Ross Bowie, theatre impresario, producer, agent; born April 29, 1932; died August 5, 1999
The world of showbusiness, fickle and false, demands a sense of humour from its players. Ross Bowie, who picked talent in variety, summer revue, and music over almost 50 years, had a pleasant, but never wicked, sense of fun. He linked this cleverly to business acumen in choosing his product, a feature of a lifestyle that owed much to his father, the legendary George B Bowie, former showman ''king'' of the Clyde and other seaside shows at Dunoon, Gourock, and Largs.
When Ross died, at 67, sadly on the morning of his 32nd wedding anniversary, it was the curtain closing on a long, happy, and successful career as one of the last of Scotland's traditional theatre impresarios and producers.
Just more than 40 years ago he had, on the advice of the experienced music-hall performer and producer George Clarkson, and of his own father, auditioned and taken under his wing two former house-painter lads, Tom and Jack from Lanarkshire, and turned them into a globe-trotting, showstopping musical twosome, the Alexander Brothers. Ross booked the brothers into busy tours to the US and Canada, and to Australia. One of his proudest moments was to find people in New York making it standing-room-only business at the prestigious Carnegie Hall and telling his father that he could not get him a seat.
While he concentrated on the other sectors of his music-club business in Glasgow, Ross would fly out and promote Tom and Jack into cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. He was grateful for an early tip from his variety-show promoter dad: ''No sticking behind a desk for you, Ross. Get stuck in, son, and learn the business the real and hard way.'' Good advice. He slogged over the backstage mechanics and with the lighting men, the scene-shifters, and the sound experts, first at the Theatre Royal and Alhambra in Glasgow, then on tour as an apprentice electrician for the Anna Neagle musical, The Glorious Years. Dame Anna liked young Bowie and, though only in his early 20s, he was eventually made chief electrician with the musical on its arrival in London's West End. One of the chorus-boy ''extras'' was a fellow Scot, name of Connery from Edinburgh. Ross got
to know the future James Bond star well, sharing theatrical ''digs'' with him on the pre-London tour, and kept in touch with him as he moved on to international success.
The Bowie dynasty has gone into a third generation with George Bowie, one of his two sons, finding success as a popular music-man and radio disc jockey (on Clyde 1 and as a pop-music columnist with the Evening Times.) Retiring five years ago, Ross Bowie enjoyed his leisure, despite heart problems, both at his home in Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, and in his handsome, ocean-side apartment at Fort Lauderdale in Florida. He liked to watch his beloved Rangers at Ibrox. He also loved the winter sun and sharing New Year's Eve celebrations with friends and neighbours in America.
Ross was happily married for 32 years to Betty, a production assistant for many years at the Scottish Television studios in Glasgow. He is also survived by his two sons, George Bowie Jr, and Alan, and by his grandson, Ross Jr.
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