IT took a lot to raise the spirits of Scots that December of 1941, with a series of increasingly bleak newspaper stories relating to the war, but the festive entertainments, including the pantomimes, succeeded.

A case in point was Aladdin, at the Pavilion. “The bouquets which were presented to the leading members of the cast .. at the end of last night’s first performance,” this newspaper reported, “could be regarded as symbolising the large audience’s appreciation of an outstanding war-time show in which colourfulness of scenery and costume surpassed expectations.” The cast was headed by Jack Anthony and G.H. Elliott

Just the previous day, December 8, large headlines had told readers that Japan had declared war in the Pacific on Britain and the US, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbour. On the eighth itself, Churchill, speaking in the Commons, condemned what he described as ‘calculated and characteristic Japanese treachery’.

There was a wide range of entertainments at the theatres that month. The Glasgow Empire’s attractions included the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) dance band. A new J.B. Priestley comedy, Good-night Children, was on at the King’s, which also staged Lady Behave, a ‘rich treasure-trove of comedy, dance, song, rainbow scenes and story’. Cinderella was at the Royal, starring Dave Willis, Maurice Colleano and Gaston Palmer.

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Herald Diary

Another eagerly-anticipated production was Dick Whittington, seen here in rehearsal at the Alhambra on December 9, starring Eleanor Fayre, Will Fyffe and Harry Gordon. In peacetime, the Herald said, it would be spectacular: “in war-time it is a feast of light, colour, fun and music.”