Arthur Blake

Arthur Blake (February 24, 1914 – March 24, 1985 ) was an American actor who was famous as a drag queen, particularly impersonating Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, and Eleanor Roosevelt. In the 1940s and 1950s he was a popular nightclub entertainer in London and other cities in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States. For twenty years he was the leading entertainer of the Crown & Anchor nightclub, serving the LGBTQ community, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the 1960s and 1970s. People think I don't like those impersonators who do me. Well, they're wrong. I like it very much, as long as they are very good. The only time I don't like it is if they aren't good, or, worse, if they're better than I am. I watch them to learn about myself. Until I saw Arthur Blake, I never knew I moved my elbows so much. Although he achieved fame for playing women, his nightclub act also included impersonations of male celebrities such as Lionel Barrymore, Raymond Burr, Peter Lorre, Frank Morgan, Jimmy Stewart, Clifton Webb, and Orson Welles. ), Lloyd's of London (1936, as Jonathan's Syndicate ), Madame X (1937, as Ferguson ), Now, Voyager, Gaslight (1944, as the Butler ), National Velvet (1944 ), Unconquered (1947 ), and All About Eve (1950 ), Cyrano de Bergerac (1950, as Montfleury ), Harem Girl (1952, as Abdul Nassib ), and Diplomatic Courier (1952, as Max Ralli

In 1972 Blake starred in the Off-Broadway musical revue They Don't Make Em Like That Anymore at the Plaza 9 Music Hall with Luba Lisa. The show was built around Blake's impersonations of celebrities like Marlene Dietrich and Noël Coward.

He died in 1985 of a heart attack in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the age of 70.