THE Glasgow husband-and-wife act of Grace Clark and Colin Murray first met each other at a concert party in Dunbar in the mid-Twenties. They went on to form a piano act – Grace singing and playing the piano, and Colin singing. They were engaged on Christmas Day, 1929. “What a year we picked to get married,” Grace later reflected. “There was the Depression and the cinema talkies had just come in, murdering showbiz.”
They continued as a straight act until after the war, when their comedy potential was spotted. They appeared on the bills with such notable artists as Harry Lauder, Will Fyffe, Tommy Lorne and Ella Shields, and were often referred to as Mr and Mrs Glasgow.
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They were the perfect double-act both in public and private life. On stage, Colin always appeared with a hang-dog expression, subjected to the constant nagging of Grace; at home, however, she insisted that it was Colin who was the boss.
Jimmy Logan, owner of the Metropole, who described Clark and Murray as “two old pros who could always make me smile and roar with laughter”, got the playwright Sam Cree to write them a play tailored to their talents. The result, Wedding Bliss, was a success, especially at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. “The critics thought Grace was magnificent, and Clark & Murray were essentially rediscovered,” Logan wrote in his memoirs.
Colin died in April 1989, aged 84, at home in Ayrshire. Grace died, aged 90, in an Ayr nursing home in 1995.
One piece of music was always on display on the piano at the couple’s house: And I Love You So. “That’s our favourite song,” Colin once said. “Every day of my life I sing it. And every time Moira Anderson sees us – it could be in the supermarket – she sings it out, loud and clear, And I Love You So...”
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