Old-School "Female Impersonation" of Hollywood Actresses.

T. C. Jones



T. C. Jones came to the attention of the general public in 1956 when he did hosting duties as Tallulah Bankhead in New Faces of 1956 in New York, a follow-up to the successful New Faces of 1952. In 1958 he appeared in the revue Mask and Gown, in which he toured nationally. He began his career doing celebrity impersonations in the late 1940's, working in nightclubs, particularly in Miami's Jewel Box Revue, where he perfected a lot of his act. He also appeared in Las Vegas lounges and at select West Coast venues. He died of cancer at about age 50 in 1971, so he unfortunately missed out on the kind of audience the new "gay liberation" movement was making possible. I came across his 1961 live album at a yard sale in the 1970's and still treasure it; it's one of the few existing records of his work.

From that live recording at The Crescendo on Sunset Strip, here's a clever skit satirizing Louella Parsons' sycophantic promotion of her boss' mistress, Marion Davies. "Marion never looked lovelier."



He also reprised parts of his Tallulah impersonation from New Faces, giving it a more "adult" spin. "I could have sworn that was the right key" cracks me up every time. Also the hilariously rude "I'm sorry to be late but we stopped at the motel for a something to eat".



The act also included a rather unusual choice, Shelley Winters, applying her "Method" style to "How Did He Look?".



As I mentioned, there's not a lot on record beside these few recordings. He did some movie and television work, appearing in male roles in Promises, Promises (1963) with Jayne Mansfield and in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964) with Mamie Van Doren. If you've ever seen the Monkees movie Head (1968) he played the diner waitress who ripped off the wig in frustration after a scene with the boys.



Wiki has an Ed Sullivan appearance to his credit but I can't find any evidence of it; it wasn't until later decades when this type of performer was regularly featured on TV, as can be seen with performers whose careers lasted into the 1970's, 80's and beyond.

Next up: Lynne Carter.

I know that there's been a "drag king" scene, particularly centered in San Francisco, since the 1940's and 50's, but I don't know of particular performers who specialized in the kind of thing we're talking about here, impersonating icons. Male impersonation in general has the same kind of long history that female impersonation does, mostly in a theatrical setting. Interestingly, the earliest examples of both which made their way to American audiences seem to have originated in England. American vaudeville in the early part of the Twentieth Century allowed for both males as females and females as males, but it was more as niche "filler" segments rather than as headliners. If anyone has more information on this question, I hope you'll post about it here.

The first thing which came to my mind was the character which Lily Tomlin created, Tommy Velour, who was more a "type" than a specific impersonation of an individual. She resurrected the character occasionally, including an appearance on Letterman and this fun salute to Elizabeth Taylor during her televised birthday celebration.




And I can't not include the brilliant Christine Pedi, who does vocal impressions of female icons (mostly from musical theater), but is a rare example of a woman specializing in this kind of thing.



EDIT: I'm adding this at a later point because it's somewhat related to the idea of women impersonating men. Debbie Reynolds was a fantastic mimic and often showed it off on TV talk shows. In this 1996 interview with Larry King she speaks about it and when Larry asks if she ever imitated men, she came up with Liberace and, of all people, Barry Fitzgerald.




LATER EDIT: I just came across this clip of Carol Channing doing a very amusing impersonation of Marlene Dietrich, so I want to add it to the mix. The source is apparently a 1969 show she did with Pearl Bailey on Broadway, which I'm assuming was later recorded for television.

Charles Pierce.



Charles Pierce was in some ways in a class by himself and, to many of his fans, he was the best ever. He was as much a stand-up comedian as a female impersonator and his impressions were done in very broad strokes. He felt more free than some others to color outside the lines and the characterizations could closely border on the ridiculous, while still maintaining the semblance of his subject. I've talked to people who were offended by the way, say, Bette Davis was overexaggerated by female impersonators, with the constant gesturing and staccato puffing of cigarettes, and chances are they were thinking of Charles. Add to that the fact that other impersonators tended to adopt his mannerisms, so that they became commonplace. Humorous caricature rather than slavish interpretation was his goal and, judging from audience response, he met it. He also tended to work a little bluer than some of his contemporaries, but never really crossed the line into vulgarity. He insistently referred to himself as a "male actress" and apparently hated the term drag queen (for himself). 

