Scots family helped set stage for variety shows

Remarkable story of Collins family to be revealed in new documentary

They were Scotland’s ‘Greatest Showmen’, who brought variety to the masses and helped nurture some of the greatest stars of the 20th Century.

The story of the Collins family from Glasgow is to be revealed in a BBC2 Scotland documentary tomorrow.

Nearly a century before Hugh Jackman donned a top hat and tails in Hollywood smash The Greatest Showman, the pioneering Scots booked and befriended stars from WC Fields and a young Charlie Chaplin to Stan Laurel and Sir Harry Lauder.

Like PT Barnum with his Greatest Show On Earth, they also showcased a caravan of unusual acts – from Lofty the 9ft 3in giant to the Woman With 10 Brains and Fish-swallower MacNorton, the ‘Human Aquarium’.

Another extraordinary act, the Human Gasometer, would swallow petrol and cook an omelette with a flame from his ignited breath.

The hour-long documentary, the Collins Variety Agency, reveals how Scotland’s first variety agency was launched by showman Fred Collins, an orphan from the East End of Victorian Glasgow who began writing songs for entertainers like his lifelong friend Harry Lauder before turning performer and then agent and impresario.

Fred brought WC Fields, one of the biggest names in vaudeville, to Aberdeen where his juggling act was said to be one of the best shows ever seen in the city. He also introduced a young Charlie Chaplin – then part of a song and dance troupe called the Eight Lancashire Lads – and Dundonian Will Fyffe, ‘Scotland’s greatest character comedian’, still famed for his song I Belong To Glasgow.

It was Horace who created Scotland’s first real theatre circuit including the Pavilion in Glasgow, Theatre Royal in Edinburgh, the Palace in Dundee and the Tivoli in Aberdeen as well as the Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool which helped attract big-name performers from London to Scotland, via the Mersey.

Fred’s other son Pete set up his own agency and became a master of ‘Would You Believe It?’ shows.

The dawn of television brought the golden era of Scottish variety to a close in the 1950s.

The Collins Variety Agency can be seen on BBC2 Scotland tomorrow from 9-10pm.

Pictures: Velvet Wolf/BBC Scotland. Randle Collins, who presided over the final years of the agency, his sister Josette Marchant Collins and son, children’s author Ross Collins.

Pete Collins, bottom left, and some of the performers in the troupe including Lofty.

Performers with the agency included Dundonian Will Fyffe and the Woman With 10 Brains.