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unusual facts about Gaiety Theatre, Ayr



1987–88 Australian region cyclone season

Charlie struck Ayr, Queensland in March 1988, killing one person and leaving $2,300,000 dollars (1988 USD) in damage.

2006–07 Australian region cyclone season

With the first advice, a cyclone watch was immediately declared for the Queensland coast between Ayr and St Lawrence, and TCWC Brisbane upgraded the low to Tropical Cyclone Odette on 3 March.

Alex Bell

Born in Cape Town, Cape Colony, to Scottish parents, Bell began his professional football career as a centre-forward with various clubs in Ayr, including Ayr Spring Vale, Ayr Westerlea and Ayr Parkhouse.

Allan Monkhouse

He began to write drama for the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, shortly after it was opened by Annie Horniman, along with Stanley Houghton and Harold Brighouse, forming a school of realist dramatists independent of the London stage, who were known as the Manchester School.

Andrew Heron Wilson

Wilson was son of Andrew Wilson and Grace (Heron) his wife, was born at Ayr, Scotland, and educated at the Ayr Academy.

Anthony Glavin

In 1963, during his first year at UCD, he was approached by the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society and played Jack Point in The Gaiety's production of The Yeomen of the Guard.

Ayr and Maybole Junction Railway

The Ayr and Maybole Junction Railway (A&MJR) was a railway in Ayrshire, Scotland that provided services between Ayr and Maybole.

Ayr Corporation Tramways

These survived the closure of the Ayr system in 1931 and were transferred to South Shields Corporation Tramways.

Billy Mayerl

In the 1930s Mayerl composed several works for the musical theatre including three connected with horse racing, Sporting Love, opening at the Gaiety Theatre, London in 1934, Twenty to One (Coliseum 1935), and Over She Goes (Saville 1936).

Billy Sanders

Billy Sanders regained his Australian crown and won his sixth and last Australian Championship in 1985 at the Pioneer Park Speedway in Ayr in Queensland, where he would reverse the previous years result by defeating Crump, with Queensland's Stan Bear finishing third.

Burdekin Bridge

Despite these setbacks, the new bridge greatly assisted in travel between Ayr, Queensland and Home Hill, Queensland and formed a vital link between North and South Queensland.

The Burdekin Bridge (known as the Burdekin River Bridge or Silver Link) spans the Burdekin River between the towns of Ayr and Home Hill, Queensland, Australia.

Charles Orr-Ewing

Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing (1860–1903), Scottish Conservative MP for Ayr Burghs from 1895–1903

Colm Ó Foghlú

More recently, he was Musical Director for Riverdance at the Gaiety Theatre and in 2006 wrote and directed a modernised dramatisation of the great Irish mythological epic Táin Bó Cuailgne.

DECpc AXP 150

The charter for the development and production of the DEC 2000 AXP was held by Digital's Entry Level Solutions Business, based in Ayr, Scotland.

Diarmuid and Grania

The play, in three acts, was dedicated to Henry Wood, and its first performance was by Frank Benson's English Shakespearean Company at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on 21 October 1901; it appeared in a double bill, being followed by Douglas Hyde's Casadh an tSugáin (The Twisting of the Hay Rope) performed by Irish-speaking amateurs supplied by the Gaelic League (the first Irish-language play ever seen on a regular stage).

Draped Reclining Figure, 1952–53

The sculpture, catalogued as "LH 336", was cast in an edition of four (or "3+1"; one being retained by the artist); there is also a cast study for the work (LH 705) which is on display at Castleford Civic Centre and the Rozelle House Gallery in Ayr.

Frank McAvoy

He also played for Scottish Football League clubs Ayr and St. Mirren, and for Southern League clubs Brighton United, Gravesend United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford.

Gaiety Theatre, Ayr

During its 106-year history, its stage has seen performances from comedians, singers, variety acts and icons such as Harry Lauder, the jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Ken Dodd and a host of other stars.

Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

The theatre played host to the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, the first to be staged in Ireland, during the Gaiety's centenary year.

