Max Miller Marine Parade Plaque
The unveiling of the new plaque dedicated to the late comedian, Max Miller, at 160 Marine Parade was hilarious. And with Roy Hudd and Sir Michael Aspel doing the unveiling, I expected nothing less! The first plaque dedicated to Max is on 25 Burlington Street, off the Kemp Town seafront, where he lived from 1948 until his death there in 1963. Max, often referred to as ‘the pure gold of the music hall’, was born in 1894 at 43 Hereford Street (a possible site for a third plaque?!) as Thomas Henry Sargent. He began developing his stand-up skills whilst serving in the army during the First World War in front of fellow soldiers. The stone tablet that I mentioned is at the Downs Crematorium on Bear Road though, and I do apologise, I’m not too sure where the Max Miller bus is presently but it’s likely to be around town somewhere!
Although the Max Miller Appreciation Society were responsible for the Marine Parade plaque, Brighton & Hove City Council now has a plaques committee of its own. Perhaps unsurprisingly, funding hasn’t exactly rolled in but there are plans in the pipeline to create a plaque for Charles Augustin Busby, the architect behind Kemp Town and Brunswick Town. These ideas, along with the schemes from Walk of Fame (at the Marina) and Brighton & Hove Buses, are brilliant ways to ensure that the great are not forgotten.
See the Max Miller Appreciation Society’s website, www.maxmiller.org, for more information on Max and the Society. As Max used to say, "They’ll never be another!".
