SALLY LOGAN

An unsung heroine who only played in one musical in Britain, and the musical wasn't even British

I was little more than knee-high to a grasshopper when Sally Logan became a star, so I cannot tell you if her moment in the spotlight was glorious. There can be few who now remember her playing in London, for her stardom happened almost forty years ago, and lasted barely a month.

Born in Glasgow in 1941, Sally Logan was only thirteen when she started performing in the city's parks, dancing and singing with her father. Two years later her delightful, open personality and singing voice was featured in a BBC radio series in Scotland. She went on to do a summer season in Largs, and began to establish herself on variety bills, always North of the border. Her diminutive size - she stood at 5 feet - made her ideal for casting as a Babe in the Wood in a 1959 Edinburgh pantomime, and for Christmas 1961 she played Goldilocks, again in Edinburgh. Occasionally, she ventured beyond Scotland - there was a summer season in Scarborough - but it was the land of her birth that offered most opportunity. She became almost a staple as a guest artiste with Andy Stewart (he of 'There was a soldier, a Scottish soldier' fame) and was seen on BBC TV in The White Heather Club, a series that also featured an agreeable Scots singer, Joe Gordon.

For Christmas 1962 she had already signed up as another Goldilocks (Newcastle this time) when she won the leading role of Lili in the British production of the hugely successful American musical Carnival, based on the film Lili. In New York, the production had recently closed after 719 performances; its star had been Anna Maria Alberghetti. Perhaps fearing that British audiences might mistake her for a rare type of pasta, there seems to have been no attempt to transport Miss Alberghetti to London to repeat her role. Only one of the original American cast, the secondary leading man James Mitchell, made the trip. When Carnival unwrapped its delights at the Lyric Theatre in February 1963, not one of the stars caused a flicker of recognition to seasoned playgoers.

If we believe the critics of the time, Logan didn't really take fire in the part of the simple child-like girl who arrives innocently from 'a town called Mira' to join a carnival and to find love (after all, wasn't it the reason for the show's big song 'Love Makes The World Go Round'?) with a grumpy, mixed-up puppeteer. There were lashings of sentiment in Carnival, and a sometimes fantastic score from Bob Merrill, but British audiences didn't warm to the idea, and Logan's one stab at fame was done with in 34 performances. She subsequently said that the title had kept people away. Perhaps so. Certainly, those who turned up at the Lyric for those few weeks were spectres at a rare feast.

From the disaster came a minor miracle - the original British cast recording, made before the show opened in Shaftesbury Lane (interestingly, the whiskered Francis De Wolfe, originally cast as the carnival's owner, can be heard on the recording but in London was replaced by Peter Bayliss)). It seems to me in every way superior to the American recording, not least because Logan cuts through the thick syrup and gets straight down to delivering the goods. She sings it enchantingly and has some lovely things, from the plaintive and open-eyed wonder of her opening number 'Can You Imagine That?', through a racy 'Very Nice Man', a carouselling 'Yes, My Heart' (vocally supported by some of the most macho chorus boys you will ever hear) and a show-stopping 'Beautiful Candy'.

After Carnival? London may have lost sight of her, but she found sanctuary back in Scotland with her ain folk, and in 1968 she teamed up with the singer and composer Joe Gordon, one of whose successes was the persistent 'Fitba' Crazy'. Together, Joe and Sally toured the world, giving recitals of their country and western songs, ballads and comedy numbers, sometimes punctuated by Logan's tap-dancing. At Carnegie Hall and the Festival Hall, Melbourne they got standing ovations. In 2001, they are still working together. I hope our Sally realises how fondly some of us recall her moment in the glare of London's theatreland, and the pleasure her voice has given us.

Selected discography

Carnival (Original London cast recording)
Various recordings with Joe Gordon

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