“BOISTEROUS comic who became one of the greats”, ran the Glasgow Herald headline over an obituary of Lex McLean, in March 1975.
The obituary noted that he had for 15 summers filled the Pavilion Theatre almost to capacity for six nights a week, and that he was “undoubtedly one of the great Scottish comedians of the last 20 years. Like his predecessor, the late Tommy Morgan, he held a unique place among music-hall patrons, particularly in Glasgow and the West of Scotland”. While he was often accused of purveying “blue” jokes, he said his humour was only boisterous; he was, however, a master of the double entendre.
McLean made just such a remark to the Evening Times in October 1956, on the eve of a Pavilion show, when its showbiz columnist asked him whether his material was blue. “I wouldn’t say I was rude at all”, he replied. “I’m boisterous and that’s all.” The writer noted that McLean had turned down offers of £200 a week in England, and spots at the Glasgow Empire, in favour of his ever-loyal audiences at the Pavilion.
Herald Diary
The photograph dates from June 1961, when, accompanied by his new collie, Glen (his previous dog, which bore the same name, had disappeared a few months earlier, never to be found) he attended a cocktail party to mark the launch of his summer show at the Pavilion. The Pavilion website observes that “plentiful belly laughs were assured when the master of timing with his clever one-liners and asides was the central figure”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here