The Fun Factory

by Chris England

The Fun Factory is set in the golden decade before the Great War, when the music halls were the people's entertainment, before radio, television or cinema, and bigger than all of them. Arthur Dandoe is a gifted young comedian trying to make his way within the prestigious Fred Karno theatre company. Determined to thwart him at any cost is another ruthlessly ambitious performer - one Charlie Chaplin. Things turn even nastier when Arthur and Charlie both fall for the same girl, the irresistibly alluring Tilly Beckett. One of the two rivals is destined to become the most celebrated man on the planet, with more girls than he can shake his famous stick at. The other. . . well, you'll just have to read this book - his book. It could have been so different.

Genres: Historical Fiction

437 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 9, 2014

Reviews

[Jon Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another borrow from the local library and I need to say, there's a lot to like about The Fun Factory. The author (Chris England, look him up) brings energetic realism to a story whose locations include Cambridge, south London, Paris, and any number of Edwardian music halls.

The characters involved are as colourful as the settings - we get to meet Fred Karno, Syd and Charlie Chaplin, George Robey, Stan Laurel, Marie Lloyd and others.

Why did I find my attention slackening around two thirds of the way through though? Basically, the plot relies very much on the presence of a teenage Charlie Chaplin who's on his way to greater things and while the ongoing romantic entanglements of narrator Arthur Dandoe and showgirl Tilly are lively enough, The Fun Factory needs a stronger actual storyline to really lift its tale of pre WW1 theatrical hi-jinks.

It is a worthwhile read despite my opinions, so don't let me put you off. Or, as a great thespian once declaimed, 'you can't make a Hamlet without breaking egos'.

[Molly McDade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, but I should probably make a point to mention that despite what the forword says, this isn't a 'found memoir'. It's historical fiction, which means he's taken the information found from other sources and spins it into a tale. It's still a fantastic read and quite easy to get into despite it's apparent length, but it is good to know that it is more fiction based around fact, and more of a character study of the people in it than a comprehensive history of their lives. Take as much a pinch of salt with it as you would Wolf Hall (as in, it's as close to factual as you are going to get without it being an actual memoir)

[Giuseppe Ruotolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delight from beginning to end.
There are two more sequels.
I just can't wait.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Readable but unsatisfying piece of 'historical fiction' with more of an emphasis on the fiction than the history. It's a largely speculative take on the early career of Edwardian music hall artist Arthur Dandoe, who was a member of Fred Karno's company and a contemporary of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Jefferson (aka Stan Laurel). Not much is known about Dandoe's life but the author spins a modestly amusing yarn about a rivalry between him and Chaplin apparently based on the flimsy evidence of a single throwaway line from Chaplin's autobiography.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read with a solid premise, but I was a little disappointed to reach the end and realise it was mostly fiction. Yes, in my naivety I believed the foreword. It's certainly an original book that I'll remember I've read, and there's a lot to be said for that when you're a reader who generally forgets the details, characters and plot line pretty quickly.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something about this era which really appeals to me, some of my favourite books have covered this kind of time frame of late Music Hall to early cinema. It's almost the dawning of modernity; we now live in a celebrity obsessed world, but this is following people with talent at a time when they really had to graft to make their way, but you can see today the results of everything they pioneered in those days of Variety and Vaudeville. I'd say this one is something akin to an English version of Glen David Gould's Carter Beats the Devil, following one character from childhood to reaching the top of his chosen profession in the entertainment world. It might not quite compare with that work, but it has more success with the character of Charlie Chaplin than Gould's disappointing Sunnyside.

Here, Chaplin is cast as the villain of the piece, portrayed as something of a showbiz-spoiled brat, both given every advantage via a pushy successful elder sibling and via his natural talent, but developing into a nastier character who will stop at nothing to become number one. The hero is Arthur Dandoe, a real-life contemporary of Chaplin and Stan Laurel, but who is now barely remembered even as a footnote. He's the everyman of the stage world, finding his way via a surprising natural gift, discovered whilst working as a porter at Cambridge, and spotted by the theatre impressario Fred Karno. The entire novel seems to have sprung from Chaplin's autobiography, in which Chaplin never mentions Stan Laurel once (despite rooming with him for three years) and mentions Dandoe only to speak in passing of their mutual loathing. The author definitely sides with Dandoe and Laurel in this long-passed quarrel, and does so with a vivid description of the times, the main players in the world, and a decent grasp of the mechanics of the comedy of the era. Note that although Dandoe is the hero, his is not a persona without flaws. He seems almost as underhand as Chaplin, and has a definite cowardly streak to him, which does seem to round him out more fully, even if in real life little was known. You kind of root for him, but also find a fair bit of satisfaction when life kicks him in the teeth.

If there are downsides to this book, it's that it really doesn't develop the main female character and love interest, Tilly Beckett. It feels as though she may have been edited out, because she seems like she should be such a strong, full element within the work, especially when set against the backdrop of the growing Suffragette movement. It was as if the author had more to say about the glass ceiling, the disparity between men and women, and it was all left on the cutting room floor in favour of becoming a mere object of desire. It's certainly never explained why she remains so distinctly devoted to Dandoe throughout the tale, it would have been good to see her stride off into the sunset alone, and at the top of her professional world.

Still, it's a small criticism of an otherwise sparkling and vivid tale of a time which feels long since past, but is probably more relevant than ever.