Morecambe and Wise (I) - What Do You Think of It? Quiz | Celebrities

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In November 1925, Harry and Connie Wiseman had a son that they called Ernest. In which Yorkshire city was he born?

Answer: Leeds

Ernie was a talented singer and dancer from an early age, and began working professionally with his father in clubs around Yorkshire in an act called "Bert Carson and his Little Wonder", which eventually became "Carson and Kid".

2. In May 1926, George and Sadie Bartholomew welcomed their first, and only, child into the world. Although he was always known as Eric, what was his first given name?

Answer: John

Unlike his future comedy partner, young Eric Bartholomew had no great desire to go into performing professionally, and had to be encouraged by his mother, who paid for dancing lessons and took him to various talent contests in Lancashire.

3. In 1939, Eric won a talent contest at Hoylake, the prize for which was an audition in Manchester for which impresario?

Answer: Jack Hylton

The audition in front of Hylton was the first encounter between Eric and Ernie, who had been taken on by Hylton as a new child star in January 1939, and had been marketed as "Britain's Mickey Rooney". At both the Hoylake talent show and the audition or Hylton, Eric performed a routine devised by his mother around the song "I'm Not All There", wearing a costume consisting of short trousers, a cut-off tailcoat, beret and kiss curl, while holding a large wooden lollipop.

4. During the early years of the Second World War, Eric and Ernie worked as part of a touring show called "Youth Takes a Bow". Although they were hired as solo performers, who encouraged them to start working as a double act?

Answer: Sadie Bartholomew

When the show was performing in Oxford, Ernie had been unable to find a room, and was invited by Sadie to share the digs she and Eric were staying in, after which Ernie began to travel with them. It was during a week performing in Birmingham, to which they had to travel by train from Coventry, that Sadie first suggested to the pair that they channel their teenage energies into working on a double act, as much to give her some peace and quiet as any potential she saw in them.

They made their first appearance as a double act at the Liverpool Empire in 1941.

5. On his 18th birthday, Ernie received his call-up papers to serve as part of the war effort. Given a choice, with which service did he eventually serve?

Answer: Merchant Navy

Given a choice of going into the Merchant Navy, the Army or working in the coal mines, Ernie elected to join the Merchant Navy, and joined the Gas, Light and Coke Company working on barges ferrying coal between the coalfields of North-East England and Battersea Power Station in London. During periods when he wasn't required for work on the coal barges, Ernie continued to try and find work in the entertainment industry in London.

6. When Eric was called up, he was one of the 10% of conscripts chosen to work as coal miners rather than go into one of the services. As what were these conscripts known?

Answer: Bevin Boys

Although Eric was initially passed A1, meaning that he was fully fit enough to work as a miner, after eleven months working in a coal mine near Accrington in Lancashire, he was discharged when problems were detected with his heart. Eric would continue to suffer heart problems for the remainder of his life.

7. Following the end of the Second World War, Eric and Ernie eventually reunited and began the long and arduous search for work in the entertainment industry. In 1949, they auditioned for the theatre manager Vivian Van Damm at which notorious London venue?

Answer: Windmill Theatre

The Windmill Theatre was famous for its "tableaux vivants" or living statues, which would feature motionless nude girls on stage, as part of its "Revudeville" line-up of rolling variety. Eric and Ernie were hired for an initial week's engagement, with the prospect of a further five-week option.

However, after only three days Van Damm informed them he would not be taking up the option. On the last day of their week at the Windmill, they were spotted by a theatrical agent, Gordon Norval, who took them on as clients and proceeded to start finding them work on the regular variety circuit.

8. Having made a name for themselves on the variety circuit, Eric and Ernie were approached by the BBC to appear on radio. What was the name of their first radio series?

Answer: You're Only Young Once

"You're Only Young Once" (commonly referred to as "YOYO") was a sketch/variety show loosely based around the premise of the guest stars approaching the Morecambe & Wise Detective Agency to assist them with some problem. Broadcast on the BBC's Northern Home Service, it was produced by John Ammonds, who would later serve as Morecambe & Wise's producer for the first years of their BBC television series.

9. Both Eric and Ernie were married within six weeks of each other in the winter of 1952-53. They had met their respective wives on the variety circuit, but what were their fianc�es trained as?

Answer: Dancers

Ernie met Doreen Blythe during Morecambe & Wise's time touring in Lord John Sanger's Circus and Variety Tour in 1947. After a five year courtship, Ernie proposed on Valentine's Day 1952, and they married on 18 January 1953. Eric first encountered Joan Bartlett in June 1952 while they were both appearing at the Edinburgh Empire, and they were married on 11 December of the same year.

10. In the summer of 1953, Eric and Ernie were doing summer season in Blackpool when they were approached by BBC Television executive Ronnie Waldman about headlining their own television series. What name was it given?

Answer: Running Wild

Broadcast live over twelve weeks in the summer of 1954, with an episode shown every other week, "Running Wild" was not the immediate and expected success for Morecambe and Wise that they envisaged. Owing to the perception that they were "too northern" for a national audience, the producers brought in a large group of writers intended to improve their appeal.

Instead, the show got uniformly poor reviews during its entire run, the most famous of which was headlined "Television - the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise".

Source: Author Red_John

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Morecambe and Wise (I) - What Do You Think of It? Quiz

In 1939, Eric Bartholomew encountered Ernest Wiseman, and comedy history started. How much do you know about the early years of the boys that became Morecambe and Wise?

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