KEN Dodd arrived at Glasgow’s Alhambra Theatre in late April 1969 for a run of dates, and was happy to sign a petition that called for the theatre to be kept open. The owners had announced the previous November that they were seeking offers for the Alhambra.

As it turned out, Dodd was one of the very last acts to appear there; Frankie Vaughan was next, followed by Cilla Black, and it was Cilla who, on the evening of Saturday, May 24, brought down the final curtain, in tears as she led the audience, its arms linked, in a chorus of Auld Lang Syne.

Dodd was in a reflective mood when he spoke to the Evening Times, recalling the first time he had visited the city, when he played the Empire Theatre, which itself closed down in March, 1963.

The Empire’s manager, Frank Mathie, he said, “had the nice habit of meeting all the members of that week’s company.

“When he came to me he said, ‘I suppose you’ll be the comic’. I admitted it and he went on, ‘Well, just remember, no religious jokes, no football jokes. And you’ll get the bird on Friday night! ... Don’t take it personally, but everybody gets the bird at the Empire on a Friday night’.

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“By the time Friday night came along I was petrified.

“I was almost numb when my turn came to go on stage. I think someone gave me a push, but I stumbled on, my eyes twitching and my teeth flashing on all cylinders.

“My hair was standing upright, but I don’t know if it was lacquer or fear that kept it that way .

“I was just getting into my act when a bloke brandishing a half-bottle of whisky lurched on to his feet and shouted ‘You’re rotten’ then fell back into his seat.

“However, from then on, everything was just fine - I didn’t get the bird.”