Edit Loving secret of Glasgow's White Elephant
The Shawlands theatre was the brainchild of Albert Pickard - the man responsible for the Panopticon.
With money made from the Trongate theatre he decided to build his new venture and in 1927 the doors of the White Elephant were thrown open.
It could hold audiences of 1900 and was unique in its ''neuk seats'' - designed specifically for courting couples.
Pickard sold the White Elephant in 1934 and the new buyer renamed it the Elephant. It lost money and closed in 1960.
I'd love to know where the White Elephant used to be. I had a feeling it was on Kilmarnock Road, near where The Cell is now, but I don't know where I got that from. Wouldn't it be great if there was still a theatre / cinema in Shawlands??
The White Elephant was indeed on Kilmarnock Road opposite Woolworths and about 200 yards south of Shawlands Cross. I spent many enjoyable times there and as a 14 year old (1956) saw my first nudie film there. In those days it was a movie about nudist camps and all "actors" carried towels draped over an arm and covering their funny bits. At that time there were three movie houses, one about 200 yards further south (can't remember name) and one at Shawlands Cross on, I think, Mosside Road called the Waverley (I believe there's a restaurant in that building now)
The other cinema was called the Embassy
If memory serves me right Woolies has been on both sides of Kilmarnock Road, moving across to the "Rogano" north-bound side when the Arcade was built. So the "white elephant" was on the north-bound side? When did they pull it down, same time as the arcade went up? As a kid and young adult I loved coming up top Shawlands. Now the commercial parts are sadly run-down.
Yes indeed there was three The Embassy, The Elephant and The Waverley. The Waverley was the venue for the A.B.C minors club, the Saturday treat was travelling from pollokshaws west to shawlands for the Saturday club, after the show if it was batman we wore our duffle coats as hoods, if it was a cowboy film we would slap our buttocks and pretend we where wild west cowboys, Zorro was the endless sword fights, acting out these scenes we would always have some really stupid adult asking what was the film this week, it was only years later I actually twigged the adults where teasing us.