THE TALENTS OF JIM BAILEY

Female impersonator Jim Bailey’s onstage portrayals of famous entertainers were so uncanny — not just their voices but also the mannerisms, costumes and hairdos — that sometimes people thought they were seeing the actual women. There was once one couple in Las Vegas, seeing Mr. Bailey in his signature role as Judy Garland, took it a step further. The audience was from a plumber’s convention, wrote Bruce Vilanch in a 1997 article for the Advocate magazine. One plumber turned to his wife and said, "I thought she was dead." ‘She is,’ the wife replied, "This is the daughter."

 

Mr. Bailey, 77, last year when he passed away  on May 30 at a hospital in Los Angeles. The cause was a heart attack brought on by pneumonia.  He had been a Las Vegas staple and appeared on numerous television shows beginning in the 1970s, including “The Ed Sullivan Show” (as Garland, singing “The Man That Got Away”), “The Carol Burnett Show” (as Barbra Strei­sand, singing a duet with Burnett), “Here’s Lucy” (as Phyllis Diller), and (numerous times) “The Tonight Show. He did live, full-length concerts as his characters at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, where he appeared in 1972 as Garland and Streisand. I can't get enough of this guys talented acts!

HEAVEN IS GETTING A FABULOUS SHOW

 

Heaven is getting a fabulous show these days with standing room only!

 

 The  chic and campy, Jon over at Delores Delargo Towers gave a nice tip of the hat last week to the great female impersonator Jim Bailey who passed away on May 30th.

 

Jim Bailey, a self-proclaimed “character actor” who did spot-on re-creations of such iconic female entertainers as Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee, Madonna, Mae West and others has died. He was 77, and died  of cardiac arrest from pneumonia complications at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley, CA. His Barbara, Judy And Phyllis have to be seen to believe!!!!!!!

 

 

A native of West Philadelphia, Bailey performed in nightclubs around the world and in such celebrated venues as the Palladium in London, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. He was a regular in Las Vegas for years, did a Streisand tribute at halftime of the 1978 Super Bowl and put out three albums.At age 11, Bailey entered and won his school’s talent contest, singing “You Made Me Love You,” one of the first songs Garland sang when she was a child star. He later attended the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and studied opera, then headed to New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I did jazz clubs in Greenwich Village, went on the Playboy circuit, that sort of thing. I wasn’t doing badly, but I needed that gimmick, something to make me different, unique,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in a 1995 interview. His first impression was of comedienne Phyllis Diller, to whom he was introduced in the late 1960s, and he hit pay dirt after he heard Garland on the radio and decided to impersonate her. When Garland came to see Bailey's show, she jumped on the stage and asked him to sing a song with her: "Bye, Bye Blackbird." In 1973, Bailey teamed with Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli at The Flamingo in Las Vegas to re-create performances by her and her late mother in London. He and Minnelli became great friends.Three hours of preparation were required for each of his full-length concerts, so he could only do one impersonation for each show.

 

 

“It’s my job to make people believe they’re seeing and hearing Judy Garland,” he said in the Inquirer interview. “Convince them that I’m Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, take the audience on a magical trip.” Just watching this talent gives me chills and tears.

 

Rest in Peace Our Sweet Queen!