Teen singing star who shone at Barrowland
Earliest memory of Glasgow? I am 84 now but I still remember the sound of the bombs dropping on the night of the Clydebank Blitz, March 13, 1941. My sister Alice was born that night. The ambulance came to take my mother to Rottenrow Maternity Hospital.
Favourite cinema?
The first picture house I went to was the St James Paramount on Stirling Road, in Townhead. The locals called it ‘the buggy’…. My favourite was the Carlton.
One or two of us would pay to get in, whilst the rest would skip in through the back door. We often got caught and received a clip on the ear before being ejected.
My favourite teacher at school was Miss Crosby, who became Mrs Smith eventually, when she married John Smith, the bookie. Miss Crosby was a change from the older, stricter teachers.
Schoolday memories?
My favourite dancehall was the Barrowland. I would go with my
Where did you go dancing?
pals and we enjoyed listening to the band leader Billy McGregor. I also remember hearing a wonderful, talented singer who would go on to become very famous Lena Martell. Lena was only 14 years old at the time but she was allowed to sing as she had a school permit.
Happiest memory? Playing in the Molendinar Burn with my friends – it was once the cleanest burn in Scotland but became run down. We also used to play in the grounds of Barony Street primary school. It was called the Martyr School and we’d play there from morning to night so our parents always knew where we were. We searched for and sold ginger and beer bottles, rags and woollens and scrap metal to earn a few shillings. I still live in Glasgow and have never moved away from my birthplace. Happy, happy days and fantastic memories.
Send us your memories of growing up in Glasgow – fill in our questionnaire here www. glasgowtimes.co.uk/my/ccn/ assignment/UF5MLbMZ/
WHEN Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) arrived at Renfrew Airport in August 1965, he was greeted by hundreds of adoring fans – and members of the Braemar Ladies Pipe Band from Coatbridge.
The boxer was riding high – he had sensationally beaten the world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach the previous February.
The visit to Glasgow was part of a long tour of exhibition matches, and during his stay in the city he popped into the BBC studios, then at Queen Margaret Drive in the West End, for a private screening of a film about his life.
Evening Times sports writer John Quinn interviewed Clay on the day – the only newspaper journalist present.
“For an hour I sat with him and watched his transformation,” he wrote. “I was the only newspaperman present to see him throw off the quiet brooding mood and revert to such sayings as, ‘I am the greatest, I am the prettiest, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee’.”
Clay seemed to enjoy the film, which started with him talking to Harry Carpenter and went through every stage of his life. There were, however, a couple of awkward moments in the film, notably when one interviewee claimed that Clay was ungrateful to the people of his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
“But there were some amusing incidents too,” Quinn wrote. “When the youngster who played the young Cassius Clay was running to school, for example, Clay squealed in joy, ‘Gee, that’s cute, that was a great idea, this is a wonderful film.’”