Partner Teri Shepherd
Frances
Faye (November 4, 1912 – November 8, 1991) was an American cabaret and show
tune singer and pianist. Born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn,
New York City, she was a second cousin of actor
Danny Kaye. From
1940–1951 Spivy ran her own nightclub,
Spivy's Roof, on New York's East 57th Street. The club was noted for its
tolerance of gay performers and patrons; Spivy herself was a lesbian in
private life. Among the artists who performed there were
Frances Faye,
Mabel Mercer,
Moms Mabley,
Thelma Carpenter,
Paul Lynde,
Martha Raye,
Bea Arthur,
Liberace, and actor-magician
Fred Keating.
Born as Frances Cohen, Faye's showbiz career began at the age of 15 in
nightclubs where she first became a star. She appeared in one Bing Crosby
film; Double or Nothing singing "After You". She wrote the song "Well
All Right" recorded by the Andrews Sisters. Faye made her solo recording debut
in 1936. Her act became famous for including double entendres and references
to homosexuality and lesbianism.[1]
Faye herself was bisexual and hinted at this frequently in her act;[2]
she would often playfully alter pronouns in love songs or weave her
girlfriend's name into lyrics of song. For instance, she inserted "it's a
Teri, Teri day" into "The Man I Love" and on national television sang "why do
all the boys treat Teri so right" in "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister
Kate."
She recorded about a dozen albums for many different record labels,
including Capitol Records and Imperial Records and jazz labels Verve Records
and Bethlehem Records.
Faye was married twice in the 1940s. In the late 1950s, a woman named
Teri Shepherd became her manager
and lifelong partner.[3]
Shepherd discussed her relationship with Faye in Bruce Weber's 2001 film
Chop Suey.
Faye was arrested in 1955 on a narcotics charge in Los Angeles; police
asserted that she and the three men arrested at the same time possessed
marijuana.[4]
During in the 1960s, Faye suffered a number of health related problems
brought on by a hip accident in 1958. She nevertheless continued to tour into
the early 1980s.
Peter
Allen credited her as a major influence and had Faye sing the vocals on
the track "Just a Gigolo (Schoner Gigolo)" on his 1974 album, Continental
American.
She returned to film in 1978, playing an elderly cocaine-sniffing madam in
the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. She retired shortly afterwards. At
the time of her death in 1991, aged 79, she was living with Shepherd.
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Faye