Stanley Holloway (born Stanley Augustus Holloway) was born on the 1st October 1890 in London, England, UK and died on the 30th January 1982 in Littlehampton, England, UK.
Holloway tried to make a go of his first job as a clerk in a Billingsgate fish market, but the call of the theatre was loud and strong. Originally planning an operatic career, Holloway studied singing in Milan, but this came to an end when World War One began. Finishing up his service with the infantry, Holloway headed for the stage again, making his London premiere in 1919's Kissing Time. His first film was The Rotters (1921), and the first time the public outside the theatres heard his robust voice was on radio in 1923. Holloway toured the music hall-revue circuit with his comic monologues, usually centered around his self-invented characters "Sam Small" and "The Ramsbottoms."
Holloway's entrance into talking pictures was with a 1930 film version of his stage success, The Co-Optimist. The British film industry of the '30s was more concerned in turning out "quota quickies" so that Hollywood would send over an equal number of American films, but Holloway was able to survive in these cheap pictures, occasionally rising to the heights of such productions as Squibs (1935) and The Vicar of Bray (1937). In 1941, Holloway was cast in one of the prestige films of the season, George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara; this led to top-drawer film appearances throughout the war years, notably This Happy Breed (1944), The Way to the Stars (1945) and Brief Encounter (1947). Though he'd had minimal Shakespearian experience, Holloway was selected by Laurence Olivier to play the Gravedigger in Olivier's film Pivate Life of Sherlock Holmes.
Gaining an American audience through repeated showings of his films on early-'50s TV, Holloway took New York by storm as Alfred P. Doolittle in the stage smash My Fair Lady - a role he'd repeat in the 1964 film version (after James Cagney had turned it down), and win an Oscar in the bargain.
Continuing his activities in all aspects of British show business -- including a 1960 one-man show, Laughs and Other Events -- Holloway decided he'd take a whack at American TV as the butler protagonist of the 1962 sitcom Our Man Higgins. It's difficult to ascertain the quality of this series, since it had the miserable luck of being scheduled opposite the ratings-grabbing Beverly Hillbillies.
Stanley Holloway persevered with stage, movie, and TV appearances into the '70s; in honor of one of his two My Fair Lady songs, he titled his 1981 autobiography Wiv a Little Bit of Luck.
Holloway's career would never have been so strong had it not eben for his monologues. Some he "borrowed" some he wrote and some were written for him. Over the years there were many writers.
Marriot Edgar [16]
Stanley Holloway [5]
R. P. Weston & Bert Lee [7]
Mabel Constanduros & Michael Hogan [1]
Mabel Constanduros [1]
Ashley Sterne [1]
Greatrex Newman [1]
Archie de Bear [1]
These are based on the lists given in "The Stanley holloway Monologues" Ed Michael Marshall Pub Elm Tree Books 1979
This book was given Holloways blessing and he wrote the introduction in which he says "This is the first complete collection..."
Of course there were many other great monologists (sic) and hindsight and poor memories have confused who did what in the minds of many people.
http://www.monologues.co.uk/index.htm This is as good a place as any (and better than most) to start searching.
