ALI’S NOTE RAISES £7k
up in conversation with my dentist and he stopped the treatment to say, ‘ I met my wife there. I can’t believe it. I’d love to go back.’
“It’s all come together. We’re even selling T-shirts on the night with ‘ I winched yer da at Clatty Pat’s’ and ‘I met yer maw at Clatty Pat’s.’”
Tina launched Clatty’s with then husband Don Antliff and it quickly became known as the favourite hangout for Glasgow’s nurses.
Tina said: “I’m not sure how the nurses thing came about but Gar tnavel and the Western Infirmary were nearby so they must have found it handy.
“It was an old- fashioned tearoom called Hubbards when we opened it in 1984. I used to go there when I was a wee girl with my mother.
“I take total credit for the name Cleopatra’s. I don’t know where it came from – I just thought of it.
“By the time it opened we had spent a lot of money on it and it was immaculate.
“Most of the money went on concrete under the ground. At one ppoint I said to someone, ‘ I think we’re filling in the subway’ bebecause there was so much underpinningunderpin required for that building. There was masses of it poured in.”
Tina says selling the club in 1991 was Don’s biggest regret. She added:a “We loved that club and he aalways said the biggest regret he hadha was selling Cleo’s. “Its status is the weirdest thing asthereasthere have been hunhundreds of nightclubs but ththey’re not iconic in the same way as Cleopatra’s.Cleopat
“It’sIt’s this club everybody gogoes on about. Who knew when we openedop it we’d ststill be talking about it today?today?”
Sunday Mail
A sympathy note from Muhammad Ali to Nelson Mandela has sold at auction for £7200.
The letter, dated April 13 1993, is signed by the legendary boxer on special stationery prepared for his tour of South Africa.
I t ex pre s se s A l i ’ s condolencesco to Mandela on theth assassination of his anti-an apartheid activist colleagueco Chris Hanid by a far-rightfa extremist.
And it refers to a planned meetingm between Ali and Mandela,M who would
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become South Africa’s president the following year.
The letter was sold at auction in Wiltshire to a US col lector. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “It is a truly iconic crosscollectible.”