Queer Places:
Finocchio Club, 506 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133
Tait's Café, 24 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Ray (or Rae) Bourbon (c.1892 – July 19, 1971) was the stage name of an
American female impersonator and comic entertainer noted for his "outrageous"
risqué monologues. He mainly performed in nightclubs, gaining a following in
the 1930s and 1940s, and issued several LPs of material during the 1950s. In
addition to Nicki Gallucci,
Finocchio's has Big Timers
Ray Bourbon and
Karyl Norman, and the regular cast of famed impersonators:
Jackie Maye,
Freddy Renault,
Walter Hart, and
Frank Doran. Bourbon died while serving time in prison, after being convicted of being an
accomplice to murder.
Ray Bourbon, a vaudeville performer, was looking for a new career following vaudeville’s demise.
He focused on the pansy clubs, named after the
New York Club of that name. These clubs offered
true female impersonators, men undistinguishable
from women, who could sing, dance, and pull off the
gambit with ease. His first foray into San Francisco
was at Tait’s Café, touting his show as the first pansy
show in San Francisco (not so, but he was one of the
first to join Finocchio’s). Often the opening act, his
satire and his vocal performances offered something
different in nightclub entertainment. His facelift
in 1941 was the talk of the town. He was charged
with murder in Big Springs, Texas in 1969, reported
by Herb Caen: “‘Here I sit at age 76,’ laments Rae,
‘completely forgotten and in big trouble. Where are
my showbiz friends now?’”
Many details of his life are disputed, but it is thought that his birth
name was either Hal Wadell (or Waddell),[1][2]
or Ramón Ícarez,[3]
and that he was born in Texas. He claimed to have been born on August 11,
1902, but FBI sources state that he admitted that his birth was in 1892.[4]
In a 1937 application for a Social Security card, he gave his birth name as
Hal Wadell, but at different times in his life claimed that he was the
illegitimate son of a Texas congressman, and/or that he was the "last of the
Habsburg Bourbons" whose mother had traveled to the US shortly before giving
birth. One friend stated: "Where Ray was concerned, we simply never knew what
was real and what wasn't."[4]
He claimed to have attended school in London, and to have first performed
on stage there in 1913.[4][5]
He returned to the US around 1917 and, according to the FBI, married and had a
son.[4]
Bourbon claimed to have been a stunt double for movie actresses,[4]
and an uncredited actor in several silent films,[6]
notably Rudolph
Valentino's Blood and Sand in 1922.[1]
Using the name Ramón Ícarez, he may have appeared as a dancer at the opening
of the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1923.[5]
He also performed in vaudeville as one half of a double act with Bert Sherry,
and toured the US and England.[4]
In 1929 he worked in another double act, Scotch and Bourbon, and in 1931 (as
Mr. Rae Bourbon) modeled women's dresses in a department store in Bakersfield,
California.[2]
After receiving a large inheritance, he then wrote a novel, Hookers,
published under the pseudonym of Richard F. Mann.[2]
By 1932 he was working full-time as a female impersonator,[5]
headlining "Frisco’s first pansy show", Boys Will Be Girls, in San
Francisco in 1933 at Tait’s Café.[4]
He became noted for his outrageous material, and was later described as "a
professional vulgarian, not to be confused with glamour drag."[3]
In the 1930s and 1940s he appeared in hundreds of gay nightclubs across the
US, notably in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami Beach.[2][3][6]
He performed his own material, or songs specially written for him such as "Mr.
Wong Has Got The Biggest Tong In China",[3]
and occasionally issued recordings, such as Hilarity From Hollywood
(c.1945).[5]
His accompanists included Chet Forrest and Bart Howard.[4]
He put on his show Don’t Call Me Madam: A Midnight Revue in Time at
Carnegie Hall in New York City to a sell-out audience.[4][5]
In 1944, he was hired by Mae West to perform in her Broadway production of
Catherine Was Great, and her show Diamond Lil which toured until
1950.[3][4]
By the early 1950s he increasingly faced prosecution, as well as declining
sales, and his shows were too risqué for a mainstream audience.[4]
He issued a series of spoken word albums on his UTC ("Under The Counter")
label, which were available at his performances and by mail order.[5]
In Los Angeles, he was arrested on a charge of "impersonating a woman", and
the authorities closed down the club in which he was performing on the grounds
that it was "presenting an indecent performance."[2]
After an arrest in New Orleans in 1956 he claimed to have undertaken a "sex
change" gender reassignment operation in Mexico. This was probably untrue, and
a publicity stunt;[6]
he may in fact have had an operation for cancer.[4]
However, he used the claim in his material and publicity, releasing an album
Let Me Tell You About My Operation, and insisting thereafter on being
billed as Rae (rather than Ray) Bourbon.[1]
In December 1968 he was accused of being an accomplice to murder. He
traveled between performances in an old car pulling a trailer containing some
70 pet dogs; after the car broke down, he entrusted their care to a kennel
owner in Texas, A. D. Blount. When Bourbon failed to pay for their upkeep,
Blount disposed of the dogs, probably to an animal shelter or research center.
Bourbon became convinced that the dogs had been killed, and hired two men,
Bobby Eugene Chrisco and Randall Craneto, to beat Blount up. Blount was shot
once in the chest, and died as a result. Bourbon was arrested 10 days later.
He pleaded innocence, but was convicted with the two men and sentenced to a
99-year prison term. Bourbon died in hospital in Brownwood, Texas, while
serving his prison sentence in 1971.[3][4][6]
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