THE most famous bowler-hatted gentlemen in the world Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy visiting Glasgow where they met up with Jack Graham whom they knew from their early music hall days. Stan - who grew up in Rutherglen - appeared twice at Glasgow's Empire Theatre in the fifties with Oliver. They did a show entitled Birds of a Feather with the playbill showing Harry Worth, who later starred on TV, further down the bill. The dance troupe was called Jill, Jill and Jill, which lacks somewhat in imagination.

When staying at the Central Hotel they borrowed a pencil from the bellboy and Oliver remarked that it was a small pencil. "Just like your tip," he told them, and the laughing duo upped their tip each from a shilling to a half crown. Alas we can't prove the story that when they left Central by train to London they were mobbed by thousands on the concourse. One chap reached in the window to shake Oliver's hand - and escaped with his watch.