes for his act, but he is alleged to have said whilst on, why was an American act getting as much time as he wanted at the end of the show. Max said that as a native act, he should be given all the time he wanted as well. So he just kept going and had to be more or less pulled off. In his dressing room, he was given a message from the owner that he would see Max never worked in any other theatres, to which Max is said to have replied that the owner was several thousand pounds too late. He was I believe at one time banned by the BBC.
A most interesting site. I saw him once as a child – being evacuated to Brighton I guess it was then. I understood nothing of course but the audience howled non stop, so it must have been very funny.
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