Legend Max Bygraves - his loves, fame, Rolls Royces and life in Torquay

Born on October 16, 1922 Max (Walter William) Bygraves was one of nine children of Henry and Lilian - staunch Roman Catholics. They lived in a council flat at Rotherhithe in London where the young Max would often drag the River Thames to collect driftwood to earn added pocket money.
He was 13 when as an alter boy his love of music made him think this might be a way out of his poverty. His first public appearance came when singing Handel's Largho at Westminster Cathedral and later when still a teenager he regularly sang at a pub in Dagenham for ten shillings a night before going to work at a local advertising agency. With the commencement of the Second World War, Max was already a volunteer fitter at the RAF and now his comedy impressions about the great Max Miller developed.
Having met Gladys (referred to as Blossom) at RAF Hornchurch in 1941, they would marry and produce three children, Christine, Anthony and Maxine. By the 1950's Max was undertaking radio comedy on the Archie Andrews show and by the 1960's was in Torquay with the Educating Archie Show at our Princess Theatre. Using catchphrases like 'That's a good idea son' or 'I wanna tell you a story', he would top no less than 17 annual Royal Variety Shows and play at over 200 theatres. He admitted later to being one of Britain's highest paid entertainers as even in the mid 1950's he was known to be earning £1,000 a week allowing to always own and in fact drive a Rolls-Royce.
During the 1960's Max purchased homes at Torquay and Bournemouth which allowed him to appear in local shows. He received his OBE in 1962 while meanwhile his son Anthony was taking an interest in Babbacombe Theatre and eventually ran it for a number of years during the 1970's. Max's marriage lasted 69 years although he had various affairs until the scandal broke out. Blossom then discovered he had three illegitimate children yet she still stayed with him. His singing talent gave us amazing songs like 'If you were the only girl in the World' and 'You need hands' and 'Melancholy Baby' or 'You're a pink toothbrush' while among films in which he appeared on the big screen came Tom Brown's Schooldays and A Cry from the streets during the late 1950/60's. Eventually, his "Singalongmax" shows of the 1970's were overtaken by Beatlemania in Britain leading Max to appear mainly on television and not live theatre. In continuing to write songs in 1998 came his memoirs and finally he recorded an album for the Royal British Legion in 2001. Now with Blossom he moved permanently to Australia where sadly two years before his death he had alzeheimers, having lost Blossom in 2011. Now all his children agreed to bury the past.
This former star of radio, theatre, television and the large screen mixed and played with all the greats of the era including the Beverley Sisters, Peter Brough, Ken Dodd, Charlie Drake, Val Doonican, Bob Hope, Roy Hudd, Des O'Connor, Frankie Vaughan and Harry Worth. His special pal and friend Jimmy Tarbuck said of him: "I have nothing but lovely memories of him - he had the audience in the palm of his hand - quicker than any other comedian I have seen and you don't get that love often." Similarly, the actress Barbara Windsor would state: "The public loved him - and some people thought he just walked on stage and did his thing, but he had the whole package - incredibly talented."
Max described himself simply as 'an ordinary cockney bloke who made it' yet having sold over 6.5 million albums and been the owner of no less than 53 Rolls-Royces in his overactive lifetime, that word 'ordinary' does not seem quite right.
IAN'S COMMENT An absolutely amazing British entertainment star that had strong family connections which survived his secret life exposed late in life.