David Street - Craig Russell and His Ladies

1979, Craig Russell, David Street, Drag queen, English,

Full title: "Craig Russell and His Ladies" by David Street.

The book portrays the story of Russell Craig Eadie (1948-1990), also known as Craig Russell, a Canadian female impersonator and actor. Craig was the President of Mae West's fan club as a teenager and Craig pursued her career as a stage entertainer performing in Toronto gay clubs and touring Las Vegas, Hollywood, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Sydney.

According to Wikipedia, Russell's celebrity impersonations included Carol Channing, Bette Davis, Mae West, Barbra Streisand, Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Midler, Anita Bryant, Shirley Bassey, Peggy Lee and Judy Garland. In 1977, Russell starred in the film Outrageous!, based on a short story written by Margaret Gibson about their time as roommates. A decade later, in 1987, Russell starred in a sequel to Outrageous!, titled Too Outrageous!.

Here is the excerpt from the memoir by David de Alba: "Later Mae West let me in on another confidence, that when Craig was president of her fan club, she let him stay at her beach house in Santa Monica. One day when Paul Novak, Mae's friend and companion for 27 years, stopped by to see how Craig was getting along, he was met by the young president of Mae's fan club undulating around the place, bewigged, made up (including "those" eyelashes,) dressed in one of Mae's heavily beaded gowns! There was also tangible evidence Craig had been quite busy trying on all of Mae's dresses. BUSTED! Mae directed Craig to vacate the premises at once; those were HER clothes, and HER eyelashes, and nobody else was going to wear them!

Some years later, when Craig was performing at what was once The Millionaire Club in Beverly Hills, I went to see his act. His Mae West impersonation was stunning! He did Mae as well as she did! Craig was a real stickler for detail, including "those" heavy stage eyelashes, big bosom, and Edith Head or Travis Banton style beaded gown (I wondered if perhaps he'd "lifted" this outfit from Mae's closet upon his quick exit out of it?!) After the show, I went backstage and met with him - he remembered me (good memory, as it had been several years since we met at Mae's). He was very cordial, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see him that night, and tell him how much I enjoyed his work, because now he's gone. I saw "Outrageous!" not long ago, and, as in his nightclub act before, he essayed Mae better than I've ever seen anyone else portray my friend. Craig Russell was an extremely gifted artist, and a nice guy".

Available via queermusicheritage.com