Helensburgh Heritage Trust
Helensburgh Heritage Trust
AN American songstress whose voice was used in place of Helensburgh screen star Deborah Kerr’s vocals in ‘The King and I’ is keen to trace her roots – which she believes may also lie in the burgh.
Marni Nixon — who was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in Altadena, California, on February 22 1930 and is known as ‘The Voice of Hollywood' — was working with Deborah on the big-screen hit when she learned from an historian that her family too came from the Helensburgh area.
PROBABLY the most honoured academic ever educated in Helensburgh treasured his memories of his boyhood in the burgh until his death aged 87.
Sir James George Frazer, a leading social anthropologist, folklorist and classical scholar of his time, was a key figure in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion, and greatly influenced writers and thinkers such as D.H.Lawrence, T.S.Eliot and Ezra Pound.
HELENSBURGH man Jimmy Logan OBE — a world famous and colourful Scottish actor and entertainer — served until his death in 2001 as the first honorary president of Helensburgh Heritage Trust and took a keen interest in the work of the Trust.
Jimmy Logan's connections with Helensburgh go back even to the time before he was born, as it was in Helensburgh that his parents, Jack Short and May Dalziel, met each other.
WORKS by a Helensburgh artist whose work is not often seen are featured in the 2008 Anderson Trust exhibition in the Library in West King Street.
The exhibition includes a small collection of watercolours by Rosa Templeton (1867-1936) who came to the burgh when she was one and lived here all her life.
HELENSBURGH film star Deborah Kerr, CBE, who died on Tuesday October 16 2007 at the age of 86, was born Deborah Jane Trimmer on September 30 1921 at 7.40 a.m. to Arthur Charles ('Jack') Trimmer, a civil engineer, and his wife Kathleen Rose, nee Smale.
The couple, who married in Lydney, Gloucester, on August 21 1919, lived in West King Street, Helensburgh.
ARTIST Gregor Ian Smith was born in Helensburgh on April 18 1907, one of three children.
His brother Harold died in infancy, while his sister Mary, grew up to be a talented singer, spending many years as a leading member of Helensburgh Amateur Operatic Society.
SCOTLAND’S leading stage actor of his generation, John Clyde, who died at his daughter’s home at 34 John Street, Helensburgh, on November 1 1920, also had the accolade of being Scotland’s first film star.
Father of film actors Andy and David Clyde, and stage star Jean Clyde, John was the best known actor-manager of the 19th century in his home country — but only the most ardent film buff is aware of his place in cinema history.
THE most famous stage star of the children of actor John Clyde was his daughter Jean, who spent some of her childhood and much of her later life in Helensburgh.
From joining her brothers David and Andy on stage in childhood, she went on to become known all over Scotland, having appeared in many of her father’s productions, and later as the star of other plays.
THE oldest of the three children of a Helensburgh family who became international stars was David Clyde.
Brother of Andy and Jean Clyde, he did not quite became as famous as they did, but he did make a very good career out of stage and film acting.
A STAR of Western films, Andy Clyde, who was born in New Rattray, Blairgowrie, Perthshire, was brought up in Helensburgh where his uncle, Bob Clyde, had grocery shops on Sinclair Street and West Princes Street.
Born Andrew Allan Clyde on March 25 1982 the fifth of six children of Scottish theatrical actor, producer and manager John Clyde and his wife Mary, Andy joined his siblings David and Jean on stage in childhood.
THE great entertainer, Jack Buchanan, was born on April 2 1890 in Helensburgh and died of spinal cancer on October 20 1957 in London.
A major UK musical comedy, revue and film star, choreographer, director, producer and manager with a disarming, casual style, Buchanan's career spanned 40 years.
HELENSBURGH-BORN David MacDonald was a director of British films who trained in Hollywood.
Born in 1904, he made some good thrillers — and the occasional comedy — in the late 1930s and immediate post-war years, but seemed to lose his touch after the Christopher Columbus (1949) disaster.
A MUCH admired feature of the exhibition held by Helensburgh Heritage Trust in April 2007 to mark the centenary of the birth of burgh artist Gregor Ian Smith was an excellent portrait of him by Jon Peaty.
The property of Helensburgh and District Art Club, it was lent to exhibition organisers Helensburgh Heritage Trust for display and also for use as a publicity image.
Click the image above
