“I WAS well-off at that time ... but I didn’t have the kind of money where I could buy a place like the Metropole, and not worry if it wasn’t a success. It would take every penny I had, and then substantial loans from the bank to cover the rest of the cost. I knew it would be the biggest gamble of my life”.
Thus Jimmy Logan, in his autobiography, It’s a Funny Life, of his purchase in 1964 of Glasgow’s New Metropole theatre.
The old Metropole, with which the Logan family had had a long association, burned down in 1961. Alex Frutin, who had run the venue, then bought the 1,325-seater Falcon theatre at St George’s Cross; as Logan narrates, Frutin paid £45,000, renamed it the New Metropole, and spent £25,000 on refurbishments.
In 1964 Logan heard that Frutin wanted to sell up. He was immediately interested. “My heart told me it would be just wonderful to own a theatre”, he writes.
He got to know “every nut and bolt” of the venue and put together a business plan. In the end, he paid £80,000 for the theatre; half on a personal cheque, half from the bank. He renamed it Jimmy Logan’s Metropole Theatre. His father became the managing director and his mother and then wife became directors.
Logan says his mission was to “provide Glasgow with a family theatre based on laughter”. The Calum Kennedy Show opened the new theatre, and the gala opening – Wedding Fever – took place on September 1, 1964.
The first few years were a big success, and there were even two well-attended Royal Performances, but Logan recognised that something was needed to keep the theatre ticking over the summer months. He put together several ambitious plans, but none actually happened (in his book he has little time for the local council and planners). The redevelopment of the area had an impact on the theatre’s fortunes, as did rival attractions such as bingo, and colour TV.
Though a series of plays staged at the Metropole was turned into a 16-week-long series, The Jimmy Logan Theatre Hour, for STV, the outlook for the theatre was looking bleak by the late sixties and early Seventies. Then, in 1970, Logan had the inspired idea of staging the controversial musical, Hair.
It ran for 10 months at the Metropole (pictured) – the company manager was a young Cameron Mackintosh – and was a great success, but this was only a stay of execution for the theatre. Losses continued to mount, and in 1973 Logan reluctantly admitted defeat and shuttered the Metropole. “It was a labour of love, and it was my life”, he writes.
The theatre fell derelict and was badly vandalised. He began to seek permission to demolish the listed building and sell the ground for redevelopment (the theatre is pictured here, in 1981). In the end, he writes, the land was sold to a developer for £7,000.
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