Bobbie Comber

Bobbie Comber
Born
Edmund Comber

(1886-01-08)8 January 1886
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Died1 March 1942(1942-03-01) (aged 56)
Bangor, Wales
Other nameBobby Comber
OccupationsComedian, singer, actor
Years active1904–1941

Edmund Comber (8 January 1886 – 1 March 1942), known professionally as Bobbie Comber, was a British comedian, singer and actor.

He was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He first appeared on stage in 1904 in Bournemouth, and worked as a civil servant in the War Office before forming his own concert party in 1912. He served in the military in the First World War, and then toured the country in musical revues and the comedy Chu Chin Chow. He first appeared on stage in London at the Adelphi Theatre in a production of The Naughty Princess in 1920.

Comber's first broadcasts were in excerpts from the show Clowns in Clover, and he made more regular appearances as a comedian on BBC radio from 1929, sometimes as one of "Those Four Chaps": Bobbie Comber, Paul England, Claude Hulbert, and Eddie Childs (Childs was later replaced by Arthur Clay, and subsequently by H. B. Longhurst). Comber also performed in a double act with Hulbert.

Legacy

Comber's comedy songs survive on recordings, such as "Barnacle Bill the Sailor", "Does Santa Claus Sleep with His Whiskers Over or Under the Sheet?", and (with Ray Noble's band) "Turkish Delight". He also appeared in British films, including Elstree Calling (1930), Lazybones (1935), and Be Careful, Mr. Smith (1935).

The BBC's entertainment programmes were broadcast from north Wales during the Second World War, and Comber died there, in Bangor, in 1942, aged 56.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ England and Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, accessed via Ancestry.co.uk 2 February 2014
  2. 1 2 5 March 1942, "Chit Chat", The Stage, p.4, accessed via The Stage Archive 2 February 2014
  3. ↑ "BFI Database". Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  4. 1 2 Denis Gifford, The Golden Age of Radio, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1985, ISBN 0-7134-4235-2, p.55
  5. ↑ "Bobbie Comber in Between Ourselves", V&A Museum. Retrieved 16 March 2021