The tall droll by the small doll

Sep 28 2008 By Billy Sloan

Exclusive Maidie's Treasured Memories Of Comic Legend

SHE knew married life with one of Scotland's best-loved comedians was never going to be run of the mill.

But even that didn't prepare Maidie Dickson for what happened after she wed offbeat funnyman Chic Murray.

For a start the happy couple spent their honeymoon staying with Chic's aunt in Dundee.

Then, on the wedding night as the nervous young bride prepared for bed, Chic sat down at an old organ and played the Glenn Millar classic In The Mood.

Maidie, now 86, hails the comic genius of her late husband in a new book - Just Daft, written by Robbie Grigor.

She joins celebrity fans such as Billy Connolly, Sean Connery, Robbie Coltrane, Stanley Baxter, and Judi Dench in paying tribute to Chic - who was in the top 50 funnymen in The Comedian's Comedian on Channel 4.

Connolly, who idolised Chic, wrote the foreword to the book.

The couple first met in 1944 when Chic was working as an apprentice in Kincaid's shipyard on the Clyde.

Maidie said: "His mother was a welfare officer in Greenock and when I was playing the Empire Theatre there she fixed me up with digs.

"Chic was sitting practising at the piano and it was love at first sight.

He made me laugh."

They wed the following year and went on to forge a hugely successful partnership as entertainers.

They were known as The Tall Droll and The Small Doll - Chic was 6ft 3in and Maidie was just 4ft 11in.

Maidie told me: "It's been nice to walk back down memory lane putting the book together.

"It was a tough life - especially packing for two all the time. There were many times he drove me so crazy I wanted to strangle him. But that was just the way he was."

Maidie made her showbiz debut - at the age of four - in 1926.

She said: "I went on stage for a show at Leith Hospital and wouldn't stop singing...they had to carry me off. It felt to hear the applause and I knew I had to be a performer.

As a child star, Maidie shared the stage with legendary performers Harry Lauder and Will Fyfe.

But she and Chic became one of the biggest draws on the variety circuit, playing top venues such as the GlasgowEmpire, The Prince Of Wales and the London Palladium.

They performed for the Queen at aRoyal Command Performance at the Palladium on November 5, 1956, sharing the bill with Liberace, Sir Laurence Olivier, Bob Monkhouse, Harry Secombe and the Crazy Gang.

But Maidie still reckons Chic never got the accolades he deserved.

She said: "Since his death, he's been recognised as the true comedian's comedian. If he was still around today he would be an even bigger star.

"He was a one-off. Chic didn't say funny lines. He said lines...funny."

Chic and Maidie performed together for 25 years before their marriage ended in the 1970s.

Maidie retired from showbiz to run a hotel in Edinburgh while Chic went on with a solo career.

On January 29, 1985, he travelled to Edinburgh to see Maidie. But he arrived late at night and didn't want to disturb her, so he bedded down with a neighbour.

At 2am, he suffered a perforated ulcer and died, aged 65, in a room just through the wall from Maidie.

She said: "I felt very sad but it was worse knowing he was just next door.

"When I think of Chic now I feel proud. We were part of something unique - a bit of theatre history.

"I miss looking after him. He was just a big, daft wean."

'On our wedding night I was waiting for Chic in bed..he was playing In The Mood on an old organ'

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

So I gave him a wave. Actually, it was more of a half wave, because I only half know him.

I met this cowboy with a brown paper hat, paper waistcoat and paper trousers. He was wanted for rustling.

I had a tragic childhood. My parents never understood me. They were Japanese.

After I told my wife that black underwear turned me on, she didn't wash my Y-fronts for a month.

My father was a simple man. My mother was a simple woman. You see the result standing in front of you, a simpleton.

There's a new slimming course just out where they remove all your bones. Not only do you weigh less, but you also look so much more relaxed.

You know what they say about stamp collecting. Philately will get you nowhere.

The police stopped me when I was out in my car. They told me it was a spot check. I admitted to two pimples and a boil.

My parents were wonderful, always there with a ready compromise. My sister wanted a cat for a pet. I wanted a dog. So they bought a cat and taught it to bark.

I dreamt I was forced to eat 25lbs of marshmallows. When I woke up, my pillow was missing.

I went to the butchers' to buy a leg of lamb. "Is it Scotch?" I asked. "Why?" the butcher said in reply. "Are you going to talk to it or eat it?

I rang the bell of this small bed and breakfast place, whereupon a lady appeared at an outside window. "What do you want?" she asked. "I want to stay here," I replied. "Well, stay there then," she said and closed the window.

I first met my wife in the tunnel of love. She was digging it at the time.

There were so many holes in my socks I could put them on in 17 different ways.

A neighbour put his budgerigar in the mincing machine and invented shredded tweet.

A Scot is a man who keeps the Sabbath, and everything else he can lay his hands on.

I was in London the other day and this man came up to me and asked me if I knew the Battersea dog's home. I said that I didn't know it had been away.

My wife went to a beauty parlour and got a mudpack. For two days she looked nice, then the mud fell off.

So there I was lying in the gutter. A man stopped and asked: "What's the matter? Did you fall over?" So I said: "No. I've a bar of toffee in my back pocket and I was just trying to break it."

I met this chap at the Olympics. I said to him, "Excuse me but are you a pole vaulter?" He said: "No, I'm German, but how did you know my name was Walter."

This chap said to me: "If you look over there, you'll see Dumbarton Rock." Well, I looked for 20 minutes and the thing never moved an inch.

I was taking my dog out the other day and I met this chap who asked me where I was going. The dog is foaming at the mouth, so I explained that I was on my way to the vet to have it put down. He asked if it was mad, to which I replied that it wasn't exactly pleased about it.

My girlfriend's a redhead. No hair, just a red head.

I went to the doctor and he told me I only had three minutes to live. I immediately asked if there was anything he could do for me, to which he replied, that he could boil me an egg.

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