Danny La Rue

He was huge when I was a kid and I remember by mother loved him. Even though he was a drag queen I don't think that generation really saw it that way and just thought he was a man dressed up in a frock singing and being a bit smutty.
I remember him being in The Good Old Days which I loved watching on BBC. I am sure there are plenty of the programmes still around on you tube.
Random bit of trivia is that he used to own a café in Leicester Square on the opposite corner to Prince of Wales theatre and (I am not sure if I have got this but confused) but Gary Glitter owned it after when it was a kind of takeaway place.

I saw Danny in panto a few times, one of the great drag acts/female impersonators of all time. I wonder what happened to all his old costumes as they were fabulous.

I met him once or twice after shows as I wanted something signed by him. He was always very gracious with his fans and apologised for taking a long time to leave as he explained that he and his dresser had to put all his costumes away with great care as he used his own costumes in panto.

I can remember reading that he'd lost a lot of money in a con but he was quite philosophical about it saying he earned and spent a lot over his career.

I've had On Mother Kelly's doorstep in my head all morning!

Good to know they have found a home.

I should just remind people that as well as his stage and TV work, Danny La Rue also had a very successful career as a cabaret entertainer in London, starring first at Churchill's Club for several years and then later at his own club in Hanover Square for nine years.

He was a uniquely charismatic performer who reached the very top of his profession and I have vivid memories of seeing him live on stage several times.

Thanks, I'll have a look at the Facebook Page. It was a great shame if he had to work if his health was failing. His panto work would still have been well paid but I would imagine there was a lot of upkeep on his gowns and Danny probably liked a nice lifestyle and so had to work to maintain that. I couldn't imagine him having a word like modest in his vocabulary when it came to how he lived or appeared.

I've just remembered a kind of Danny La Rue anecdote.
Mid 1980's when I was a holiday rep in Tenerife I got a call from one of our hotels to say that 2 guests have been thrown out of the hotel for being constantly rude to the staff. Turns out it was Danny La Rue and Kenneth Williams. I think most of the blame was on Kenneth Williams who, as has been well recorded, was not the nicest of people.
Anyway we had to find them another hotel to stay at for the rest of their holiday.

It could be said that Danny La Rue never played Dame in the traditional sense, he was way too glamorous. When Danny La Rue took the actual “dame” role he was always a “glamorous” dame , he was Mother Goose who becomes rich and glamorous, even his Widow Twankey was a Merry Widow Twankey , presumably to explain how this poor Widow owned such an astonishing array of outfits.
When he played the Queen role in pantomimes , often specifically written for him (Queen of Hearts, Queen Passionella and The Sleeping Beauty) he would include a more traditional dame in the cast, usually Alan Haynes (who played Ugly Sister alongside Danny in his early career) as “Mavis ,The Queen Mother”.
In his last pantos Danny played Baroness (in Cinderella) and even Fairy Godmother.
Panto has always been flexible in this way , hence the Dame role has often been played by female actors , such as Dora Bryan, Mollie Sugden, and the memorable Ugly Sister duo of Yootha Joyce with Bryan Murphy (as Mildred and Georgina) .