Double Entendre (hardback)

<p>Mae West actress singer playwright screenwriter comedian and sex symbol. Rae Bourbon actor singer playwright comedian and cross-dresser. Both entertainers’ careers spanned seven decades as they individually and together worked in Burlesque Vaudeville Broadway silent movies talkie movies Old Time Radio and television equally stirring up controversy similarly ribald and witty and always outrageously risqué. </p><p> </p><p>Mae’s legendary vehicles included the shocking Broadway plays <em>Sex</em> <em>The Drag The Wicked Age Pleasure Man </em>and <em>Diamond Lil. </em>When topsy turvey Hollywood converted from silent movies to sound Paramount Pictures snapped her up for unforgettable series of celluloid sensations such as the Academy Award Best Picture-nominated <em>She Done Him Wrong</em> (1933).</p><p> </p><p>Rae’s renowned vehicles spanned the music halls of London to the Vaudeville stages of America with stops along the way in silent movies sound films Carnegie Hall and a still-popular series of wacky wry recordings.  </p><p> </p><p>Their parallel lives often crisscrossed through side by side appearances on stage and through the blurred lines of their often flamboyant yet always fascinating images. Self-absorbed and sometimes delusional neither realized how shockingly different their final curtain would be. </p><p> </p><p>Discover their unforgettable interwoven stories in Patrick C. Byrne’s richly researched biography.  </p><p> </p><p>“. . . Mae West America’s original ‘queen of sex’ . . . Rae Bourbon equally enigmatic ‘dame of drag’ . . . discover the heartfelt and mindful souls beneath the glamorous façades of their stardom.” -David W. Jackson Archivist/Historian</p><p> </p><p>“Both persisted in presenting their larger than life personas becoming the subject of intense scrutiny by public and private organizations for perceived morality violations on so-called ‘vulgar and indecent’ behavior. Both paid the price for flaunting their sexuality.” -Honorable Judge Ann Mesle</p><p> </p><p>"Probably no other homosexual and certainly no other performer has had the effect on the American gay community that Bourbon did." -David Leitsch <em>Gay Journal</em></p>