I mentioned earlier that some impersonators started in male attire out of necessity and that was true of Charles, who first worked in a tuxedo, but as laws and attitudes changed out came the gowns and wigs. At first he frequented second-hand stores (and I imagine that Los Angeles thrift stores were a treasure trove) but later upped the glamor quotient by adding specially constructed costumes. He was well known in New York City venues but he was based mostly on the West Coast, San Francisco specifically, and was a fixture at many gay and gay-friendly clubs in the area. In the late 1960's he released an album of his set at Bimbo's, a popular San Francisco club, and that's how I first became aware of him. On that recording he joked that his high school guidance counselor had told him "I've seen you in the halls, Charlie, and you're a female impersonator". Bette Davis is on record as favoring Arthur Blake, but Charles made friends of some of the women he parodied, including Carol Channing and Joan Collins, and his friendship with Dixie Carter led to his appearance on Designing Women. I saw him once live when he came out of semi-retirement to participate in an "all star" performance for Stonewall 25 in 1994. He died in 1999 at age 72 and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, which seems appropriate.

If you've seen Torch Song Trilogy (1988) you've seen Charles, as one of Harvey Fierstein's fellow club performers. Their number "Dames" is a stand-out, with Charles getting off some of his typical one-liners. That clip used to be on YouTube but has apparently been removed, so sorry. In recent years there's been a book detailing some of his experiences and collecting some of his best material.



A number of videos of his live performances have begun to surface on TouTube, so anyone interested should browse away. I'll post a couple here. His complete Dorothy Chandler Pavillion performance is represented on YouTube and I'll include this clip of his kind of Looney Tunes Mae West. This illustrates the point that he was as much standup comedian as female impersonator. Take note of the musicians cracking up. That's when you know you've got 'em.



And a 1981 interview with a somewhat befuddled but game Dick Cavett. As I mentioned earlier, we're finally getting to the era when there's a television record of these performers.  



And, finally, a complete live show from 1987, intended for home video. Charles always managed to stay current, as in the Dynasty-era Joan Collins impersonation and the references to Vanna White and Donna Mills. He starts as "himself" but soon trots out Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, etc. It's long-ish but he was in good form and it's a good print. Notice Lucille Ball having a good time in the audience.



Next up: Craig Russell.

Randy Allen.



This one will be unfortunately brief because so was his life and career, but chronologically this would be the right place for him. Randy was a "theater kid" from Indiana who studied music and theater in London and received a degree in directing from the University of Southern California. He slowly built a career as a female impersonator, doing characters such as Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and Marilyn Monroe. But he had his greatest success when he built an act called P.S. Bette Davis, as in Post Stroke Bette Davis. Bette's stroke changed the public perception of her, especially after her recovery when she hit the talk show circuit, somewhat slurring her words but as feisty as ever and brandishing an amazing wardrobe of colorful hats and outfits. She became something equally as specific as pre-stroke Bette and Randy did a great job of impersonating her in a one-man show, in which I was lucky enough to see him for the only time. Randy died at age 38 in 1995 of complications from AIDS, like so many performers, known and unknown, of his generation. Luckily, a clip from a talk show appearance with Joan Rivers has recently shown up on You Tube, so you'll be able to get a taste of what Randy could do.



Just for reference, here's Bette herself during that period.



Next up: Jimmy James.

Jimmy James.