They sold it in 1965, and in the 1960s and the 1970s the theatre was run by Fred O'Donovan and the Eamonn Andrews Studios, until - in the 1980s - Joe Dowling (former Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre) became Director of the Gaiety.

Gilbert Arthur à Beckett

His adaptation of a French operetta by Émile Jonas called The Two Harlequins opened the new Gaiety Theatre, London in 1868, together with his distant cousin, W. S. Gilbert's, Robert the Devil and another piece.

Glen Michael

Michael also starred in several pantomimes with Jack Milroy and completed many enjoyable runs at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow, the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr and the Edinburgh Kings in various productions and plays.

Henry Chance Newton

Works attributed to Richard Henry include Monte Cristo, Jr (burlesque melodrama 1886); Jubilation (musical mixture 1887); Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim, a parody of the Mary Shelly novel Frankenstein, presented at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in 1887; and Opposition (a debate in one sitting 1892).

Henry Erskine

Sir Henry Erskine, 5th Baronet (c. 1710–1765), Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayr Burghs 1749–1754 and Anstruther Easter Burghs 1754–1765

Henry Pettitt

Their Gaiety Theatre musical burlesques included Faust up to date (1888), which remained a hit for several years and coined a new meaning for the phrase "up-to-date", meaning "abreast" of the latest styles and facts.

Ian Welsh

In the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in May 1999, Welsh won the seat of Ayr by just 25 votes (0.07%) over the Conservative and Unionist candidate Phil Gallie.

International Boy Scouts, Troop 1

On December 12, 1911, Clarence Griffin and the Scouts, mostly British and all students of Saint Joseph College, the primary and secondary school for foreign boys located on the "Bluff" in Yokohama, gathered at the Gaiety Theater on the Bluff to demonstrate Scouting skills and to officially celebrate the beginning of the troop.

Kel Ayr

Kel Ayr controlled the sedentary populations of the trading and farming centers in Assodé, Agadez, In-Gall, Timia and Iferouane.

Lily Castel

It was a race against time for the pair, not least when they arrived in Dublin to find that the stage layout at the Gaiety Theatre was unsuitable for the routine they had rehearsed.

Margaret Cruwys

She was born in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland, and was the daughter of Alexander Houghton Abercrombie, an officer in the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.

Marie Studholme

In 1900 she took over the role of Nora from Violet Lloyd in The Messenger Boy at the Gaiety Theatre, London, where she enjoyed great success with the wartime song hit, "When the boys come home once more".

Martnaham Loch

Martnaham Loch (NS 396 172) is a freshwater loch lying across the border between East and South Ayrshire Council Areas, 2 km from Coylton, in the parishes of Coylton and Dalrymple, 3 miles from Ayr.

Paul Burns

Burns played for a number of youth teams, including the same Ayr Valspar Boys Club side as Scottish international defender Kirk Broadfoot.

Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet

Born John Hunter, the son of an Ayr merchant, he became a banker in the banking company of Sir William Forbes, and acquired the estate of Robertland.

South Ayrshire

The buildings were built in 1931 on the site of Ayr Jail and opened by King George VI.

St. Leger Stakes

The race was switched to Ayr in 1989 after the scheduled running at Doncaster was abandoned due to subsidence.

Struan's

The fictional Struan family is based on the historical Jardine family of Jardine-Matheson fame, and hails from Ayr, Scotland.

The Beltanes

The Beltanes live performances notably included headlining several times at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, and also supporting Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom and Ayr Pavilion during their 1991 'Hammer and Tongs' tour, shortly before the departure of Shirley Manson to front Garbage.

The Spring Chicken

The Spring Chicken is an English musical comedy adapted by George Grossmith, Jr. from Coquin de Printemps (1897) by Jaime and Duval, with music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Adrian Ross, Percy Greenbank and Grossmith, produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre, opening on 30 May 1905.

Tommy Walker

Tommy Walker (footballer born 1964), Scottish footballer, played for Ayr United FC in the 1991–92 Scottish Challenge Cup Final

William Pringle

William Henderson Pringle (1877-1967), Scottish Liberal Party politician, Candidate at Berwick & Haddington and Ayr Burghs


see also