Ray Bourbon

Ray Bourbon
Ray Bourbon
	Bourbon in 1956
Born	Hallie Board Waddell; August 11, 1902; Texarkana, Texas, U.S.
Died	July 19, 1971 (aged 68); Brownwood, Texas
Other names	Rae Bourbon; Hal Waddell; Hal Hughes; Richard Mann; Ramón Ícarez
Occupation(s)	Vaudeville entertainer, female impersonator
Years active	1913–1960s

Ray (or Rae) Bourbon (born Hallie Board Waddell; August 11, 1902 – July 19, 1971) was an American

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

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 (

Los Angeles Coliseum in 1923.^[5] He also performed in vaudeville as one half of a double act with Bert Sherry and toured the US and England.^[1] 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.^[4] After receiving a large inheritance, perhaps as a result of his mother's death in 1929,^[2] he then wrote a novel, Hookers, published under the pseudonym of Richard F. Mann.^[4]

Female impersonation

By 1932, Rae was working full-time as a female impersonator,

Chet Forrest and Bart Howard.^[1] 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.^[1]^[5] 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.^[7]^[1]

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.

gender reassignment operation in Mexico. This was probably untrue and no more than a publicity stunt;^[6] he may in fact have undergone an operation for cancer.^[1] 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.^[3]

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.^[7]^[1]^[6]