Stoughton “Bruz” Fletcher was the son of one of the most dramatically rich (and richly dramatic) families in Indiana. His family’s predilection for mess may very well have helped inform his campy stylings as an entertainer.
Fletcher was originally meant to perform at Club Bali on Sunset Blvd for a two-week engagement in 1935. Instead, his lilting voice and smart delivery drew in droves of Hollywood’s who’s-whos and bought him an astounding five-year run at the club.
His star performances were attended by the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Louise Brooks, and R*nald R*agen, as well as being a favorite star-spotting ground of the LA Times columnist Hedda Hopper.
Fletcher’s barely-coded queer innuendo and flair shine through on songs like “Keep an Eye on His Business” and “Spring in Manhattan”, and his gossip-laden “She’s My Most Intimate Friend” proves him a perfect chanteuse of shade.
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His sparkling wit kept him playing the stage for years, as well as branching into writing novels and plays. Even with his laundry list of talents, his legacy lives on most ardently in his recordings.
Listen to Fletcher regale you with the hilarious tale of his “Most Intimate Friend”:
Kirkers
I enjoy these Retro Record posts. They are fascinating and thanks for posting the music, too.
dbmcvey
I love it! I didn’t know about him. Thank you for this!
blf49
Great article. Love these stories about people who hid in plain sight. And I love him! I’ll be looking for more of his work as a singer and songwriter. The song provided may be the proto-type for shade. At some points, the cadence is exactly like “Couldn’t Be Happier.” (1955 – Shoestring Review)
moviemag
A hometown boy. I own…and love…several of his 78rpm recordings.
Joshooeerr
Fletcher may have been camp. He may have happily identified as a pansy. But he most certainly wasn’t a “chanteuse”. Or are you staying he was trans too?!
Kangol2
Enlightening post. I’d never heard of Mr. Fletcher. Since you mentioned Raygun, perhaps you might post a feature on out gay writer James Kirchick’s recent book Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. One strand of the book apparently concerns Raygun’s hysteria around gay people and being linked to gay men, something that happened more than once, to the extent that other right-wing Republicans tried to use it against him. I wonder if he sat at Fletcher’s performance simultaneously mesmerized and repulsed.
Mr. Stadnick
Excellent little post! It is nice to read something informative that is about a trump on this site.
inbama
It’s always amazing to see how gays and lesbians managed to carve out lives for themselves in times of serious oppression when no legal protections whatsoever existed.
My generation laughed at their predecessors and redefined bravery as being part of a mob rioting in the most liberal section of one of the most liberal cities in an America already on the cusp of acceptance thanks to the success of Civil Rights movement.
Now we have Generation Z claiming “language is violence” and turning universities into padded cells where they can insulate themselves from any science, history, art or discussion that makes even one of them feel “unsafe.”
It’ll be interesting to see who turns up to vote in November and what we learn from the results.