JUST the other evening I went to the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow to see The Life of Benny Lynch, about the Gorbals boy who became the flyweight champion of the world and the greatest boxer Scotland ever produced. It was an inspiring performance which took me back to my boyhood in Aberdeenshire in the 1930s, when Benny was my hero, indeed everybody’s hero.
In the years I have lived in Glasgow however, it has disappointed me to find so many Glaswegians who, at the mention of Benny’s name, have to be reminded of who he was.
Again, when I was a boy in 1938, my father drove our whole family from the North-east on our very first visit to Glasgow for the British Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park. Though as a journalist I have since travelled the world to other great spectacles, I have never seen one to compare with Glasgow’s. As I recall it, around 14 million people shared my joy in a show which brought people from all over the world, including great stars like Gracie Fields and Paul Robeson. It was surely Scotland’s greatest-ever event, at least of last century.
That memory will never leave me. Yet, once again, there are middle-aged people in Glasgow who seem never to have heard of it. Did their parents or grandparents not think of telling them?
Glaswegians will tell you they are the friendliest of people. I suggest they should also become a little more inquisitive – and acquaint themselves with the great heritage of their city.
Jack Webster,
58 Netherhill Avenue, Glasgow.
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