THE veteran comedian Jack Anthony had not long returned from a 14-week tour of the Far East, entertaining troops, when he was visited at his Dunbar hotel by Isabel Carson, a BOAC air stewardess, in July 1954 (main image).
She presented him with air tickets for his forthcoming trip to Canada and the US, and, using a model of a Stratocruiser, pointed out where he would be sitting.
Anthony, whose gag-line was “It’s nae bother”, had first appeared on stage at Millport in the early 1930s. Jimmy Logan once told how Anthony and another comic, Alec Finlay, had been put through their paces by their mentor, “a wonderful man named Charlie Kemble, the father of the open-air concert parties”.
Anthony later became a renowned impressionist – Harry Lauder, Dave Willis, Tommy Morgan and Tommy Lorne were among his subjects – and he established a reputation as a light comedian in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
It was in Aberdeen, just before the Second World War, that he first emerged in a star role when he took over as principal comedian at the Tivoli Theatre after Dave Willis had been injured in a road accident. From that point on, he was a prominent name, starring in theatres across Scotland. For nearly 20 years he appeared regularly in panto at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre, often in 16-week-long residences. He also enjoyed a number of seasons in Ayr’s Gaiety Whirl.
In time, he bought the Roxburghe Hotel in Dunbar and retired, except for the occasional charity appearance. His life as a hotelier allowed him to indulge in his favourite recreation, fishing.
He died in February 1962, aged 61. “He was a happy soul,” remarked the Evening Times, “and laughed his way to success among the top Scottish entertainers”.
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