On This Day 7 October 1967 Jimmy Gold died. He was a member of the Crazy gang and lived in Streatham as did other members of the act
The Crazy Gang were a group of British entertainers, formed in the early 1930s. In the mature form the group's six men were Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold. The group achieved considerable domestic popularity and were a favourite of the Royal Family, especially King George VI.
Essentially the gang comprised three double acts; Flanagan and Allen, Naughton and Gold, and Nervo and Knox (with some input from Gray).
Naughton and Gold had the most remarkable rise to fame. The Glaswegian pair had been whisked up to London after only one appearance in a provincial music hall and had immediately been taken under the wing of Moss Empires. From then on, they survived to become the lngest running double act in the history of variety. Some ten years older than the rest of the 'Gangsters' they were an integral part of of the London pantomime scene for over thirty years from 1908. Their pantomime speciality was slapstick - splashing whitewash, chucking buckets of soapsuds and catapulting soggy dough into the gallery. These sprightly clowns had been together for 47 years by 1959 - and with the Crazy Gang for 27 years and more than 11,000 performances!
The story and music of the Crazy Gang were featured in the 1981 musical Underneath the Arches, first performed at the Chichester Festival Theatre and later at the West End's Prince of Wales Theatre.
