Robert Bouvard

Is that old neighborhood guy a wheelchair-using amputee?

Robert Bouvard, aka Robbie Ross

 

Or a man in an impeccably tailored formal gown with Oscar-caliber make-up and hair?

Robert Bouvard is both.

Robert Bouvard

Robert Bouvard worked with the pioneering Jewel Box Revue, a female impersonation show that toured the Chitlin Circuit in the 1940s.  The Jewel Box played New York’s Apollo Theater while Black Muslims on the sidewalk outside yelled, “Get the faggots out of Harlem.”

Later Bouvard worked in Hollywood and toured with many Broadway musicals, including “Hello Dolly” and “Phantom of the Opera.”  Now, 85 years old, he lives in a three-room apartment with his good friend Suzie, tools his go-cart around town and enjoys his theatrical sensibility.

 

Jewel Box Revue. Robert Bouvard and Lynne Carter in a routine that may have inspired the movie “Some Like It Hot” staring Marilyn Monroe. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
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This entry was posted in Accessibilty, Adaptive Aids, Adrienne Lauby, Arts, Caretakers/Attendents, Community, Dance, History, Individual disease and identity groups, Portraits, Seniors, Shelley Berman, Story Telling - Disability, Travel and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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