Johnny Beattie: ‘The Clown Prince of Scotland’

By Hannah Grout on January 31, 2024 • ( 0 )

We are excited to share that we have recently completed a project to fully catalogue the archive of Johnny Beattie, a legend and beloved figure in Scottish comedy and variety entertainment.

Johnny Beattie

Born in Govan, John Gerard Beattie (1926-1920) is said to have honed his comic skills while working in the Glasgow shipyards in his teens and twenties. In around 1952 he joined the entertainment industry professionally and went on to have a successful career spanning six decades.

As a comedian and entertainer, writing or co-writing much of his own material, Beattie performed in theatres across the UK as well as touring internationally. He appeared in over 200 television shows, starred in some of Scotland’s biggest pantomimes, presented on BBC radio and Radio Clyde, released two comedy singles (including The Glasgow Rap) and was a popular after-dinner speaker.

Beattie also had many acting credits across stage, television and film. He starred in the film The Big Man (1990) alongside Billy Connolly and from 2002-2015 he played Malcolm Hamilton on the BBC Scotland soap opera River City.

The Archive

Beattie’s personal archive was gifted to the University of Glasgow by his family in 2021. The archive contains material created and collected by Johnny Beattie over the course of his career. Most of the archive comprises paper records related to Beattie’s own shows and performances, this includes:

Scripts for live sketches and pantomimes, as well as TV, film and radio.
Assorted working papers for performances, including draft notes and writings (jokes, topicals and warm-up routines etc.) and running orders.
Sheet music for original song compositions and arrangements
Publicity material, including posters, flyers, programmes and press cuttings.
Photographs of Beattie
Some administrative papers and correspondence, including fan mail.

The archive also contains material collected by Beattie relating to other Scottish comedians from the early to mid-20th century, including scripts, notebooks and photographs. Notably, this includes material created by Jack Anthony, Lex McLean and Rikki Fulton.

The Project

Funded by the Friends of Glasgow University Library, over a three-month timescale the archive was fully processed – this included listing, appraisal, arrangement, description, packaging, selected digitisation and creation of an online catalogue. Here are some progress photos!

Before:

After:

The Johnny Beattie Archive is now available to browse online. You can consult items in person by booking an appointment with the Archives and Special Collections Centre library-asc@glasgow.ac.uk.