 Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko | |
  Location in West Midlands | |
| Established | 1 November 2015 |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 52°24′26.8″N1°29′39.6″W / 52.407444°N 1.494333°W |
| Website | www |
The Phil Silvers Archival Museum in Coventry, England, opened in 2015 and is the only Phil Silvers museum in the world. The museum houses artefacts from Silvers's life including some of his correspondence and clothing.
The museum is dedicated to the American actor Phil Silvers, who was famous for playing Sergeant Bilko on his 1955 to 1959 The Phil Silvers Show . The museum was founded by Steve Everitt, a Coventry resident. [1] Everitt first saw Silvers in a rerun of his show in 1981 when Everitt was a teenager, watching television after his parents had gone to bed. [2] [1] Everitt afterwards sent Silvers birthday and Christmas cards and letters. [1] Everitt, with Mick Clews, founded the Phil Silvers Appreciation Society in 1984. [1] [3] Silvers was supportive of the organisation and contributed a telephone interview to a 1985 episode of the BBC's Pebble Mill at One , on which Everitt was being interviewed. This interview was the last broadcast interview before Silvers's 1985 death. [1]
Everitt went on to establish a shop (Sgt Bilko's Vintage Emporium) at Coventry's FarGo Village, selling television memorabilia. [1] Everitt established the Phil Silvers Archival Museum within his shop, partly funded by selling his home. [3] [2] He found support from Silvers's daughter, Tracey, who donated his correspondence from Everitt and other personal items, and from donations from Silvers's fellow cast members. [4] [1] [5] The collection includes a smoking jacket, waistcoat and a pair of glasses worn by Silvers. [1] The estate of actress Debbie Reynolds donated a jacket worn by Silvers during a screen test for the 1944 film Something for the Boys. [5] A 1940s television set has been modified to continually show episodes of the Phil Silvers Show. [3] The museum opened to the public on 1 November 2015, the 30th anniversary of Silvers's death, and was initially free to enter. [3] [1] Despite being Coventry's smallest museum, it has been described in The Boar (the University of Warwick student newspaper) as "one of Coventry’s major attractions". [3] [4] It is the only Phil Silvers museum in the world and is open seven days a week. [3]
Whilst maintaining the museum Everitt has also helped with the quality control of a DVD boxed set of the Phil Silvers Show and hosted a screening of the show at the British Film Institute. [2] He also successfully campaigned for Silvers to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [1] The museum has been visited by comedians and actors including Phill Jupitus, Danny Baker, Paul Merton, Nick Hancock, Tim Vine and Paul Bradley. [4] [3] Baker donated a signed programme from Silvers's Broadway show High Button Shoes . [4] The museum has also received support from Mark Hamill. [3]
Everitt now co-owns the museum with Clews. [2] They plan to move the museum to larger premises in the future. [3] It was expanded after a successful crowdfunding campaign and expanded again in March–April 2021. It now charges an admission fee of £3. [5]
The University of Warwick is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a government initiative to expand higher education. The Warwick Business School was established in 1967, the Warwick Law School in 1968, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) in 1980, and Warwick Medical School in 2000. Warwick incorporated Coventry College of Education in 1979 and Horticulture Research International in 2004.
Top Cat is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast in prime time on the ABC network. It aired in a weekly evening time slot from September 27, 1961, to April 18, 1962, for a single season of 30 episodes. The show was a ratings failure in prime time, but became successful upon its time on Saturday morning television. The show also became very popular in Latin American countries, and the United Kingdom.
A cardigan is a type of knitted sweater that has an open front, and is worn like a jacket.
Warwick is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is 9 miles (14 km) south of Coventry, and 19 miles (31 km) south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whitnash.
No Jacket Required is the third solo studio album by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. It was released on 18 February 1985 by Virgin Records in the UK and by Atlantic and WEA internationally.
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedic actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah". His career as a professional entertainer spanned nearly 60 years. He achieved major popularity when he starred in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S. Army post in which he played Master Sergeant Ernest (Ernie) Bilko. He also starred in the films It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). He was a winner of two Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on The Phil Silvers Show and two Tony Awards for his performances in Top Banana and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He also wrote the original lyrics to the jazz standard "Nancy ".
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, is a sitcom which ran on the CBS Television Network from 1955 to 1959. A pilot titled "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but it was never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-an-hour long except for a 1959 one-hour live special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army.
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Maurice Lionel Gosfield was an American stage, film, radio and television actor, best remembered for his portrayal of Private Duane Doberman on the sitcom The Phil Silvers Show (1954–1959) and voicing Benny the Ball in Top Cat (1961–62).
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FarGo Village is a creative quarter on Far Gosford Street, Coventry, England. Costing £5 million and opened on 27 September 2014, it is a mixture of mobile catering units, small boutique style units housed in repurposed shipping containers, and larger stores surrounding a marketplace area.
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