By April 1916 James Boyd had obviously decided to take things more easily; in fact it’s possible that he was already suffering from a serious long-term illness. He had been running his theatre for almost 6 years and he was 54 years of age, so he decided to hand over the management of the theatre to a younger man. In those days (and even now in some places) the theatre manager was not only a back-stage figure attending to bookings, advertising, building issues etc, but was also a very visible front-of-house personality who was expected to appear in the foyer at each performance in evening dress greeting the theatres patrons. It was a very demanding role and Boyd had certainly earned his break. He retained ownership of the theatre and the operating company stayed as James Boyd & Sons, but an outsider was introduced as the new manager or tenant or lessee, depending on the report – Mr Henry L Osmond.

Under New Management – for a while

James Boyd received a presentation from his staff on the stage of the Empire in April 1916 and handed the theatre over to what was described as “its new tenant”, Harry Osmond. Osmond was well known in the profession and no doubt it was a safe choice by Boyd at the time. Osmond quite rightly set about stamping his name on the theatre – quite apart from anything else it would have been expected of him. The first newspaper adverts after he took over had his name immediately below the Vale Empire banner:

“Lessee & Manager – Harry L Osmond”.

James Boyd had never done this and in fact Osmond’s name disappeared from the adverts after 3 or 4 months. Obviously since he had to pay rent for the theatre, attracting a big audience all the time was the top priority for Osmond. It is tempting to see his early programmes as lowering the Empire standards by trying to draw in the public to see shows with sexual undertones. His first couple of weeks included:

“The Girl in the Taxi” - a comedy play,

And the week after that

“The White Slaves of London” - described as being direct from the Glasgow Metropole, but everything else about it is left to the reader’s imagination.

However that’s probably stretching things a bit, partly because the standards of the Empire drama had never been particularly high and partly because Osmond soon returned to the tried and tested Empire formula. May saw a revue and by the end of the month “Mr Osmond goes back to drama by staging two western plays”. These westerns were something of a novelty in those days but unfortunately no details were given about them. By way of further innovation, it was also Osmond who put on the aforementioned I’Ada as the headline act in July 1916.

The Empire shut for a summer break which was the same as that taken by the local works. In those days this was not the Dumbarton Fair at the beginning of July, but was in August. When it re-opened right at the end of August with a play – “Eliza Comes to Stay” Osmond’s name had disappeared from the adverts and never re-appeared, although his name continued to be used in editorial content in the papers. In September he introduced “go-as-you-please” competitions which he advertised as being held every Thursday night. They didn’t last long at this time and were soon phased out, but in the last years of the Empire the go-as-you-please shows were a permanent feature and in some weeks in the late 1920’s they were the only show being put on at the Empire. They were, of course, very cheap to stage.