FOR Liz Taylor, it was just another lunch date with friends, even if it was in Rogano, the renowned Glasgow restaurant. For her fans and for the media, it was, however, an entirely different story.
Journalists and members of the public surrounded the 47-year-old star as she made her way to, and from, Rogano on September 4, 1979.
Her visit, noted the Glasgow Herald, had been leaked beforehand, "but Liz made a far from spectacular entrance. Casually dressed in a baggy yellow sweater and dark slacks, she looked pale after reputedly being confined to bed with a bug over the weekend, and appeared startled by the waiting crowd".
She smiled for the onlookers, and gave a kiss on the cheek to a 21-year-old fan who had stood in the steady drizzle for almost three hours to hand over a posy of roses.
But her smiles quicky faded as she swept through Rogano's busy public bar and became irritated at the attention of photographers. "Have you no manners?", she snapped at one point.
The beautiful illusion: Profile - ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Taylor - "still battling with the bulge after a £10,000 crash diet" - ordered a starter of mussels mariniere, followed by fillets of Dover sole bonne femme with broccoli and peas, washing them down with Pouilly Fume Michel Redde, 1977 vintage, and ended with Highland coffee with Drambuie.
The informal, ninety-minute-long lunch for four had been arranged by the actress Tracy Reed, the wife of Bill Simpson. Taylor had been on holiday with friends at Rannoch Lodge, Perthshire.
Taylor is just one of countless celebrities who were photographed by the Herald on visits to Scotland. Here we look at some of the others - from Leonard Bernstein to Charlton Heston.
Leonard Bernstein
Two years before his death, the great American conductor, composer and pianist Leonard Bernstein flew into Glasgow to take part in preparations for Scottish Opera’s world premiere of his revised comic opera, Candide.
It was mid-May 1988. The rehearsals for this production of Candide began at the Theatre Royal with Scottish Opera’s music director, John Mauceri, and the opera’s director, Jonathan Miller (pictured here with Bernstein). Bernstein, 69, arrived at the airport somewhat bleary-eyed; he said he had been travelling for 36 hours non-stop and was desperate for a good night’s sleep.
Students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, “excited by Bernstein fever”, implored the owners of a nearby pub, Intermezzo, to dispense with its usual muzak for the duration of Bernstein’s stay and replace it with some of his own compositions. The owners complied, and collected no fewer than 17 tapes of his work.
The Duchess of York
THE Duchess of York was the centre of attention in July 1990 as, as accompanied by Glasgow's Lord Provost, Susan Baird, she visited the Royal Hospital for Sick Children to officially open a new £400,000 total body scanner unit.
As she was guided round Ward 6A of the hospital by consultant paediatrician Dr Krishna Goel and Sister Lynne Robertson, the Duchess chatted to almost all the youngsters and staff on duty.
Frank Sinatra
IT was a concert that will never be forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to be there. Frank Sinatra, Ibrox stadium, July 1990.
“Oh yes, it was a major organisational shambles, which makes it all the more galling for those who missed out,” wrote Jack Webster in the Herald. “Because this was also, without doubt, the greatest show business night I have seen during 30 years in Glasgow.
The celebrated Glasgow theatre that attracted countless legends
"I thought my days of shouting and waving were 40 years behind me but there I was, a sober-suited citizen well past that kind of thing, now behaving like a teenage fanatic.”
On a cold summer night, the stadium became a cauldron of worship for the greatest popular entertainer the world had ever seen, Webster continued.
THOSE WERE THE DAYS 1990: The night Ol' Blue Eyes mesmerised a Glasgow audience
Pundits had said that Sinatra’s voice was long gone, “so we would be doing no more than fitting a memory to an inferior reality. Francis Albert Sinatra gave his own magnificent answer. From the moment he strode on to that massive stage, he transformed that bleak Scottish night into an occasion which we quickly sensed was going to live with us for ever... The sound of an appreciative Glasgow audience went with him into the night sky and, by all accounts, delighted him".
Miles Davis
Fourteen months before his death in September 1991 at the age of 65, the legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis played the SECC in what was a major coup for the Glasgow International Jazz Festival.
When Miles Davis came to the Glasgow Jazz Festival
"The concert itself was a blast", Jim Smith, the then director of the festival, recollected in The Herald in 2005.
"It was a great show, with great sound, and there was plenty of it. Miles took his shades off and looked into the audience. He soloed and jammed head to head with his much younger band mates. He held up signs with the name of the previous soloist and prowled around whispering in the ears of his band members. There was no encore.
"After around 90 minutes Miles simply walked off stage during his version of Michael Jackson's Human Nature with big generous wave to the crowd".
Charlton Heston
The Hollywood film star received an enthusiastic welcome in Glasgow in June 1990. He and his son Fraser were greeted by hundreds of fans at the Cannon Cinema on Sauchiehall Street as they arrived to watch the remake of the Stevenson classic, Treasure Island. The film, directed by Fraser, starred Heston snr as Long John Silver.
John McEnroe
The tennis star, three-time winner of the men's singles at Wimbledon and four-time winner of the US Open, won the 1989 Scottish Lawn Tennis Association's championship trophy at Craiglockhart, Edinburgh, by defeating his old rival, Jimmy Connors.
McEnroe beats the demons and Connors to lift Scottish title
His performance, "the perfect climax to the Bank of Scotland Grasscourt Championships", wrote the Glasgow Herald, "was beyond reproach until he lost control and the demons took over for a brief spell in the second set.
McEnroe surprised by Scottish strength
"Bad words tripped out, but he bit his tongue and was able again to channel his feelings towards beating Connors".
Chuck Berry
The legendary rock 'n' roll pioneer arrived at Glasgow Airport in January 1973. He happily obliged an autograph hunter (above) but was slightly less forthcoming in front of journalists and photographers, perhaps because his luggage was delayed and his limousine was late.
Those Were The Days 1980: Chuck Berry entertains Glasgow as only he knows how
He had not long topped the UK charts with his innuendo-laden novelty hit, My Ding-A-Ling. To no-one’s great surprise, it had provoked Mary Whitehouse into complaining to the BBC, asking them not to play it, but the Corporation’s then director-general, Charles Curran, disagreed, saying the Beeb “did not think [the song] would disturb or emotionally agitate its listeners”, and wondering, ever so subtly, whether Mrs Whitehouse’s efforts had not, in fact, inadvertently boosted sales of the single.
Denis Healey
LABOUR'S Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey, showed his talents on the dance-floor at Castlemilk Labour Club in April 1979. Like his senior Cabinet colleagues Healey was on the campaign trail in order to push Labour's manifesto during the general election campaign.
Healey made typically pugnacious attacks on the Conservatives during his two-day visit to Glasgow. The Tories, under Margaret Thatcher, had the last laugh, however - they won the election, ushering in 18 years of Conservative rule.
Liberace
THE flamboyant American entertainer, Liberace, never did anything by halves - a habit extended to his wardrobe.
When he arrived in Glasgow in June 1960, prior to a three-week run at the Empire Theatre, he chatted to reporters over breakfast in his hotel suite. The fact that it was midday did not go un-noticed.
He said he had brought no fewer than 40 suits with him to wear during his 22-week-long season in Britain. After all, he reasoned, those 22 weeks would take in three seasons of cold, mild, and hot weather. His “walking-out” suits were each worth between $200 and $300; he also had stage suits - the average price of a stage jacket was $1,500. His most expensive stage suit? That would be the suit of tails with diamond buttoning, worth about $10,000.
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