The Glasgow theatre show that was seen by 10 per cent of all Scots

The Cannon cinema, Sauchiehall Street, 1987 (Image: Newsquest)

The subject is expertly covered in Bruce Peters's peerless book from 1996, 100 Years of Glasgow's Amazing Cinemas.

One nugget from the book's introduction speaks to a well-known fact, but one that bears repeating: in 1939, the year in which war broke out, the city had no fewer than 114 picture-houses, with a combined seating capacity in excess of 175,000. More cinema seats per head, to put it another way, than any other city in the world.

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Glaswegians, on average, went to the pictures 51 times a year, as opposed to the 35 occasions enjoyed by the average Scot, and 21 times by the average English cinema-goer. And for most people in Scotland's largest city, Peters adds, there were at least two cinemas within a 10-minute walk from home.

The Toledo, at Muirend (Image: Copyright and courtesy of CSG CIC Glasgow Museums)

A typical day’s listings, from the entertainments adverts in our sister paper, the Evening Times, in 1945, are studded with cinema names that were familiar at the time; the Mayfair (Langside), the State (Shettleston and King’s Park), the Embassy (Shawlands), the Kingsway (Cathcart Road), and the Olympia, in Shettleston.

The numerous films on offer that night ranged from The Thin Man Goes Home, starring William Powell and Myna Loy, to The World Owes Me a Living, with David Farrar and Judy Campbell.

The Paramount cinema at night was a striking sight (Image: Newsquest)

Few cinemas of the era were as elegant as the Paramount, which was opened in December 1934. Peters observes of it that it was the designed as central Glasgow's first, entirely new, free-standing cinema, and was the city's - and Scotland's - most lavish super-cinema. With its imposing facade and and its five tall windows framed by fin-shaped columns, Glasgow, he adds, had never seen a piece of architecture quite like it.

In its later life the Paramount became the Odeon, continuing to screen the latest films while doubling as a concert venue, capable of putting on acts as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan.

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Some cinema buildings were showing their age and no use could be found for them once they stopped showing movies, and were demolished. But there's little doubt that more than a few fine buildings were lost forever.

Glasgow has also counted the cost when it comes to its old theatres. Among them were the Lyric, the Empire, and the Metropole.

A list of Glasgow theatres, past and present 

The most famous of them all, perhaps, was the Alhambra, which was opened in 1910 at the corner of Waterloo Street and Wellington Street. In its time it staged numerous pantos, the elegant Five Past Eight shows and Scotland's first Royal Variety performance, and was also home to the Wilson Barrett Company, Scotland's largest repertory company.

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Author Graeme Smith describes it thus, in the opening lines of his introduction to his book on the Alhambra: "The most advanced theatre in Britain, the Alhambra opened in 1910 and stayed ahead of other theatres.

A queue forms outside the Alhambra theatre in Glasgow for the Five Past Eight Show starring Jimmy Logan (Image: Newsquest)

"Famous for glamour and humour, variety, ballet, pantomine, musicals, opera, drama and dance, the Alhambra expressed the prowess of Glasgow and its environs". The Alhambra, he adds, "was a modern theatre, its entertainment exuberant".

Jimmy Logan once recorded with pride that nearly 400,000 people - "almost 10 per cent of the Scottish population" - flocked to the 24-week-long summer season of Five Past Eight in 1959, which he headlined with Jack Radcliffe and Eve Boswell. It was the "most magnificently successful run ever".

So many stars of the era appeared at the Alhambra that it would be very difficult to list them all. Among them: Mae West, Betty Grable, Ken Dodd, Max Bygraves, Vivien Leigh, Claire Bloom, Shirley Bassey, Marlene Dietrich and Eartha Kitt. The Swiss clown, Grock, was described by the Evening Times's Jack House as the funniest Alhambra performer of all time.

Mae West arrives at the Central Hotel - she was in Glasgow to produce her play Diamond Lil at the Alhambra (Image: Newsquest)

Dietrich appeared at the theatre in November 1966, and sang everything from The Blue Angel to Pete Seeger, “and on the way she was sad and happy and funny by turn, and made us feel sad and happy and funny along with her,” observed this paper’s critic.

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“Perhaps her sad songs are the best. There is more feeling, certainly, when she sings of the follies of love and war; and that was when she reduced her listeners to complete silence, a rare feat in a Glasgow theatre.” And of course there were the old favourites – Falling in Love Again, See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have – all sung in those distinctive swooping tones".

The Alhambra's 1942 panto, Jack and the Beanstalk: Hilary Allan with Harrry Gordon and Will Fyffe (Image: Newsquest)

As Smith records, the theatre's owners, Howard & Wyndham, put the Alhambra up for sale in November 1968, seeking offers of £500,000. It was said that there not enough big stars nor big shows available to keep the theatre busy. Smith observes: "There was some truth in that because writers were concentrating on television".

Despite a huge campaign and a protest petition, Glasgow Corporation declined to buy the theatre, even at a discount, and the old place staged its final show in May 1969.

Cilla Black, the star of that night's Startime show, was in tears as she led a chorus, at the end, of Auld Lang Syne, sung by the audience as it linked arms.

Ironically, that finak week was one of the most successful in terms of box-office business in the Alhambra's 58-year history.

In 1971 a property developer bought the Alhambra for £350,000. He demolished it and built a huge office block in its place.