{{short description|American female impersonator}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = Ray_Bourbon.webp | alt = | caption = Bourbon in 1956 | birth_name = Hallie Board Waddell | birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|8|11}} | birth_place = Texarkana, Texas, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1971|7|19|1902|8|11}} | death_place = Brownwood, Texas | nationality = | other_names = Rae Bourbon<br>Hal Waddell<br>Hal Hughes<br>Richard Mann<br>Ramón Ícarez | occupation = Vaudeville entertainer, female impersonator | years_active = 1913–1960s | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Ray''' (or '''Rae''') '''Bourbon''' (born '''Hallie Board Waddell'''; August 11, 1902 – July 19, 1971) was an American female impersonator, entertainer and vaudeville performer, noted for his "outrageous" risqué monologues. He mainly performed in nightclubs, gaining a following in the 1930s and 1940s, and issued several LPs of comic material during the 1950s. He died while serving a prison sentence, having been convicted of being an accomplice to murder.
==Early life== Many details of Rae's life are disputed, as he had something of an unreliable narrator {{nowrap|reputation{{hsp}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}}}one who told many outrageous stories during his life. One friend stated: "Where Ray was concerned, we simply never knew what was real and what wasn't."<ref name="riddle">[https://raebourbon.com Randy A. Riddle, ''Don't Call Me Madam - The Life and Work of Ray Bourbon'', 2005]. Retrieved 19 October 2019</ref> Research published in 2021 indicates that he was born in Texarkana on August 11, 1902 as Hallie Board Waddell.<ref name=riddle2021>{{Cite web |last=Riddle |first=Randy A. |date=2021-03-23 |title=Ray's Childhood, Part 2: The Real Story |url=https://raebourbon.com/2021/03/23/rays-childhood-part-2-the-real-story/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=Don't Call Me Madam |language=en}}</ref> He was also known as Hal Wadell (or Waddell),<ref name=croix/><ref name=Nesteroff/> Hal Hughes, Richard Mann, Ramón Ícarez among others. Rae usually claimed this birth date, but FBI sources state that he once claimed that his birth was in 1892.<ref name=riddle/> 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.
The recent research suggests that, after his mother, Elizabeth Waddell ({{nee}} Wilhelm) remarried, Rae was recorded in the 1910 census as Hallie Hughes, and in 1920 as Hal Hughes, living at both dates in Texarkana.<ref name=riddle2021/> He claimed, apparently falsely, to have attended school in London, and to have first performed on stage there in 1913.<ref name=riddle/><ref name=blakstone>[http://www.blakstone.com/Bourbon%20Disc/ Ray Bourbon at Dragstravaganza]. Retrieved 30 May 2013</ref> According to the FBI, he returned to the US around 1917, married, and had a son,<ref name=riddle/> though again this appears to be untrue. Bourbon claimed to have been a stunt double for movie actresses<ref name=riddle/> and an uncredited actor in several silent films,<ref name=slide>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu3nNSmRjZ0C&q=ray+rae+bourbon&pg=PA60 |title=Anthony Slide, ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'', University Press of Mississippi, 2012, p.60 |date=1971-07-19 |isbn=9781617032509 |accessdate=2013-09-12|last1=Slide |first1=Anthony |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi }}</ref> notably Rudolph Valentino's ''Blood and Sand'' in 1922.<ref name=croix>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44lheqlq-jYC&q=ray+rae+bourbon&pg=PA112 |title=St. Sukie de la Croix, ''Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall'', University of Wisconsin Press, 2012, pp.112-113 |date= 11 July 2012|publisher=University of Wisconsin Pres |isbn=9780299286934 |accessdate=2013-09-12}}</ref> Using the name Ramón Ícarez, he may have appeared as a dancer at the opening of the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1923.<ref name=blakstone/> He also performed in vaudeville as one half of a double act with Bert Sherry and toured the US and England.<ref name=riddle/> 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.<ref name=Nesteroff>[http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2012/07/murder-in-mink-crimes-of-ray-bourbon.html Kliph Nesteroff, ''Murder in Mink! The Crimes of Comedian Ray Bourbon'', June 30, 2012]. Retrieved 30 May 2013</ref> After receiving a large inheritance, perhaps as a result of his mother's death in 1929,<ref name=riddle2021/> he then wrote a novel, ''Hookers'', published under the pseudonym of Richard F. Mann.<ref name=Nesteroff/>
