View source for Wee Georgie Wood

{{short description|British actor and comedian}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Wee Georgie Wood
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] 
| image = Wee Georgie Wood (1924).jpg
| alt = 
| caption = Wood in 1924
| birth_name = George Wood Bamlett
| birth_date = {{birth date|1895|12|17|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Jarrow]], [[County Durham]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1979|2|19|1895|12|17|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Bloomsbury]], London, England
| nationality = British
| other_names = 
| spouse = {{marriage|Ewing Eaton|1932|1936|end=div}}
| known_for = 
| occupation = Comic entertainer, actor
| years_active = 1900–1953
}}

'''George Wood Bamlett''' [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (17 December 1895<ref>England and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index, March quarter 1896, volume 10a, page 804</ref> – 19 February 1979), known professionally as '''Wee Georgie Wood''', was a British comic entertainer and actor who appeared in films, plays and [[music hall]] revues. He had a lengthy career of over fifty years, based on exploiting the childlike appearance that he retained in adulthood.

==Biography==
[[File:George Bamlett, grocer, arrested for assault (21962905846).jpg|thumb|left|Wee Georgie's father, George Bamlett]]
He was born in [[Jarrow]], [[County Durham]], but within a few weeks of his birth moved to [[South Shields]] where his father owned a [[pawnbroker]]'s shop.<ref name=baker>Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-78383-118-0}}, pp.81-83</ref> His parents were George Bamlett and Georgina, ''née'' Wood, who divorced in 1908 on account of his father's adultery.<ref>England and Wales Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1918, ''Georgina Bamlett v. George Bamlett''</ref> He had a form of [[dwarfism]], as an adult reaching a height of {{convert|4|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}}, and retaining an [[voice change|unbroken voice]].

From the age of five, he started performing in [[Concert party (entertainment)|concert parties]] as an entertainer, and at the age of 13 was still able to perform in the guise of a five-year-old.<ref name=baker/> For much of his career he was guided and managed by his mother, Georgina ({{nee}} Wood), and by his teens he had become the family's main earner. He joined the Levy and Cardwell company touring around music halls, performed in [[pantomime]]s, and in 1908 made his first solo appearance onstage doing impressions of music hall stars [[Vesta Tilley]] and [[George Lashwood]]. In 1914, he was in a company that toured Australia.<ref name=behind>[http://www.its-behind-you.com/dollyharmer.html Nigel Ellacott, "Dolly Harmer and 'Wee' Georgie Wood", ''It's Behind You'']. Retrieved 19 February 2021</ref> He was originally billed as 'the Boy Phenomenon', but he dropped the name after one theatre mistakenly advertised him as 'the Boy Euphonium'.<ref name="London Secret">{{cite book |last=Bushell |first=Peter |title=London's Secret History  |url=https://archive.org/details/londonssecrethis0000bush |url-access=registration |publisher=Constable |date=1983 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/londonssecrethis0000bush/page/179 179–180]}}</ref>

In 1917, he met fellow performer Dolly Harmer (born Sarah Elizabeth Caron, 1867&ndash;1956).  She was the daughter of Pierre Caron, who performed as Peter Harmer, and had worked in music halls since the 1880s.  She and Wood established a working relationship in which she played Wood's mother, continuing to perform in the role for over 35 years. Together they performed [[sketch comedy|comedy sketches]] in which she would try to persuade him to behave properly. They toured together, worldwide, but usually performed in separate pantomimes during the winter months.<ref name=behind/><ref name=baker/> They appeared in [[Royal Variety Performance]]s in 1927 and 1931.<ref>[https://www.royalvarietycharity.org/royal-variety-performance-home/artistes  "Artistes at the Royal Variety Performance", ''Royal Variety Charity'']. Retrieved 19 February 2021</ref>

Wood has been termed "a brilliant [[raconteur]]... [and] a very funny comedian".<ref name="London Secret"/> However, according to music hall historian [[Roger Wilmut]], Wood's material "is difficult to take today – such humour as there is is swamped by a treacly sentimentality...".<ref name=wilmut>Roger Wilmut, ''Kindly Leave the Stage: The Story of Variety 1919-1960'', Methuen, 1985, {{isbn|0-413-48960-4}}, p.42</ref> He was considered to have been one of the most successful pantomime stars of his era and remained a popular performer through the 1920s and 1930s, though his style became increasingly outdated and it became more difficult for him to act the part of a child.<ref name=baker/>

