Thread: Frank Randle
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Old 07-08-2014, 08:50   #17
Gremlin
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Re: Frank Randle

I was looking for information regarding "Over the garden wall " an old variety act in the 40's, Ethel Manners, part of the act, lived two doors from me in Walsden and when we had a holiday in Southport she invited us back stage to meet the other "stars".
I cannot for the life of me remember the man in the act, anyway while searching I came across the little snippet.

Frank Randle,once bombarded Blackpool from an aeroplane with toilet rolls (according to an episode of Rude Britannia, broadcast by the BBC on 15 June 2010, the toilet roll bombardment actually took place over Accrington, not Blackpool). Randle's police charge sheet is lodged with the Lancashire Constabulary collection, cared for by Lancashire County Museums.

Similarly, when the new-wave comedians of the late Seventies first let fly their four- letter expletives, they never knew the debt they owed to dangerous Frank Randle. Barred from club after club in the 1940s for use of blue language, Frank thought he'd stumbled on a foolproof way to swear on stage without winding up the management. First he would write 'F' on a blackboard, and his stooge would say, 'Why d'you write 'K' up there?'. Frank would reply, 'Why is it every time I write 'F', you see 'K' '. For that he was thrown out of the theatre at Blackpool and barred for an entire summer season. Frank was so annoyed, he hired a plane and bombed Blackpool Tower with toilet rolls.

edit:
I just found what I was looking for, it was Norman Evans who did the "Over the garden wall" comedy act.

Take your pick which is correct, Accrington or Blackpool, Wikipedia is not 100% reliable.
He died in Blackpool of gastroenteritis in 1957 and is buried in Carleton Cemetery, Blackpool.
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Last edited by Gremlin; 07-08-2014 at 08:53.
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