IN December 1960 Glasgow’s Alhambra Theatre took the Scottish pantomime in a bold new direction. The production – A Wish for Jamie, starring Kenneth McKellar – reflected the theatre’s taste for innovation.

Two years later, the Alhambra caused a stir with the opening of its Starlight Room, a sophisticated remodelling of the staging that rivalled anything seen in London or Las Vegas.

The panto was written by John Law (Herald columnist Jack Webster wrote that he first came across Law when the latter was working as a copy-telephonist in this newspaper’s building) and choreographed by Peter Darrell, who would go on to become the first Artistic Director at Scottish Ballet.

“Howard & Wyndham boss Stewart Cruikshank, fulfilling an ambition to stage an all-Scottish panto, tossed a caber through the old weary panto routine and came up with a sparkling production that had the audience erupting in wild applause”, wrote the Evening Times reviewer after the first night.

“’A Wish for Jamie’ has the gloss of a slick revue, a Disneyland of nursery-rhyme characters for the kids, Scottish spectacle blown up to wide-screen size ... It’s a show that could be sub-titled ‘How to Please Everybody’. And it’s a triumph for Kenneth McKellar, round whom the panto has been built. Playing Jamie, he’s hardly ever off the stage and goes through a huge repertoire of Scottish songs”.

The panto also starred Rikki Fulton, Fay Lenore, Reg Varney and Russell Hunter; there were pipers and drummers, too (main image, with McKellar in front) and at the end of the first half they marched down the aisle.

In his history of the Ahambra, author Graeme Smith said the debut panto sold out its entire season in the space of two weeks. Jamie would run for years, too.

In May 1962 the entertainer Dickie Henderson sat in the theatre’s front stalls, looked around him once again and said: “London Palladium, Prince of Wales Theatre, Las Vegas – I’ve never seen a setting like this. By George, it’s marvellous”.

Henderson and Glasgow’s own Lena Martell (above) were starring in Five Past Eight at the Starlight Room. The theatre’s stage had been reimagined at considerable expense.

“The Alhambra’s 78-foot wide stage now cascaded into the auditorium”, writes Graeme Smith. “Britain had never seen anything like it before. The orchestra pit was removed and a glass apron stage with wide stairs lit from below tumbled into the stalls, being met by curved gilded stairs from new stages built in front of the boxes for singers and dancers. The stage was given a glossy non-slip black linoleum finish, polished daily and looking like glass”. True to its name, the Starlight Room had no fewer than 5,000 lights.

The Herald’s reviewer noted that Martell sang “pleasantly, both alone and with a chorus”.

Read more: Herald Diary