Mr Cosmo
(Mr Cosmo in the GFT: Glasgow, Scotland)
If you know Glasgow remotely well, it’s possible that you know the Glasgow Film Theatre, or GFT to its friends. It is one of the last of the old ‘picture houses’ that has survived in its original capacity as a cinema. I think it is wonderful – until very recently, the tickets were inch wide tear off sheets, crudely printed with the words “admits one”. Of course, it has been refurbished and much of the interior has been remodelled, but the exterior is modernist, resplendent in curved tiles – it manages to look streamlined and mildly futuristic, whilst managing to create an air of substantial age simultaneously.
The GFT, or ‘The Cosmo’ as it was originally, has a mascot in the form of a smiling gent with a bowler hat; Mr Cosmo. He has a cane and a smart suit, evocative of a 1930s man about town. He appears as a simple line drawn character on much GFT paraphernalia, but never have I seen this manifestation. Last night I had to queue at the doors for a busy night and with the evening being so cold, the line was a serpentine mass of people pressed as close together as possible to take advantage of the sheltered foyer. It was as I negotiated a man’s jacket hood away from my face that I inclined my head enough to notice this effigy, perched like a pied raven in the vestibule area.
We concluded it must be Mr Cosmo himself, though quite raddled with age and looking very relaxed, but rather tired with Tim Burtonesque tendencies. How odd that he is there at all, completely unrelated to any of the ‘Mr Cosmo’ merchandise and surveying us. Someone must have made him and put him there – who? Why? He is a papier maché man in a hat, overlooking each person that comes through the doors. Perhaps he has not been standing there long, but I have the distinct nagging feeling that he has been there for some time without my noticing. I have the urge to glue up a little ginger tom cat to keep him company, but getting it up there without the staff noticing will be a substantial challenge. Watch this space…