Of all the performers covered, Jimmy James is the only one still living and still performing. Early in his career he gained world-wide attention for his uncanny impersonation of Marilyn Monroe. Only a few others had been brave enough to even try it but Jimmy went there with a vengeance and it brought him immediate fame. He was in high demand as Marilyn on television talk shows but even on some of the more respected ones there was an air of incredulity and a slight freak show vibe to the way he was presented. In the 1980's AIDS was still at its peak and anything gay-related still had a taint in the public's imagination, so for gay performers it was an uphill battle for acceptance. But Jimmy was offering something so unique and so compelling (A man as Marilyn?) that he broke down some of those barriers. But the process of getting ready to appear on stage as Marilyn was so lengthy and elaborate that by 1997 he declared the end of his "Marilyn Years" and retired the character to concentrate instead of his wide range of vocal characterizations, without the elaborate wigs and costumes. His program had typically been about 20 minutes of Marilyn, his only character performed in full costume and makeup, and then a variety of vocal impersonations done in his everyday androgynous look. Other than Marilyn, he did a few actresses like Bette Davis and Mae West, but the bulk of his show was and is devoted to singers, such as Eartha Kitt, Patsy Cline, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Karen Carpenter, then staying current with later additions like Adele.

Jimmy is originally from San Antonio, Texas and started learning about makeup on his own and then from drag performers in local gay clubs. Before long he could offer tips to them and began to think about where his talent could take him when combined with his ability to mimic voices. He settled on one look, Marilyn, to anchor his act since, amazingly, that for him was the easiest; Garland had been done and Streisand's look took too long to prepare. He played cabaret and small clubs, but his preferred venues were gay dance clubs, where he performed to specially recorded instrumental tracks, an economical alternative to hiring and touring with a band. His association with Marilyn led to his involvement in a couple of ad campaigns, one featured on a billboard in Times Square. Another resulted in an image which was mistakenly used in a collage of actual Marilyn images on an African stamp, showing the exactitude of his photographic likeness. Recently he's been involved in creating a demo reel to interest investors in a film project, The Boy Who Was Marilyn, using his extensive personal library of tapes and video. There's a real story there, covering some of the high and low eras of modern gay history, so I'd like to see it happen.

Here's a delightfully playful appearance as Marilyn on The Joan Rivers Show in 1991.



Jimmy's Marilyn had previously tried the playful approach on Geraldo in 1989 but Geraldo was enough of a stiff in general that it didn't have the same impact.



Jimmy often got stuck on "panels" of drag performers on TV shows, like this one with Phil Donahue being tolerant of "this kind of thing". But Jimmy was generally smart enough not to take the bait and easily won over the audience.



Jimmy's performance career has lasted well beyond "The Marilyn Years" and, even though RuPaul-era drag queens command the biggest stages now, there's still an audience for the specific vocal expertise most of them lack. Here's a more recent clip from a Las Vegas TV station of Jimmy doing some of his most famous vocals.



Next up: Lypsinka.

Vesta Tilley (1869-1920) was a famous male impersonator in her day. On of her best known songs was "Burlington Bertie from Bow," later performed in films by Betty Grable and Julie Andrews, also in male drag.

There were and are many drag kings in NYC, and I've met a few of them, most notably Stormé DeLarverie, who is credited with throwing the first punch at Stonewall.



Vesta Tilley


Stormé DeLarverie

I've basically exhausted the category I started out with so, keeping with this idea of male impersonation I'd like to post a couple of clips of The Fabulous Dyketones, a band out of Provincetown in the 1980's who specialized in 1950's rock and roll covers. (They liked to call themselves a rock and role band.) They started out their set as themselves, led by lead singer Char, then finished the evening as their male alter-egos, with lead singer Chuckie Linguini. They were a local band for sure, but Provincetown is the kind of place where people come from all over the world, so they became quite well-known that way and had many devoted followers, myself included. The drummer, Brenda, turned out to have quite a voice and later developed a show featuring Patsy Cline songs.



Here they are as their male counterparts playing an event fashioned as a kind of high school prom, but not the Rydell High kind. I still have my Dyke High pennant, part of the band's "merch".