The real life Bertie Wooster? Plus some other cool stuff.

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

I imagine a lot of you probably know about this already, but a few years ago a Wodehouse scholar named Norman Murphy came out with the theory that Bertie Wooster was modeled on an actor/singer/producer/playwright/songwriter/all-around-talented guy named George Grossmith Jr. Grossmith played a lot of "dudes" and "mashers" on the musical comedy stage in the 1910s, and this was certainly the kind of character that Bertie was based on in his earliest form.


( I muuuurdered her one morning, it was very kindly meant . . . )

I happened upon Grossmith while I was looking around for other possible Bertie Wooster inspirations. It seems that the name Bertie was already associated with dapper, upper-class gents well before Bertie Wooster was born, and I'm sure that Wodehouse was influenced, directly or otherwise, by earlier uses of the name.


( I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at 10:30 . . . )