Monday, June 01, 2009

From Drags To Riches

In Memoriam
Danny La Rue
Cross-dressing entertainer


So farewell
Then, Danny La Rue.

You were sort of
A former-day
Eddie Izzard.
But with
More songs.

Like many of the
Old timers
You lived
In these parts.
My dad
Once worked
With you at
The Winter Gardens.

Dad died
On that
Occasion.
Now you have
Too.

E. C. Richard (29)

PS: Mr Eastcliff Senior was invited to a celebrity wedding in Great Yarmouth in 1977. D La R was giving away some old tug from Corrie or Crossroads or some such. Pater took along his super 8 camera, so here's a short clip from the Eastcliff home movie archive. It's silent. And, er, a bit shaky. But then showbiz and the DTs tend to go hand in hand like that. Danny's the one in the beige suit, not the orange dress, in case you're wondering.

8 comments:

Lucy Mail said...

Bummer!

Millicent said...

I saw him perform at Catford a few years ago - he was past his best as far as singing the old favourites but still the perfect "artiste" on stage. I had written a note and requested a particular number and he read out my note bless him and responded even though he did not know me or where i was in the audience

Dick Rubin said...

Dear Eastcliffe. I have a number of ermmm, let's say, 'Home Movies' shot on super 8 mm from when I was a mere slip of a young man. How did you convert yours to play online? Apart from a number of dodgy Mexican moustaches and enormous diggers some of mine have sound but mainly in broken English/ German, 'Ja est goot ja Frauline' 'Möchten Sie Tie me up? Rasch! Rasch! Ich komme Frauline!' Oh God, I must return to the shed to heat up my projector.

GedBurke said...

He was a friend of my Mother (Co. Cork, pre-war stuff)

Had a little known stake in a West-End bar, not the one you'll read about in the obit's tomorrow, in the mid-90's.

Shit material, great outfits.

Anonymous said...

Much like your material WC, but without the great outfits.

Lucy Mail said...

You really ought to visit Jeremy Crackers WC GB.
I think you'd get on like a house on fire!

Richard Eastcliff said...

Dick - it's simple. Just get them telecined, digitise them, export them to Quicktime movies and Robert's your avuncular relative. Plus Blogger now allows you to upload movies, which it converts into Flash for your blog.

For a, um, small deposit I could have a look at yours for you if you like.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone realise that Madam La Rue used to come to this sceptic isle to visit Danny Kaye? Maybe not then. And the great Le Measurier (if that's how you spell his name, am far too old to know such things as Hattie and all that)
Such a missed opportunity here again, but hey ho, what can you expect from a deprecating, dismissive ethos that is down on everything, but that's what to expect is it not from this clique, sorry, blog.
Is there really only 100 readers here?
Now the interesting idea might be to use this clique, sorry, blog, to positive effect, but that would be too much effort.
Madam La Rue has a strange Thanetian epithet that he played nearly every venue on The Island, beside being the highest paid entertainer of the 1970's lover her or hate him, he never shut his door.
So many opportunities here, but such a lack of insight. Sad really.
Synonym or Margate?
I remember when I reached my early 60's a lady called Velma Davies and she sang for The C&C Music Factory. "Things that make you go 'Hmmm'"