Sid Field

Sidney Arthur "Sid" Field (1 April 1904 – 3 February 1950) was an English comedy entertainer who was popular in the 1940s.

He was born in Ladywood, Birmingham, Warwickshire, son of Albert (a canemaker) and Bertha (a dressmaker). Field spent most of his childhood at 152 Osborn Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham. He had entertainment in his blood from an early age. As a child he charged his friends "admission" to his back garden impression shows. Also, he was busking and performing to the lines at his local cinema dressed as Charlie Chaplin (once being cautioned by police for his activities). Field was later praised by Chaplin himself, at whose parties Field was a regular invitee.

Field grew up in Birmingham, where he was educated at Conway Road, Stratford Road and Golden Hillock Road schools, and attended Sunday school at Emmanuel Church, Walford Road. His cousins, "the Workmans", performed in concerts at Moseley Road Swimming Baths in the city, where Field made his stage debut, singing "What A Life" at the age of nine.

His first professional engagement, with "The Kino Royal Juveniles", at seven shillings and sixpence (37½p) per week, came in July 1916, after his mother responded to an advert in the Birmingham Mail. He later worked as an understudy to ventriloquist Wee Georgie Wood in a Birmingham pantomime, then appeared in review at the Bordesley Palace and the Mission Hall in Church Road, Yardley. To assuage the young Sid's stage fright, Bertha gave him a glass of port to drink: by the age of 13, he was dependent on alcohol.

He was godfather to John Blackburn.

Field was unusual among comedy performers of the day, as his act was a multitude of characters and impersonations, at a time when most variety (vaudeville) acts were "one trick ponies". Despite this comedic and acting flair, it was not until he had spent decades touring provincial music halls that Field finally broke into the big time, appearing in London's West End as Slasher Green, the Cockney "wide boy" or "spiv". He became an "overnight" star.

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