Queer Places:
Chapel of the Pines Crematory, 1605 S Catalina St, Los Angeles, CA 90006
Bothwell Browne (March 7, 1877 – December 12, 1947) was born Walter Bothwell Bruhn in
Copenhagen, Denmark. When he was a child his family moved to San Francisco.
Bothwell went to New York City and began working as a dancer and female
impersonator. In 1911 he made his Broadway debut in Miss Jack. He quickly
became one of the most popular acts in vaudeville. Bothwell was known for
performing very sexy and often controversial shows. During one show he danced
with a live poisonous snake. Critics were constantly comparing him to
Julian
Eltinge, a more famous female impersonator.
Director Mack Sennett cast
Bothwell as an aviator who dresses as a woman in the comedy Yankee Doodle In
Berlin. To coincide with the release of the movie Bothwell put together a show
that starred some of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. In December of 1919 he
was a headliner at the Palace Theater in New York and was featured on the
cover of Variety. Bothwell continued to appear in vaudeville throughout the
1920s. After retiring he opened a dance school in San Francisco. Bothwell, who
was openly gay, never married or had children. He died on December 12, 1947 at
the age of seventy. Bothwell was cremated and buried at Chapel Of The Pines
Crematory in Los Angeles.
Bothwell Browne (Copenhagen, March 7, 1877—Los Angeles, December 12, 1947)
was one of the best known female impersonators on the vaudeville stage, hailed
by Variety as early as 1910 as second only to Julian Eltinge. Like most female
impersonators of the day, Browne relied on beautiful gowns to put across his
act, but he also would generally appear in a playlet or sketch, supported by a
number of attractive women, but none more beautiful than he. He was a handsome
man (and woman), slimmer and far better looking than Eltinge.
Born in Denmark, Walter Bothwell Bruhm emigrated with his family to San
Francisco, where he studied dance. He appears to have started his career with
the Cohan and Harris Minstrels. He made his New York debut on September 6.
1908, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in a sketch titled "Winning a Gibson Girl."
Writing in Variety (September 12, 1908), Sime Silverman thought him "a
de-cidedly clever female impersonator," but added, "has still to be judged by
more than one character." Browne was back at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in
September 1910, playing a variety of female roles, including a showgirl, a
suffragette, and "The Pantaloon Girl," and closing with a dance as Cleopatra.
Variety noted that his one weakness was the lack of a strong singing voice.
Despite such a debility, Browne did appear in one musical comedy, Miss Jack,
which opened in New York at the Herald Square Theatre on September 4, 1911,
but ran for a mere sixteen performances.
The story line of Miss Jack had Browne as a college boy imprisoned in a
young ladies seminary. He took on the guise of one of the young women who had
run away and carried the characterization through three acts. He did not unwig
for the finale. The musical comedy opened on August 14, 1911, in Asbury Park,
New Jersey, prior to its New York opening. It was generally assumed that Miss
Jack opened in New York one week in advance of Julian Eltinge's The
Fascinating Widow in order to take advantage of the latter's publicity.
Despite these early New York appearances, Bothwell Browne proved more
popular on the West Coast and throughout the teens tended to concentrate his
vaudeville appearances in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Spokane, and Seattle. In
1913, he produced a sketch titled "The Serpent of the Nile," featuring his
cousin Frances Young as Cleopatra, which opened at the Pantages Theatre,
Spokane, on September 22. Following a tambourine dance by eight harem girls,
the queen's messenger (played by Phyllis Lambert) appeared, performed a sword
dance, and then told Cleopatra of Marc Antony's death. A snake was called for,
and Cleopatra proceeded to remove various veils. Only at the fifteen-minute
presentation's close was the audience apprised of the sex of Cleopatra with
the removal of "her" wig.
Frances Young was also featured in Bothwell Browne's "Exotic Art Dances,"
which opened at the San Francisco Hippodrome on September 4, 1916. It began
with Browne, dressed in a gold cloth, introducing Young, who performed a dance
as an ancient Persian swordsman. Variety (September 15, 1916) reported, "This
lad is about as handsome a built boy as one wants to see and he danced so
easily and gracefully his efforts met with good results." Browne then
reappeared to perform "The Dance of Vanity" in the guise of a Japanese maid.
The act closed with Young, as a scantily clad Egyptian slave, ministering to
the needs of Browne as Cleopatra. From today's viewpoint, the whole thing
sounds somewhat effete, but Variety called it "the best staged, produced,
costumed and elaborate dancing turn that ever left the Pacific Coast."
In 1919, comedy film producer Mack Sennett starred Browne in a vulgar,
anti-German comedy titled Yankee Doodle in Berlin, which had Browne as an
American aviator donning female attire in order to obtain German secrets.
Photoplay's critic Julian Johnson thought Browne's impersonation "very
creditable and inoffensive." As a result of the film's popularity, Browne put
together a vaudeville act with a group of Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties and
headlined with them at the Palace in December 1919.
Bothwell Browne was adept at publicity. He was featured on the front cover
of Variety for December 12, 1919, dressed in both male and female costumes,
and made the covers of The New York Dramatic Mirror on October 30, 1919, and
January 21, 1920. The last announced that he was topping the B. F. Keith bills
with his Bathing Beauties in a 20th Century Revue, assisted by the Browne
Sisters. (The latter were, in reality, his brother Nicholas's children,
Dorothy and Flavilla.)
Browne's popularity declined in the 1920s, as his act tended toward
repetition. On October 24, 1923, he opened at the Hill Street Theatre, Los
Angeles, in an Egyptian sketch with six girls and himself as the queen (!). In
later years, he taught dance and produced revues at nightclubs such as the
Half Moon on New York's West 80th Street. No hint of scandal ever attached
itself to his name. Supposedly, as a child, he asked his mother plaintively,
"Do I have to get married?" The answer was no, and Bothwell Browne died a
bachelor.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0114968/bio
- The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville
by Anthony Slide
Univ. Press of Mississippi, Mar 12, 2012 - Performing Arts - 630 pages