Queer Places:
Cascade, 4 Harcourt Gardens, Nuneaton CV11 5UR, UK
Oaston Road Cemetery
Nuneaton, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough, Warwickshire, England
Larry Grayson (31 August 1923 – 7 January 1995), born William Sulley White, was an English comedian and television presenter who was best known in the 1970s and early 1980s. He is best remembered for hosting the BBC's popular series The Generation Game and for his high camp and English music hall humour.
His camp stand-up act consisted mainly of anecdotes about a cast of imaginary friends; the most frequently mentioned were Everard, Apricot Lil and Slack Alice. He is often cited as one of the first gay entertainers to have enjoyed mass appeal, although he never made any reference to his sexuality. He was devoted to his home town of Nuneaton, where a museum display relating to his life and work and a memorial have been established.
Grayson was born William Sulley White in Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 1923.[1] His parents were unmarried and he never met his father.[2] When Grayson was ten days old, his mother, Ethel White, arranged for him to be fostered by Alice and Jim Hammonds in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He had two foster sisters, Flo and May. His foster mother Alice died when he was six years old, and he was brought up by his elder foster sister, Flo, with whom he lived for much of his life. It has been reported that his birth mother stayed in touch with the family and was known to Grayson as "Aunt Ethel", until he discovered her true identity when he was eight years old. Larry was never formally adopted.
Grayson left school at the age of 14 and began working professionally as a supporting drag act on the comedy club circuit.[1] He initially used the stage-name Billy Breen, but changed it to Larry Grayson in the 1950s on the advice of his agent.[2] BBC TV's The One Show reported on 27 November 2012 that the name "Grayson" was taken from the American singer Kathryn Grayson. While the origin of the name "Larry" is unknown, his management at the time felt a two-syllable first name would be more memorable and go better with the surname Grayson.
Using the stage name ‘Billy Breen’, Larry had started to earn a living as a
stage performer and also enjoyed entertaining the American GIs, the ‘Yanks’,
at home with his family. This meant they were showered with gifts of chewing
gum and tins of fruit. But one day Larry’s call-up papers arrived requesting
him to attend a medical examination. Mike Malyon, Larry’s great-nephew and
biographer, described what happened: As he walked into the room, mincing
theatrically as if he was making a stage entrance, Billy was met by a
stern-faced orderly who took one look at him and said: ‘Oh, no, the war’s not
that bad!’ Probably because of his pasty pallor – and even maybe due to the
fact that he had not completely wiped away the stage make-up from the previous
night’s concert party – Billy was marked down as a grade four, which made him
exempt for National Service, but also excluded him from joining ENSA – the
forces’ entertainment regiment, which is what he’d set his sights on. Billy
was never given any official reason why he failed the military medical […]
‘What a shame – the army never knew what they missed.’
Over the next 30 years he toured the UK in male revues and drag shows, as well as in variety shows at venues including working men's clubs, regional theatres and the Metropolitan in London.[2] He also added stand-up comedy to his act and developed a unique and very gentle anecdotal style of comedy. It was usually based around his various imaginary friends such as Everard, Apricot Lil, Slack Alice, milkman Sterilised Stan, and the postman Pop-It-In Pete. A lot of his material was observational. In his early years, Grayson's family had the only telephone in the street, and his inspiration came from overhearing his neighbours using it. The "imaginary friends" were in fact based on local characters: for example, Apricot Lil worked at the local jam factory.[3]
It was while he performed as Billy Breen at the New Pavilion Theatre Redcar (now the Regent Cinema) that he started using his familiar catchphrase "shut that door" when a side door had been left open causing a cold breeze to blow across the stage straight from the sea.[4] During this period, Grayson was briefly managed by Eve Taylor, who renamed him 'Larry Grayson' and she is credited with being the source of the phrase, as several of her clients revealed that whenever she wanted to discuss money or personal issues with her clients, she would always tell them to "shut that door". Taylor struggled to find him the right opportunities and they parted, with Grayson becoming a client of Michael Grade.[5]
An early TV appearance in the 1950s had led to complaints about his act being too outrageous,[citation needed] and Grayson had resigned himself to a career off television. Then in the early 1970s his club act was seen by Michael Grade, then an agent, who quickly signed him.[6] Following several successful appearances in ATV variety shows, Grade's uncle, impresario Lew Grade, gave Grayson a contract to front a show, Shut That Door! (1972), and slightly later, the Larry Grayson Show.[7][8]
In 1974 he released the Single "Am I Just a Pretty Face" on Pye Records.[9]
Grayson also made two cameo appearances in the Midlands-based soap opera Crossroads, as a flouncing, difficult customer at the Crossroads Motel and as the chauffeur at the wedding of Meg Richardson, played by his close friend Noele Gordon.[10] In real life Grayson could not drive.[1] He also made a number of guest appearances in variety shows, chat shows and panel games.[11]
Grayson's popularity peaked when he was hired by the BBC to present the Saturday night show The Generation Game in 1978, as the replacement for Bruce Forsyth.[12] The show became hugely successful, once attracting an audience of 25 million (due to a strike at ITV) at its peak.[13] Grayson was assisted by his co-star Isla St Clair, whom he frequently referred to as "my lovely Isla".
Despite its huge popularity, by 1981 The Generation Game was being overtaken in the ratings by ITV's rival show Game for a Laugh. Grayson decided to leave The Generation Game in 1982 while it was still relatively successful, in the expectation that the BBC would offer him another high-profile Saturday night show; this did not materialise.
Because offers of work were not forthcoming, Grayson went into unintentional semi-retirement, enjoying time on his own at his house in Nuneaton with his beloved dogs, although he did return to television to present the game show Sweethearts for ITV in 1987.[2] He made a number of other TV appearances and radio broadcasts, especially on the Tom O'Connor hosted TV quiz show A Question of Entertainment, where he was one of the team captains in 1988.[14] Grayson moved with Flo (his adoptive older sister) to Torquay, Devon, as part of his semi-retirement, but moved back to Nuneaton after just a couple of years when he became bored and missed his close family and friends.[15] They lived in two separate neighbouring bungalows.[16]
Grayson's final public appearance was on 3 December 1994 at the Royal Variety Performance.[2] During this performance he referred to his hiatus from television by commenting to the audience, "They thought I was dead!".
On New Year's Eve 1994, Grayson was rushed into hospital. He was found to have suffered from a perforated appendix. After being allowed home from hospital, Grayson died on 7 January 1995 in Nuneaton, at the age of 71. His body was buried alongside other members of his family at Oaston Road Cemetery in his home town of Nuneaton.[15]
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