IN emerging from the closet at the weekend (via a Herald on Sunday feature) Stanley Baxter revealed that the real Rikki Fulton remained hidden behind his Francie and Josie teddy boy outfit, his IM Jolly black suit and his fabulous panto frocks.
Baxter, one of Scotland’s greatest entertainers, had been appearing in the role of Heterosexual for all of his 94 years. The reality was his marriage was a sham, born of a desperate need for conformity – and to avoid public opprobrium and jail.
But should he have revealed that Scots comedy icon Fulton was also gay? Perhaps more importantly, should he have gone on to add that Fulton was “full of bile.”
Social media has been awash with comments running both ways. There are certainly supporters of Rikki Fulton who chose not to believe the criticism, or think that he was best remembered as an entertainer.
Yet, that’s not responsible. We need to be made aware of the dark side of the showbiz personality because it offers a salutary lesson in how not to behave.
And the reality was Stanley’s critique of Rikki Fulton barely began to touch the sides.
On a personal level, my first (and last) experience of Fulton came about when I interviewed him 30 years ago for a TV special. Straight off, he turned the tables: “Tell me, Brian. What is your favourite passage from the Bible?” he said in that lugubrious drawl, without even a hint of a smile.
It was apropos nothing. It was an attempt to make me wriggle uncomfortably. It worked. What can you say to a TV icon whom you’d adored since the early 1960s? “Sorry, Rikki. I’m afraid the Bible is a lovely collection of fantastical adventures that at best operate as parables?”
What I did, however, was write up the feature mentioning his Biblical question; was he a religious zealot, or a Brylcreemed-hair power-crazed bully?
He never spoke to me again. Indeed, he complained to my features editor. No loss. But that was only an example of how vituperative the star could be.
In the past 30 years I’ve listened to comments about Rikki Fulton from those who worked with him – a range of people – and a source very close to Fulton’s wife.
Fulton, it transpires, was a man with the ability to wreck lives. Writers will form a queue to tell how he rubbished their ideas, made them feel small. TV producers speak of not being able to get out of bed, the prospect of working with the comedy giant causing them to shrink with terror.
Taggart star Colin McCredie once revealed in a quiet moment that when he was just 12 years old he worked with Rikki in panto. The youngster was getting great laughs night after night with a great line, until after one show Fulton suggested he didn’t repeat the gag. The little boy was confused. But he listened to the command, and the laughter subsided. It was only after a few nights that he realised the laugh had been cutting into Fulton’s on-stage arrival.
Was Fulton ever generous? Not often. Actors such as Tony Roper and Gregor Fisher doff their caps to the genius that was Rikki Fulton. But perhaps they were able to separate the performer from the man.
And Rikki Fulton apparently made one young male dancer’s panto life so difficult (“This was #MeToo stuff before it had been recognised,” said one theatre producer) that the sexually harassed young man had to be transferred from the King’s Edinburgh to the Pavilion in Glasgow the following year, by way of damage limitation.
Fulton certainly made the life of Jack Milroy’s wife Mary Lee difficult, not allowing her in his home. Even worse, Fulton’s wife Kate revealed that her husband didn’t wish her to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The shadow, he felt, would darken his own character. Kate Fulton died of liver problems.
Fulton was also as weird as he was wicked. When one Scots entertainer (who asks not to be named) showed up at the home of Rikki and Kate, the comedy star remained upstairs, playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on piano while his guests remained below, at the uncomfortable dining table.
Baxter certainly wasn’t trying to score points against a rival when he revealed what sort of a man Fulton was. (Why would he have to?). What he was doing was revealing a not very nice man, whose bitterness against the world may have been compounded by keeping his sexuality a secret.
Yes, it’s sad that Baxter kept his sexuality a secret, sharing his personal life only with friends. But it’s even sadder Rikki Fulton kept in the closet, perhaps contributing to his anger and malevolence.
Baxter was right to tell his story. We need our icons to behave far better than that.
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