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| Film Fun | |
|---|---|
 Film Fun annual 1947 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Amalgamated Press Fleetway Publications |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 17 January 1920 – 15 September 1962 |
| No. of issues | 2,225 |
| Editor(s) | Frederick George Cordwell ("Eddie the Happy Editor") |
Film Fun was a Britishcelebrity comicscomic book that ran from (issues dates) 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged withBuster, a total of 2,225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fifties. As the title suggests, the comic mainly featuredcomic strip versions of people fromfilms from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Film Fun was launched byAmalgamated Press (they would later release similar titles likeRadio Fun,Sports Fun, andTV Fun). Pre-war circulation at its peak was around 800,000 copies per week.[1]
The title was renamedFilm Fun and Thrills in 1959 (when Amalgamated Press was bought by the Mirror Group; later known asIPC). In 1962, sales ofFilm Fun dropped below 125,000 a week, prompting IPC to merge the comic withBuster.
Picture Fun merged withFilm Fun soon after its launch in 1920, followed byKinema Comic in 1932,Film Picture Stories in 1935,Illustrated Chips in 1953, andTop Spot in 1960.[2][3]
Frederick George Cordwell was better known toFilm Fun fans as "Eddie the Happy Editor." Cordwell edited the comic until his death in 1949, aged 62 inRichmond, Surrey.[citation needed] Cordwell wrote many scripts for the strips as well as text stories forFilm Fun. He introduced the idea of characters receiving huge plates ofbangers and mash, giantChristmas puddings, and pies and such from grateful beneficiaries of their efforts. Cordwell even made it into the stories himself, "meeting"Laurel and Hardy a number of times,Joe E. Brown,Wheeler and Woolsey and other characters.[citation needed]
The cover of the first edition featuredHarold Lloyd but named as "Winkle", the screen name by which he was known in Britain at the time. Apart fromLaurel and Hardy,Film Fun used to feature many film and stage comedians of that era likeCharlie Chaplin,[4]Abbott and Costello,[5][6]Buster Keaton,Ben Turpin,[7]Jackie Coogan,Fatty Arbuckle,[7]Joe E. Brown,[7]George Formby,[7]Wheeler & Woolsey,[7]Max Miller,[7]Lupino Lane,[7]Red Skelton,[4]Harold Lloyd (namedWinkle in those days),[8]W. C. Fields,Terry-Thomas,[4]Sid Field,Frank Randle,Morecambe and Wise,[9]James Cagney,[10]Tony Hancock,Sid James,The Goon Show,Frankie Howerd,Tommy Cooper,[11]Martin and Lewis,Arthur Lucan (in his drag role as Old Mother Riley) andBruce Forsyth. There would also be serialised cowboy films featuring stars likeRoy Rogers andGene Autry. There were also detective stories featuring a fictional detective named Jack Keen.
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Media related toFilm Fun at Wikimedia Commons