ABOVE: The Cosmo in the early 70s featuring the "globes" sign designed by Isi Metzstein

RIGHT: A comp. ticket for The Cosmo. Photograph Scottish Screen Archive Collection.

Athough a supply of films from allies Russia helped, the outbreak of war a few months after opening curtailed the Cosmo's foreign film policy, which resumed when war ended.

Glasgow took The Cosmo's programmes to its heart and enthusiastically supported it for some 34 years in which time The Cosmo brought the work of Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Ingmar Bergman to Glasgow for the first time.

Much of The Cosmo's success was due to the public's trust in George Singelton, who had an uncanny knack for choosing the right fillm and viewed every one before screening it.

Particular Cosmo favourites also included Jazz on a Summer's Day, which had customers queuing round the block and Fantasia, the Cosmo's final film.

The Cosmo Club ran in the 1970s on Sundays - typical shows included Tokyo Story, Far from Vietnam and American underground films. This was a members only club and was partly responsible for the public perception that the whole cinema was a club, a problem which he GFT had to tackle in later years.

The Cosmo was bought by the Scottish Film Council and closed on Saturday April 21st

1973 with a Walt Disney programme, Flash the Teenage Otter, a wildlife film and an old Cosmo favourite, Fantasia. Tickets for the front circle seats were bookable and included "a glass (or two!) of champagne.

A sentimental occasion, the final week was summed up in the final programme notes: "And so on Saturday 21st April Mr. Cosmo will end his long and happy association with films for the discriminating, with the film-goers of Glasgow and with the cinema he opened in May 1939 in Rose Street...Mr. Cosmo will watch with pride and affection this new development of the old tradition!

Meanwhile to all who loved a Cosmo film his thanks. A fond farewell! One last wave of that old bowler!"