The world's most glamourous woman

THAT'S what the hugely popular entertainer Danny La Rue, who died on Sunday, loved to consider himself. So how did a keen naval cadet become cabaret queen?

NOT A DRAG Danny preferred to be known as a comic in a frock NOT A DRAG: Danny preferred to be known as a 'comic in a frock'

The biggest compliment paid to Danny La Rue was by the American entertainer Bob Hope. Hope remarked after seeing a performance in the Sixties: “He’s the most glamorous woman in the world.”

For an entertainer who spent half a century in a dress there could have been no kinder words.

At the time La Rue was one of the highest paid stars in showbusiness. Celebrities from both sides of the Atlantic flocked to his nightclub in London and he counted Princess Margaret among his friends.

Now his brand of comedy seems rather dated, from a lost age of music hall and variety. In the swinging Sixties, however, La Rue, who died on Sunday aged 81, was one of the nation’s raciest entertainers.

His unique style brought him international acclaim, huge personal wealth and an honour from the Queen.

ROYAL GREETING Meeting Princess Margaret at the Palace Theatre ROYAL GREETING: Meeting Princess Margaret at the Palace Theatre

In his depictions of female icons such as Marlene Dietrich he was one of the first entertainers to introduce cross-dressing to theatre audiences.

Yet, for all the innuendo earning him the nickname Danny la Rude, his style of humour was non-threatening.

La Rue always preferred to be described as “a comic in a frock” rather than a Drag Queen. La Rue was born Daniel Patrick Carroll in Cork, Ireland, on July 26 1927, the youngest in a family of five.

He was nine years old when he was brought to England where the family settled, initially in London. His first experience of cross dressing was when he was selected for the role of Cinderella in an amateur pantomime.

During the blitz he was evacuated to the tiny village of Kennford, in Devon. He left school at 15 and worked as a window dresser in a department store in Exeter, giving him a taste for expensive clothes and an insight into women’s fashion that was to prove invaluable, before serving in the Royal Navy.

He first donned his wig and eyelashes during a naval concert party, having been sent to Singapore towards the end of the Second World War as part of Lord Mountbatten’s invasion task force.

After the war, he began moonlighting as a female impersonator, changing his name to Danny La Rue at the suggestion of a friend because he did not want his bosses in a fashion store to discover his double life.

Progressing from amateur revues to cabaret in London’s West End, La Rue was among Britain’s highest-paid entertainers and one of his shows ran for two and a half years, a feat then unrivalled.

La Rue made theatrical history by being the first man to play a female role in a major musical when he took on the part of Dolly in Hello Dolly! He opened his own nightclub in Hanover Square in 1964, attracting more than 13,000 members.

Celebrities such as Judy Garland, Warren Beatty, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Squires, Shirley Bassey, Noel Coward, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elizabeth Taylor were all patrons. Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon would frequently meet there.

He’d think nothing of spending £5,000 on a single dress but, despite his enduring success, La Rue never forgot those early days in London, when he struggled to make a name for himself.

He was appalled by the manner in which more established stars took their fame for granted.

La Rue recalled: “Time and again the stars of whichever show we were in wouldn’t turn up for rehearsals, believing they could just sail in at the 11th hour and that it would be all right on the night. I vowed that if ever I got to stand in the spotlight it would be fully prepared…‘Get in early, and never keep the crew waiting’ is still my motto.”

Later in life he was scathing about some of his modern counterparts, stating: “Now somebody has only got to walk across a room in a soap opera and everyone calls them a star. They don’t know the meaning of the word.”

He sometimes worried that his brand of humour would go out of fashion but, for most of his career, La Rue could fill a West End theatre for months and clocked up more than 50 years in pantomime.

No one could play a dame quite like Danny. Stars such as Dick Emery, John Inman and more recently Lily Savage and Eddie Izzard owed some of their success to the groundbreaking work of La Rue.

Dustin Hoffman told La Rue how much he had used him to build his character in the award-winning film Tootsie.

In addition to Princess Margaret, other members of the Royal Family were fans. With his catchphrase “wotcha mates”, La Rue was the star of numerous Royal Variety shows and sang one of his trademark songs, Mother Kelly’s Doorstep, at the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday party.

Unlike many drag artists La Rue, with his bouffant white hair, was just as recognisable out of costume and became a British institution.

Once explaining the long ritual to get ready for the stage, La Rue said: “As my appearance changes so does my attitude, my voice, everything, until I’m no longer Dan but become whoever. Then, wig and costume on, I say my prayers, cross myself and am off on to that stage.”

As he got older and was troubled by an eye condition it took even longer. By 1981 La Rue topped the list of highest ever earners in British show business.

He called his autobiography From Drags To Riches but he suffered a setback two years later when he was the victim of an alleged scam.

La Rue lost £2million when his partners in a hotel venture in Stratford-on-Avon were arrested.

It was a difficult period. The Rolls-Royce and many of his antiques had to go but La Rue bounced back in typically flamboyant style, working 40 weeks a year well into his 70s.

He later said: “I’ve had success and I’ve had failure and from failure I have learned more than from success because it makes you really look at yourself… you don’t choose to dress up as a tart for a living, so I think my career has been all about destiny.”

La Rue was initially coy about his sexuality, always insisting that it was irrelevant. “It’s not really part of my work,” he once said.

“Gay or straight, it doesn’t come into it at all.”

Later in life he became more open, confirming that for 32 years he had lived with his partner and manager Jack Hanson, until his death in 1974 following a stroke.

La Rue confided that Hanson, who died in his arms in New Zealand, was “the love of his life”. Hanson’s death plunged La Rue into depression and he drank heavily, before launching a comeback.

There was a premature retirement in 1973 but La Rue, always more at home on stage than television, could never drag himself away from the limelight, despite once claiming: “I am not going to go on until I am a doddery old tart, I am too vain. I will know exactly when to stop.”

Eventually the venues became less glitzy and he began slipping down the bills but the nation’s affection for La Rue never wavered and in 2002 he was awarded an OBE, joking that he was the first transvestite to be invited to Buckingham Palace.

In 2006, after suffering a mild stroke himself, La Rue announced again that he was hanging up his dresses for good – but would continue to appear on stage in one-man shows. He spent his final years living in Kent.

He said: “I’ve had the most wonderful life, wearing the most fabulous frocks. It’s my ambition to have my boobs dipped in gold and sold at Sotheby’s.”

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