Do you have memories or memorabilia of Sir Norman Wisdom? A Norman doll? A “Gump” hat or waistcoat, or similar piece of clothing? An autographed fan photo? Recollections of falling off your seat at his antics? Would you like to share them?
If you do, Kent Museum of the Moving Image would love to hear from you!
Spurred by a generous loan from Sir Norman’s nephew, Peter Wisdom, Deal’s own cinema and pre-cinema museum is putting together a small but sweet exhibition about this enormously popular British film star, stage star, and singer, described by Charlie Chaplin as his “favourite clown” – the last of the long tradition of physical comedy that stretches back to silent and early sound screen greats like Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy (as well as Chaplin himself), the wise Fools (and foolish Bottoms) of Shakespeare, the commedia dell’arte (where the “slap stick” was a real and very painful prop!), and the racy hilarity of the ancient Greek stage.
The cheeky, wistful, rubber-faced character Wisdom plays – let’s call him “Norman” as well as “the Gump” – may no longer be to everyone’s taste, in the post-Python, post-Blackadder era (though he remains “world famous” in Albania!) but Wisdom’s talent was huge, as was his success. His signature tune might have been “Don’t Laugh at Me ’cause I’m a Fool”, but we laughed with him, as well as at him, and loved his “little man”, because he was a fool, in films like The Early Bird (classic scene: milkman in bed with his horse) and The Square Peg (in which Wisdom doubled as a Nazi General: shades of Chaplin’s Great Dictator).
What is more, as many of us know, Sir Norman had an abiding affection for Deal – though it was the scene of some of his impoverished hard childhood’s hardest moments. His is a remarkable rags-to-riches story, and deserves commemoration –in an affectionate exhibition, as well as in the name of Deal’s popular Wetherspoon’s pub. (Visit them both – they’re only a few hundred yards from each other!)
If you’d like to contribute to the exhibition, write to [email protected] or Kent MOMI, 41 Stanhope Road, Deal, CT14 6AD, with a photograph, if possible.
The museum is also seeking volunteers – especially people who might help with restoration and repair, or the museum’s specialist online shop.