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Singer/songwriter Max Bygraves was enormously popular in postwar England, releasing a steady stream of popular "singalong" records while being widely seen and heard on television, radio, and in the movies. His most famous catch phrase was "I wanna tell you a story!"; his own story is a real-life tale of rags to riches. Walter William Bygraves was one of six children of Battling Tom Smith, a flyweight professional boxer and occasional dockworker, in a rough part of London. Bygraves showed his talent early, singing and doing impersonations for customers along his paper route and at parties, and was tapped for a solo performance at Westminster Abbey under the sponsorship of his music teacher. He joined the RAF at the start of the second World War, and on his first night in the barracks entertained his fellow troops with an impersonation of "The Cheeky Chappie," a 1930s music hall comedian named Max Miller. His fellow soldiers started calling him "Max," and the name stuck. Bygraves marri...