== Female impersonation == By 1932, Rae was working full-time as a female impersonator,<ref name="blakstone" /> headlining "Frisco’s first pansy show", ''Boys Will Be Girls'', in San Francisco in 1933 at Tait’s Café.<ref name="riddle" /> He became noted for his outrageous material, and was later described as "a professional vulgarian, not to be confused with glamour drag."<ref name="coleman">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeaFlyP8-CwC&q=ray+rae+bourbon&pg=PA68 |title=Bud Coleman, ''Rae/Ray Bourbon'', in Billy J. Harbin, Kim Marra and Robert A. Schanke (eds.), ''The Gay And Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary Of Major Figures In American Stage History In The Pre-Stonewall Era'', University of Michigan Press, 2005, pp.68-69 |year=2005 |isbn=0472098586 |accessdate=2013-09-12|last1=Harbin |first1=Billy J. |last2=Marra |first2=Kim |last3=Schanke |first3=Robert A. |publisher=University of Michigan Press }}</ref> In the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in hundreds of gay nightclubs across the US, notably in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami Beach.<ref name="Nesteroff" /><ref name="coleman" /><ref name="slide" /> He performed his own material or songs specially written for him such as "Mr. Wong Has Got The Biggest Tong In China",<ref name="coleman" /> and occasionally issued recordings, such as ''Hilarity From Hollywood'' (c.1945).<ref name="blakstone" /> His accompanists included Chet Forrest and Bart Howard.<ref name="riddle" /> He put on his show ''Don’t Call Me Madam: A Midnight Revue in Time'' at Carnegie Hall in New York City to a sold-out audience.<ref name="riddle" /><ref name="blakstone" /> 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.<ref name="coleman" /><ref name="riddle" />
== Later life == By the early 1950s, Rae increasingly faced prosecution as well as declining sales, and his shows were too risqué for a mainstream audience.<ref name=riddle/> 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.<ref name=blakstone/> 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."<ref name=Nesteroff/> 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 no more than a publicity stunt;<ref name=slide/> he may in fact have undergone an operation for cancer.<ref name=riddle/> However, he persistently used the claim in his material and publicity, even releasing an album titled ''Let Me Tell You About My Operation'', and he insisted thereafter on being billed as Rae (rather than Ray) Bourbon.<ref name=croix/>
== Prosecution and death == In December 1968, Rae 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. However, when Bourbon failed to pay for the dogs' upkeep, Blount disposed of the dogs, most probably to an animal shelter. Bourbon became convinced that the dogs had simply been killed and he hired two men, Bobby Eugene Chrisco and Randall Craneto, to beat Blount up. Blount was shot once in the chest during the attack 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.<ref name="coleman" /><ref name="riddle" /><ref name="slide" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://raebourbon.com/ Don't Call Me Madam - The Life and Work of Ray Bourbon] * [http://queermusicheritage.com/drag-bourbon.html Ray Bourbon photos, articles and clippings] * {{Gutenberg author | id=Bourbon,+Rae | name=Rae Bourbon}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ray Bourbon |birth=1892 |death=1971}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourbon, Ray}} Category:1902 births Category:1971 deaths Category:American people who died in prison custody Category:American drag queens Category:American gay entertainers Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people Category:American people convicted of murder Category:People convicted of murder by Texas Category:Prisoners who died in Texas detention Category:Drag performers from San Francisco Category:Drag performers from Texas Category:People from Texarkana, Texas