Ray Bourbon on working at Paramount in the 20s

[coolcatdaddy]

I'd like to get the opinions of some experts here on something I've been working on the past few years.

I've been researching the life and work of film, vaudeville and nightclub drag performer Ray Bourbon.

http://www.coolcatdaddy.com/bourbon.html

Ray led a pretty outrageous life, starting out in silent movies in the 20s. By the end of his career, he was arrested for murder in Texas and given a life sentence when he was in his seventies.

During this period, Ray spent his time in jail working on his memiors, banging them out on a typewriter that someone gave him. I was lucky enough to obtain the original manuscript of the work from someone who, in the 1980s, tried to get a film project going based on Ray's life.

There are many things we just don't know about Ray - even his real name - and his stories about his life would change and be embellished through the years.

So, I'm wondering what you folks would think of his stories about working in silent movies. How much of what Ray's telling is real, could be real, or is just a good story here?

Here's a link to a pdf of the relevant chapter from Ray's book:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8jfpc ... NjMWQzNTc1

I've edited the manuscript and added an introduction about Ray's life, along with a discography and other related material. I've been thinking about selling it as an ebook, but it is presently unpublished.

In the chapter, Ray reminisces about his time at Paramount Studios, recalling working with Valentino and Swanson on "Beyond the Rocks", doubling for Estelle Taylor and doing stunt riding for Valentino in "Blood and Sand", and working on Demille's "Ten Commandments" and "Manslaughter". He also relates a story about Pola Negri feuding with Gloria Swanson.

In the original typewritten manuscript of Ray's memoirs, this is actually written as two chapters - I've combined them into one. I've only corrected typos and a bit of the grammar, but it's otherwise as Ray wrote it.

[Frederica]

In the original typewritten manuscript of Ray's memoirs, this is actually written as two chapters - I've combined them into one. I've only corrected typos and a bit of the grammar, but it's otherwise as Ray wrote it.

I actually have heard of Ray/Rae Bourbon, but for the life of me I cannot remember where I read about him. (Quandary.) I also knew nothing about his life. There are a couple of minor errors in your text on this page: http://www.coolcatdaddy.com/bourbon-vaudeville.html" target="_blank" target="_blank
The star of Manslaughter was Thomas Meighan, not Mims, and Bella Donna was Pola Negri's first American film. Manuscript reading, ahoy! for me, thanks for the info.

[Jonathan]

I actually have heard of Ray/Rae Bourbon, but for the life of me I cannot remember where I read about him. (Quandary.)

As someone who always associated Robert Mitchum with another kind of bourbon, I was surprised to discover in Lee Server's biography that Mitchum (before he became a film actor) wrote songs for him and other nightclub comedians. Server quotes Mitchum: "Some were so blue I blush to remember 'em." I can't imagine Mitchum blushing at anything but, as anyone who's heard Bourbon's recordings will know, his material does fall into that category - but the copious double-entendres are very wittily written and performed. When I play even gay friends "Trombone Trixie" (recorded in 1936) they practically fall out of their seat with equal parts of laughter and shock (mainly because of its date, I suppose, but I think Bourbon's unabashed erotic glee is another factor). It's #15 here

Actually, I shouldn't have been surprised that Mitchum could have penned this kind of material as he often displayed a wickedly witty sense of humour, both on and off screen. When film critic Derek Malcolm told him at the end of his 1984 NFT interview, "It's been a great pleasure to me," Bob responded with a smile, "Oh, you say that to all the girls!"

[coolcatdaddy]

Server contacted me about Mitchum writing songs for Bourbon when researching the book. I couldn't find anything in the memoirs about it - Ray died before they were finished and there's no mention of Mitchum, though he does include stories about many other famous people of the time that crossed his path at one time or another.

When Ray was arrested for murder, his landlord took all of his trunks containing letters, photos, scrapbooks, and even the master tapes of his recordings and sent them to the city dump. Ray had to contact friends for photos of himself when he was working on the manuscript - he had none left.