Inflated opinion

I recently watched Frank Skinner's TV documentary which painted a portrait of George Formby as a hugely successful artist of his time.  Nothing new there; I'd kind of understood something of Formby's standing before watching the program, but one small twist shone a totally new light on the man, and made me reflect on the power of what Skinner did in the presentation.

Whilst the film footage of Formby to me at least looked dated; of a performer from a certain era, what amazed me was how Skinner had calculated Formby's earnings in today's money.

Formby commanded a fee of £1.5 million per film (and he starred in over 30)
Formby's father, himself a successful artist took home £58,000 per week in today's money

Suddenly, simply by using salary figures that equate to today's stars I was perceiving Formby in a new light; as a savvy, commercially powerful brand and industry leader of his time.  I was drawn to enquire more and ask how did he manage to negotiate such good deals? How did he create and maintain such a strong brand? How did he differentiate himself from the inevitable competition and remain on top?

In musing through these questions I began thinking about contemporary icons; the David Beckham and Robbie Williams sprang to mind for some reason.  Suddenly I'm no longer seeing an old man in Formby but in many ways a peer or role model to current superstars.  And all with a simple recalculation.

I wonder how much differently the older generations would be perceived if everything they referred to was presented in today's real money terms?  Their first house, car, wages, suit, etc.  Would we still chuckle at the cheapness of everything back in the day or realise that we could learn a thing or two ourselves. Whilst it might feel good knowing that your house is worth 20 x the value of your parent's first house it's important to not get an inflated opinion of oneself.