"Presenting Jimmy Logan O.B.E."
The third son of Scottish music hall entertainers Jack Short and May Dalziel. He was one of five children who appeared on stage as the Logan Family. One sister is the international jazz singer Annie Ross and his aunt was Ella Logan, the original star on Broadway of the musical "Finians Rainbow". His nephew Domenick Allan, appeared in cabaret and on Broadway in "Blood Brothers" and Domenick's wife, Leigh, has just finished in the Broadway production of "Chicago" His other nephew John Short, is manager of the Churchill Theatre Bromley. As Jimmy recounted in his recent autobiography, "It's a Funny Life", he began selling programs, chocolates and cigarettes in his father's summer show in Northern Ireland, during his school holidays at the age of seven. Leaving school at fourteen, Jimmy became assistant manager of the Victory Theatre in Paisley. At nineteen, he was prinicipal comedian at the old Metropole Theatre on Stockwell street, in Glasgow before he moved to Howard and Wyndham and starred for ten years in the famous "Five Past Eight" revues at the Alhambra Theater. He made 150 radio broadcasts with Stanley Baxter and was in the opening programs of both Scottish Television and the BBC Scotland Television. He was the subject of "This is Your Life". Some outstanding productions include his one man musical "Lauder" which he wrote, based on the life of his hero, Sir Harry Lauder, which opened at the Lyceum Edinburgh with a Royal Performance and was revived for the Edinburgh International Festival and later toured in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. "Lauder" was filmed for television as a ninety minute solo performance and won the "Roses" award frrom the readers of the Sunday Mail. In 1993, he devised and produced "The Fabulous Fifties" as part of the official Edinburgh International Festival and it was the London critics choice as one of the outstanding productions of the year. After a lifetime of Music Hall, Television and Review, he changed direction. 1981 he appeared in "Harvey" 1986 "The Entertainer" as Harvey Rice 1990 "Sunsets and Glories" as Cardinal Gaetani/Pope Boniface with Freddie Jones and Marius Goring, at the West York Playhouse. 1991 "Uncle Vanya" in Basingstoke and "Comedians" at the Royal Lycem, Edinburgh. The critics review of "Death of a Salesman (1992), "The Big Picnic" (1994) as the Colour Sgt. of the H.L.I. together with "On Golden Pond" (1996) established him as a serious actor. 1998 "The Celtic Story" at the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow and in Dublin, Ireland. He completed his autobiography of 130,000 words titled *"It's A Funny Life" published by B&W Edinburgh in November 1998, which was in the Scottish Top Twenty book list and is being re-issued in paperback, December 1999. *Note: I have had the priviledge of listening to this book on audio cassette, thanks to Gordon Irving. It is a heartwarming account of growing up in the theatre. It will bring a smile to your lips, laughter to your heart and a tear to your eye. A must read-- Edie
On television with many other appearances, he recorded the character of the Father-in-law in "Rab C. Nesbitt" His films include: "Floodtide" with Gordon Jackson "Carry On Abroad" "Living Apart Together" "The Wild Affair" "The Accidental Golfer" in Sweden
1997 "My Life So Far" produced by Lord Puttnam "Captain Jack" with Bob Hoskins "Lucia L'Amour" from the Opera 1998 "The Debt Collector" with Billy Connolly 1999 "The Summertime Is Come" a new Scottish play by Tom Gallacher and "Great Expectations" with Edith MacArthur, both now playing at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Over the years Jimmy Logan, has starred in 35 pantomimes including Pantomime at the London Palladium. He has made nine coast to coast tours of Canada and the US, where he made three appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York. He appeared in nine Royal Performances including the Royal Scottish Variety Performance at the Kings Theatre, Glasgow, devised and directed by him in aid of the City of Glasgow Hospice in the presence of H.R.H. Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales. He had the honor of acting as host to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at a special evening at Glamis Castle featuring poetry by Dame Judi Dench and Michael Williams. In 1998, at the invitation of Sir Cameron MacKintosh, he appeared in London at the Royal Performance of "Hey Mr. Producer" a very special video. In 1999, both the Glasgow Art Club and the Scottish Branch of the Variety Club of Great Britain, gave Tribute Dinners to him. Honorary President of Erskine Hospital for Disabled Ex-Servicemen and Women Past President and now Trustee of the Show Business Benevolent Fund Trustee of the George Urie Scott Benevolent Fund Patron of many Charities Member of the Grand Order of Water Rats
Appointed O.B.E. in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to entertainment Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and Drama Doctors of Letters of the Glasgow Caledonian University Recipient of the prestigious Gulliver Award for the continued Excellence in the Theatre
I feel safe in saying that Sir Harry Lauder is in heaven leading the applause for the seventeen year old lad that was so thrilled to be invited to Lauder Ha' and who along with Gordon Irving, has done more than any other living person to keep his memory alive and well.
Jimmy Logan Dies April 13, 2001
Yes, there are tears behind the smiles. The Scottish actor and entertainer Jimmy Logan, in a career that spanned over six decades, shared triumph and setbacks, sorrow and laughter, as he followed, good trouper, in the theatrical footsteps of his vaudeville parents.
His family, in the 1930s and ‘40s, toured the little music-halls of Scotland and Northern Ireland. Reared almost in the proverbial backstage trunk, the boy Jim was one of five children billed with his parents Jack Short and May Dalziel as the Logan Family At seven he was cheekily selling programmes in a summer show which his father ran in Northern Ireland; at 12 he was in a wartime charity show with Sir Harry Lauder, the legendary Scot who became his idol.
