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Monday, January 10th, 2022

The Legendary Danny La Rue – Britain’s most celebrated Female Impersonator

 

We’re starting the new year by taking a look back at one of our favorite queer icons of the  Since he first went on a stage wearing a women’s frock in the early 1950s Danny LaRue very quickly became the most celebrated female impersonator of his time in the UK.  A consummate performer always decked out in the most glamourous gowns and with very big wigs he relied on the (prim) English love of innuendo.  It meant he could get away with more filth than most.

Openly gay …… although very discreet about it, Danny become a mainstream success well before homosexuality was legalized or even accepted in the country.  He had started out as one of a chorus of men dressed as women in a touring all-male revue, Forces Showboat (1949-50). And he struggled to find his place in Show Business until he was hired to be a comedian in Strip Club in Leicester Square, and then he never looked back.

In 1964, opened his own venue, Danny La Rue’s, in Hanover Square, which became ‘the’ nightclub to be seen in. He would eventually go on to play the lead in Hello Dolly and also Oh What A Lovely War in London’s West End ……. his star couldn’t shine brighter.

Danny was still performing to the very end ….. partly because he had made some bad financial investments that made him declare bankrupt.  Jack Hanson his ‘life partner” of very many years died in 1979, and Danny followed him in 2006 after suffering a mild stroke.

Danny La Rue was regarded as a national treasure and very much old school.  He knew that you had to be a very good entertainer to be a real success as a female impersonator. The documentary below may refer to him as a ‘drag queen‘ but he never called himself that, and to honor his memory, we never would. 

 


Posted by queerguru  at  14:13


1 thought on “The Legendary Danny La Rue – Britain’s most celebrated Female Impersonator”

  1. Hi there,

    My name is Alice Vickery and I work for BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service, lovely to say hello.

    I’m currently doing a piece on the relatioship between Drag and the Military, specifiacally Danny La Rue and how he started drag in the naval service and going on to look at the 50’s/60’s with the nostalgia and fun the Forces Showboat provided.

    This article is fantastic and exactly the kind of conversation I’d be looking to have – would you be interested in being a part of the series? And do you know anyone else who knows/is interested in this subject?

    Hope to hear from you soon,
    Alice

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