Jimmy Logan

James Allan Short, OBE, FRSAMD (4 April 1928 – 13 April 2001), known professionally as Jimmy Logan, was a Scottish performer, theatrical producer, impresario and director. Family Logan was born in Dennistoun, Glasgow, a member of a family of entertainers; the tradition began with his parents (Jack Short and Mary Dalziel "May" Allan) who were the music hall act Short and Dalziel. His aunt, from whom he took his stage surname, was Broadway performer Ella Logan. He had four siblings including actress/singer Annie Ross. Career Educated at Gourock High School, Inverclyde, and latterly Bellahouston Academy, Glasgow, Logan left school at the age of 14. His family, in the 1930s and 1940s, toured the small music halls of Scotland and Northern Ireland and ran seasons at the Metropole, Glasgow and in the Theatre, Paisley, where Logan became house manager for the family. He was in pantomime by 1944, playing the cat in Dick Whittington and His Cat, and soon became a comedy star with BBC Scotland. His connection with pantomime continued throughout his life, most famously with the long-running pantomimes produced by Howard & Wyndham in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Aberdeen. Logan, starring with Jack Radcliffe and Eve Boswell, held the record number of performances of the famed Five Past Eight shows staged each summer at the Alhambra Theatre. Logan purchased the Empress Theatre for £80,000 in 1964. He refurbished it, reopening it as the New Metropole. One of the last events to be staged there was the first Scottish production of the rock musical Hair.