1928 -

America had the Barrymores, England revered the Redgraves. But the only Scottish Theatrical Dynasty of any note was the Logan family. And strange to relate it wasn’t even their given surname.

Jack Short and May Dalziel were a successful singing/comedy act who somehow found time to bring five children into the world. As the kids grew older it was only natural they should join the family business, with each in their own way making a contribution.

The exception was Annabelle who went to live with Auntie Ella in America. It helped that Ella Logan was probably America's best-known Broadway actress/singer at the time. Her showstopping performance in ‘Finian's Rainbow’ is still commented on. Annabelle didn’t do too badly either. She changed her name to Annie Ross and still wows them with her jazz oriented cabaret performances from her New York homebase.

In the mid forties, Jack Short devised a theatre show starring ‘Ma and Pa Logan’ taking the name from his famous sister-in-law. By now an integral part of the team, young Jimmy featured as pianist-singer and was showing comedic promise.. It wasn’t long before the Scottish big-time beckoned in the shape of Howard and Wyndham where he appeared in Summer and Winter seasons for the best part of ten years. Oh, lest we forget, he managed to squeeze in a promising acting debut at age 21 in ‘Floodtide’, a gritty Clydeside Industrial drama. There was also a hit radio series with fellow comic Stanley Baxter where Jimmy conjured up his first catch phrase ‘Smaaashing in’t it?’ in that long drawn out Glasgow drawl.

More films followed. Starring roles in a couple of the Carry-On series. Palladium appearances. He even crossed over to the ‘Legit’ theatre with success in ‘The Mating Game’ in London’s West End. When he achieved one Showbiz pinnacle he seemed to look round for another mountain to climb.

At the start of the sixties he formed a production company with a young Irish writer, Sam Cree. Together they adapted a stage play, called it ‘Wedding Fever’ and another landmark in Scottish theatre was established. When I saw it at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, it had the douce Auld Reekie patrons literally rolling in the aisles. The same couldn’t be said of the Howard & Wyndham management. When the play transferred to the King’s, Glasgow, it played to more paying customers than the nearby Alhambra, the theatre which had been JL’s home these past ten years.

There is a school of thought that feels if Jimmy Logan had based himself in the south of England, he would have achieved the same kind of fame as someone like Jack Buchanan. Indeed he has never hidden his admiration for that International star. But the pull of Scotland, it’s people and it’s theatre life was always too strong. And he never left his native heath for very long.

He has travelled the world taking his entertaining skills to audiences far and wide. Even today, in the first year of the New Millennium, he started the year off in Florida before flying into Kiev in February for what has become an annual fixture in his calendar. Now and again he manages to put his feet up in his Helensburgh home for a few days. But not for long. Once again this summer he stars in the now legendary Pitlochry Festival Theatre repertory season. And just for good measure he is reported to be reprising his one-man show, ‘Lauder’ based on the life of the late, great Sir Harry.

Today Jimmy Logan is Scotland’s elder statesman of all branches of our theatre. In 1993 he produced and starred in a lavish variety show for the official Edinburgh Festival. It was one of the Festival hits. A few years later, when an old producer friend found himself with a Festival fringe venue and no show in place, Jimmy came along at very short notice, produced and starred in his one-man show and became an unlikely Fringe hit!

Show business success invariably brings with it some low times. And Jimmy has had his share. He spent his life savings on a major Glasgow Theatre which, despite his Herculean efforts, bit the dust.

In his recent autobiography ‘It’s a funny life’ (B&W Publishing, so successful it’s now into paperback) he doesn’t shirk the baring of his soul. Just. like the man, he tells it as it was, warts and all.

The late Albert Mackie in his couthy little book ‘The Scotch Comedians’ (Ramsay Head Press, Edinburgh pub.1973) tells of Jimmy Logan, then in his mid-twenties, eloquently campaigning at an Equity meeting for the rights of chorus girls and smaller acts. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. At a presentation luncheon in Glasgow for a lady stalwart of his beloved profession, I listened as the now mature Jimmy, equally as passionate, highlighted the work of the Showbiz Benevolent Fund. He spoke at some length about the need to look after others.

For many years now he has been a tireless worker for the last-named fund. He is also President of the Scottish Music Hall Society and the Sir Harry Lauder Appreciation Society. Various Charities have reaped the benefit of his labours. In recognition of these efforts he was invested with the OBE at Buckingham Palace in 1996, in the company of his wife Angela and his sisters Annie and Heather.

Here’s a trivia question for showbiz fans. What’s the connection between Billy Connolly and Debbie Reynolds? The Logan family of course. It is a matter of public record that Billy made up his young mind to be an entertainer when he saw JL in a Glasgow Alhambra pantomime. The ever young Miss Reynolds in her entertaining cabaret show tells how, as a twelve-year-old, her mother took her to her first Broadway show. After seeing the knock-out performance of leading lady Ella Logan in ‘Finian's Rainbow’, young Debbie told her mother that one day she would be as famous ‘as that lady’.

Somewhere along the way Jimmy Logan managed to amass a valuable collection of Lauderabilia and Scottish Theatre memorabilia amounting to over 500 items. This is now held by the Scottish Theatre Archive at Glasgow University.

The fledgling Scottish Parliament has had rather a sticky start. One fiasco seems to begat another. If the spin doctors want to regain some credibility they should declare Jimmy Logan a National Treasure.

Contributed by Sam Henderson, March, 2000

Sam Henderson is a former ‘Weekly Scotsman’ journalist who also for a time managed the late Scots comic, Johnny Victory. Despite swapping for a life in business some years ago he keeps in touch with theatre and showbiz happenings and is a ‘newboy’ member of the Scottish Music Hall Society. Modesty (he says) forbids his having his own website up and running, but he can be contacted at doordepot@aol.com

Images provided by Sam Henderson

Image of the Logan Family and Harry Lauder flyer by permission of the Scottish Theatre Archives, Special Collections Department, University of Glasgow Library.