This writer recalls a visit to the long-gone little Metropole Theatre in Glasgow when he flagged future success for a boyish Logan, then 19. Two years later the lad was jumping delightedly over the moon when he landed a contract for the feature film “Floodtide” (starring with Gordon Jackson).
Little did that youthful entertainer know, back in 1947, that his eventual triumph would be Lauder: The Golden Years, a one-man musical which he was to stage three decades later at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, before Princess Alexandra, and then take on tour to South Africa and Australia; the impresario honours were shared in that show, incidentally, with a youthful Cameron Mackintosh. .
. Then, some 20 years later, and for Millennium year, Logan was to hone and polish that one-man play and make it, at the prestigious Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Perthshire, quite the best thing he had ever done. When he closed the first half with the scene in which Lauder, on stage in London, gets a telegram telling of his only son’s death in World War 1,there was scarcely a dry eye out front, and standing ovations became the rule. During that run in the summer and autumn of 2000, Logan kept a a sad secret,sharing it only with his wife Angela and his producer Clive Perry. He was diagnosed as having inoperable cancer and, like the professional he was, decided to keep the news under wraps until the season ended and he started chemotherapy.
His long career, from 1948 to 2000, covered the homespun Scottish variety scene of the 1940s through radio, TV, comedy films, and plays like The Entertainer and The Sunshine Boys. Some theatregoers claimed that, as Archie Rice, he was even better than Olivier.
There were also those who felt that, had he left Scotland at the start of his career, he might have proved as successful as that other Glasgow-born actor Jack Buchanan, whom he greatly admired, But he did get to make the West-End in farce with Brian Rix at the Cambridge Theatre, and at the Palladium in pantomime and a Royal Variety Performance, By the 1960s he was finding success with the production of fast-moving domestic comedies One, titled Wedding Fever, by Sam Cree, an Irish writer, was a financial success in Scottish theatres, giving Logan the itch to run his own playhouse.
And he did just that. In 1964 he bought the Empress Theatre in the heart of Glasgow, re-named it Jimmy Logan’s Metropole and staged both variety and plays as well as a Royal Performance with Princess Margaret in attendance.
But the enterprising actor-manager found it hard to make his box-office show profits at a time when television was taking over. After three years his theatre put up the shutters and its once optimistic proprietor lost a sizeable sum from his bank balance.
He became part of the official Edinburgh Festival in 1993 when he produced and appeared in an all-Scottish entertainment, mixing the modern with the traditional, and giving his contemporaries from the variety sector an opportunity to show their talent in a prestigious arts junket previously denied them.
He was a longtime champion of Scotland’s light-entertinment performers, claiming they got little if any support from the Scottish Arts Council. Time and again he hammered that theme, citing the Council’s alleged hostility to variety as an art.
Kind-hearted and ever ready to help a charity, he cherished the welfare of fellow performers, was a past president of the Scottish Show-Business Benevolent Fund, and was always on hand to speak a sincere eulogy at the funeral of a fellow-actor. He spoke so many of these orations that he once joked: “I wonder who’s going to deliver mine?” An instance of his thoughtfulness was his annual drive on Christmas Eve to a nursing-home in Edinburgh when he collected a veteran musical clown to be an honoured guest at his own home on the west coast. Logan was awarded an OBE in 1996 for services to Scottish theatre, an occasion which reminded him that one of his earliest meetings with Royalty had been to entertain two young Princesses and their mother at a castle in Fife..
In private life, sadness came with divorces from, in turn, Grace Pagan, daughter of a music-hall act; Gina Fratini, dress designer; and Pamela Donald.. Fortunately, marital happiness came finally in 1989 when he married Angela, a lady who was to prove a truly devoted wife and companion in the final years of his life and career. It was a full life, one that was - -to quote his hero Sir Harry Lauder - “filled with joy and sorrow, too”. A life of showbiz tours and travels, tinged with a sadness amid the laughter-making. Gordon Irving
Jimmy Logan (James Short), actor-manager and comedian; born Glasgow, 4 April 1928; married Angela.
Jimmy Logan Smash Hit in "The Golden Years"
Update: Excerpt from a letter from Sam Henderson who attended "The Golden Years" Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000.
"I remember in a long-ago conversation with Duncan "John" Macrae (I called him Mr Macrae of course) he extolled the value of actors bringing to their craft the lessons they had already learned in life. Emotions for example could be best displayed by those actors who had experienced these highs and lows. I reflected on these words last night when thinking of JL's superb performance. He has honed and polished the Lauder thing to become quite the best thing he has ever done. When he closed the first half with the Telegram Scene, there was scarcely a dry eye in the house, myself included. Like many others I have followed Jimmy Logan's career thro Variety, Radio, TV, the Sam Cree era, parts like Archie Rice, plays like The Sunshine Boys and The Big Picnic. And while I have enjoyed his work it was always as a good entertainer expanding his horizons. But LAUDER is by far the best thing he has ever done. And if he does nothing else he deserves to be remembered for this. As I pointed out to Kate. Remember this is a man in his 73rd year, cavorting about on stage for almost two hours with a huge script to get across, and many, many songs to deliver. And he is confined to a backing tape which means his timing has to be spot on, as it was."
Jimmy Logan received a well deserved standing ovation.
FOLLOW THAT!
The world of British entertainment has lost another legend, Jimmy Logan succombed to cancer April, 13, 2001. I have lost a cherished friend.
BBC Farewell to Jimmy Logan
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