THE former White Elephant cinema in Shawlands, Glasgow, where fire broke out in Tuesday evening, was opened in 1927 by the celebrated Glasgow showman, A.E. Pickard.
When it opened its doors it was the subject of a characteristically zany stunt by the flamboyant Yorkshireman.
According to author Judith Bowers, he advertised dinner and a fur coat, free with the one-shilling admission, to the first 2,000 people to enter the new cinema.
"Women flocked to the building in their thousands, queuing almost back to the city centre, desperate to win dinner and a fur coat.
Shawlands fire: Crews battle blaze in derelict White Elephant cinema
"How disappointed they must have been when they finally got to the front of the queue to discover A.E. Pickard and the cinema manager standing at the front door handing out rabbits".
Bowers mentions the story in her book, Glasgow's Lost Theatre, about the Panopticon on the Trongate. Pickard took over the Britannia Music Hall and in May 1906 reopened it as the Panopticon. Among its many claims to fame, it was the theatre that gave a teenager named Arthur Stanley Jefferson his first break - he went on to find global fame as Stan Laurel, of Laurel and Hardy.
Another author, Bruce Peter, says in his book, 100 Years of Amazing Glasgow Cinemas, that Pickard had staged a contest to name his new cinema in Kilmarnock Road, Shawlands.
It ended up being called the White Elephant and Pickard had a large model elephant mounted over the entrance.
Adds Peter: "The name was quite appropriate to this cumbersome building with its unusual, 'back-to-front' auditorium entered from below the proscenium".
Pickard also installed what he referred to as "lovers' neuks" - double seats without a central armrest. According to Peter, Pickard told reporters at the opening: "I didn't like to see young couples doin' their courtin' in closes and I thought it would be better to 'ave them courtin' in my cinema".
In 1934 Pickard sold the cinema to A.B. King, who speediy dropped the 'White' from the name and scrapped the neuks.
The venue closed in 1960, one of many cinemas that fell victim to rival attractions such as television.
Pickard himself stood as an Independent Millionaire candidate for Glasgow Maryhill at the electon in 1951, but lost his deposit.
Colourful anecdotes abounded. He once offered a £100 note to pay a traffic fine, and sent a £1,000 cheque to a young woman who wanted to marry a man awaiting execution in prison.
He owned more than 400 houses, a waxworks, several cinemas and a monkey house, and died in 1964. He left an estate of £212,381.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here