Arthur Tolcher

Arthur Tolcher (9 April 1922  March 1987), born Arthur John Stone-Tolcher in Bloxwich, Staffordshire, England, was a virtuoso British harmonica player and child star who started his career in the British music halls in the 1930s.[1]

Career

He appeared at the London Palladium at 15 and was an early friend and colleague of Morecambe and Wise. Tolcher was managed by his mother Beatrice ("Beef"), who knew Eric Morecambe's mother well. When the double act became successful, Eric and Ernie did not forget their friend and he appeared for many years in their TV shows. He would come on stage in evening wear and start to play his harmonica (always "España cañí/Spanish Gypsy Dance"), only to be stopped by Eric and Ernie saying, "Not now, Arthur!" He also played in some longer sketches on their show.

In a BBC Radio 4 programme in August 2007, Tolcher's life story was narrated by Stewart Henderson.[2] Although he had applied to work for the BBC many times in the 1950s, he was dismissed as "amateurish". This did not stop him from performing many backing tracks on hit records for singers such as Frank Ifield.

Personal life

Tolcher often worked away from home, but his home was in Bloxwich, in the West Midlands, for many years.

Tolcher, who was a lifelong and devout Roman Catholic, died in March 1987.[1]

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gollark: Modern technology requires on highly complex global supply chains and industry, so you can't exactly just live off a garden and have nice things like "medicine" and "computers" and "electric lighting".
gollark: > And just so its clear I am a minarchist I just think the government needs to do some shitI roughly agree with that. I'm just not sure that the specific set of stuff it needs to do includes phone lines and such.
gollark: You can have... multiple phone line companies? We do in lots of places, even.> you made it so why let anyone else use itThey can pay you for it.> In times of high darwinist selection, it doesn't matter what the current paradigms are.Um. No.

References

  1. "Not Now Arthur!". Morecambeandwise.com. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  2. "BBC Radio 4 Programmes  Not Now Arthur". BBC. Retrieved 15 June 2011.


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