Danny Kaye, Glasgow, 1949

No movie star enjoyed a welcome quite like the one accorded to Danny Kaye on his first visit to Glasgow, when he came to perform at the Empire Theatre June 1949. A record crowd of 10,000 people turned out to greet the flame-haired 36-year-old who was accompanied on his passage through Central Station by pipers while police stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of crash barriers in an attempt to keep screaming teenage girls from rushing at the lanky star as he blew kisses to them and addressed them through a microphone.

No sooner was he safely inside the Central Hotel than Kaye climbed out on to a ledge on the second floor. He entertained the thousands packed into Hope Street with a little jig before sitting down, legs dangling over the side of the ledge, to thank them for their warm welcome. He then ran through to a back window, and repeated the performance for the benefit of the fans inside the station, telling them: “This is something I’ll never forget. If your golf courses are as easy as ours, I’ll move here for good.”

Kaye, it turned out, was golf-mad. Just hours before his sensational opening night at the Empire, he squeezed in a round at Douglas Park Golf Club in Bearsden, and the next day he visited John Letters where he was reported to have “come close to crooning a lullaby” to the driver of the new set of clubs he was buying. Three days later, he had the chance to give them a test run at Gleneagles.

Kaye interrupted that particular round, however, to read the now-historic report of the Californian State Un-American Activities Committee, quoted by Reuters, which named him as a communist sympathiser. “It sounds like a lot of hooey to me,” he commented.

But before going onstage that evening, he told a Bulletin reporter: “I’m very disturbed by the report. The whole thing is ridiculous. It’s getting so that everybody who voted for Roosevelt is a communist.”

Text (c) Alison Kerr

Photo (c) Herald and Times Group. To order a copy of this photo from The Herald’s photo sales website, click here.

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Liberace, Glasgow, 1960

There was little danger of the American entertainer Liberace slipping quietly into his hotel when he arrived in Glasgow to take up a three-week residency at the Empire Theatre on a sunny Sunday in 1960. The 41-year-old known as Mr Showmanship went walkabout among fans of all ages, many of whom would have just recently seen him headlining the inaugural Royal Variety Show on TV – and would have read in the morning papers that he was due to arrive at the Central Hotel at 3pm.

Much of the coverage of the OTT pianist and vocalist’s visit centred on his lavish props and bling-tastic wardrobe.Before he arrived in town, the press was rife with stories about his signature candelabra and piano which had been shipped over from the States for his British tour. The piano, with its inch-thick glass top, was said to be guarded so preciously that it had to be locked between performances.

Over breakfast at noon the day after his arrival (that meal would last him until after his opening show), he told reporters that he had brought 40 suits for “walking out” purposes; the reason he had brought so many being that his 22-week season in Britain took in three seasons of cold, mild and hot weather.

Offstage, Liberace – or “Lee” as he said friends called him – was conservatively dressed in a blue suit and tie. Onstage, however, it was a different matter. On the first night at the Empire his black sequin jacket proved to be just a warm-up for a series of ever more outlandish outfits, culminating in a glittering, beaded tail suit with diamond buttons down the front that spelled out his name. Each costume change was preceded by a droll comment. “I hope you folks will excuse me while I slip into something more spectacular,” he said at one point, adding: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

And just in case anyone couldn’t spot such details as his diamond rings – one in the shape of a grand piano; the other in the form of a candelabra – he descended into the stalls to show them off to individual audience members.

His music – a tribute to Gershwin and a highly personal take on Tchaikovsky were the only musical aspects mentioned in reviews – went down well. However, it was his wry patter – not at all, said the critics, as gushing and “sugary-voiced” as it had been during his old TV series – which most endeared him to the first-night crowd.

Apparently overwhelmed by the applause, he said: “I am going to have so much fun in Glasgow that I’m ashamed to take your money. But I will!” It was a different story by the end of his three-week run, however. Speaking of his disappointment with box office figures in Glasgow – the result, it was speculated, of the fine weather and the steep ticket prices in particular – he told the press that he was unlikely to return to Scotland unless it was for a series of one-nighters.

Text (c) Alison Kerr (2013)

To order a copy of the photo from the Herald Scotland’ s photo sales website, click here

City of Stars 2

The Herald gave the new City of Stars exhibition a great show in the news pages …. It’s at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for the rest of the year.