Did Bing drink Tennent’s Lager at a pub in Partick?
THERE is an old Tennent’s TV ad, supposedly filmed in a pub in Partick in the 70s, which pays tribute to fans of the famous Glasgow brewery’s popular lager.
“The nice ordinary people like Billy Thomson, Gerry Wallace, Campbell Morrison, Bing Crosby,” says the voiceover, before emphasising with a startled cry: “BING CROSBY?”
The famous crooner is filmed having a wee can alongside “ordinary” Glaswegians – one can only imagine how much the brewery paid for that plug.
Whether or not Crosby really was in a Partick pub – there are suggestions that it was in fact filmed in Ayrshire – there is no denying the singer DID land at Glasgow Airport in September 1966, accompanied by his wife, the actor Kathryn Grant.
The couple were on their way to Gleneagles, where Bing would play in a golf tournament inaugurated by General Eisenhower.
He had arrived from Ireland where he had played in the first match of three between Scottish, English, Irish and American golfers at Portmarnock, but was not scheduled to take part in the final match in St Andrew’s the following week. Instead, he and Kathryn were heading to Canada after the Gleneagles game.
Crosby had been in Scotland the previous month, though this time, he and Grant landed at Prestwick Airport and he was on his way to the Lake District to make a film for a TV company.
The Herald reported at the time that the couple spent half an hour “strolling in the Prestwick sunshine before boarding a flight to Manchester”.
A talking-point for Glasgow journalists on this visit was the somewhat worn quality of his favourite green cardigan – the handwritten note on the back of the photograph in our archive reads: “NB note holes in cardigan.”
(It seems Grant did her best under the circumstances, trying in vain to shield it from photographers. “You can see what kind of seamstress I am,” she said.)
In August 1971, Crosby was back at Prestwick, receiving a piper’s welcome before a week’s golfing at Troon and at Gleneagles. He had arrived on a Pan-Am flight from New York and was promptly besieged by autograph hunters.
The Herald reported: “It is nice to see that people still think so highly of me,” he said. “Most of my work now is for American