He married an American entertainer, Ewing Eaton, on 7 April 1933,<ref>New York Marriage License Indexes 1907-2018</ref> though the marriage was brief and in later years Wood refused to speak of it.<ref name=baker/><ref name=hudd/> On another occasion, a girl's mother begged him to end a relationship, saying: "Let's face it Georgie, you're a midget." Wood never forgot the remark; reportedly he could never recount the story without bursting into tears, though with age and experience, "he learned to treat his shortness with a degree of humour".<ref name="London Secret"/>

He supported charitable causes and in 1936 was appointed chairman or 'King Rat' of the [[Grand Order of Water Rats]]. However, he wrote a book, ''Royalty, Religion and Rats!'', which gave away some of the organisation's secrets, and as a result was expelled from it, only being readmitted in 1970.<ref name=baker/>

During the [[Second World War]], Wood toured widely with Harmer as part of [[ENSA]], and regained some of his popularity. The pair are estimated to have played over 500 shows and travelled some 70,000 miles as entertainers during the war, and as a result Wood was awarded the [[OBE]] for services to the entertainment industry in King [[George VI]]'s [[Birthday Honours List]] in 1946, shortly after his mother's death.<ref name=behind/><ref>''Sunderland Echo'', 24 June 1946, p. 4</ref>

Wood and Harmer performed together until 1953, when they made a mutual decision to retire.<ref name=behind/> Harmer died in 1956, aged 89. Wood remained active in [[show business]] circles, and was a member of  the [[Savage Club]]. He also wrote a column in the weekly ''[[The Stage]]'' newspaper. According to writer [[Richard Anthony Baker]], he was known as "an omnivorous reader with a prodigious memory, but he made sure people knew it...".<ref name=baker/> Comedian [[Roy Hudd]] described him as a "fanatical" convert to [[Catholicism]], "vociferous", "outspoken" and "self-opinionated".<ref name=hudd>Roy Hudd and Philip Hindin, ''Roy Hudd's Cavalcade of Variety Acts'', Robson Books, 1998, {{ISBN|1-86105-206-5}}, pp.201-202</ref>

Wood died at Gordon Mansions in [[Bloomsbury]], London, on 19 February 1979, aged 83.<ref name="London Secret"/>
[[File:Wee Georgie Wood on Blackpool's Walk of Fame Comedy Carpet, 2022.jpg|thumb|Wee Georgie Wood on Blackpool's Walk of Fame Comedy Carpet, 2022]]

==In popular culture==
The [[Wee Georgie Wood Railway]] is a tramway in [[Tasmania]] named after him.

Wee Georgie Wood is mentioned at the end of the song "[[Dig It (The Beatles song)|Dig It]]" from [[the Beatles]]' album ''[[Let It Be (Beatles album)|Let It Be]]''. He is also mentioned in the ''[[High & Dry (1987 TV series)|High & Dry]]'' episode "The Pier", in which Trevor suggests that they could hire Wee Georgie Wood at the pier theatre, and in the ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]'' episode "A Short Blast of [[Fred Astaire]]" in which Pearl tells her husband Howard he's not "big enough to be Wee Georgie Wood!".

==Selected filmography==
* ''[[Convict 99 (1919 film)|Convict 99]]'' (1919) - James, the office boy
* ''[[Two Little Drummer Boys]]'' (1928)
* The Black Hand Gang (1930)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Georgie |date=1948 |title=I had to be Wee |location=London |publisher=Hutchinson & Co}} (autobiography)

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|0940079}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Wee Georgie}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:Music hall performers]]
[[Category:People from Jarrow]]
[[Category:Male actors from Tyne and Wear]]
[[Category:Actors from County Durham]]
[[Category:English male stage actors]]
[[Category:English male comedians]]
[[Category:Entertainers with dwarfism]]
[[Category:Vaudeville performers]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century English comedians]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism]]