BOBBIE CALLICOATTE

Robert “Bobbie” Callicoate [pronounced Calico-tay]

The article in the Ogden Standard-Examiner in 1986 [see in the following paragraphs) stated that Bobbi was born in Hawaii. However, he was born Robert Samuel Smith in Los Angeles, CA on July 16, 1940 (birth date is correct. In 1958, at the age of 18, he was stationed in the U.S. Navy stationed at Treasure Island and was released on December 9, 1960.

The Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 7, 1986, said, “If people in show biz put out a shingle, Robert Callicoatte’s might say, “Have Bra, Will Travel.”

Bobbie was born on July 16, 1940, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother died when he was young and his father died around 1980. It is unclear about his early years or how he came stateside, but after graduating high school he became a stockbroker. In 1965, he saw Charles Pierce, the prominent “Male Actress” perform. For about five years he worked weekdays as a stockbroker and weekends as a female impersonator. He, during this time, won a female impersonation contest which seemed to change the course of what he was to do. It is unclear and has not been verified that he may have gotten married and had a son during this time. Bobbi, in an interview with the Ogden Standard-Examiner, Friday, February 7, 1986, cited, “His wife, from whom he has been separated for many years, and their 21-year-old son still do not know (about his career).

He began touring and then came to Portland and worked at Darcelle XV Showplace until he got restless and performed as a solo act until he teamed up with Tiffany Jones the wisecracking, lip-synching drag queen from Texas. Tiffany would open her act with, "I see we have a number of straight people in the audience today. I love straight people; they're so obvious!" She performed in Provincetown in the late '70s and early '80s. Tiffany would spinning like a top to the strains of Ain't No Mountain High Enough or doing his trademark roller-skating nun, and his signature closing was Charles Aznavour's lovely balled, Tell Me if You Can, What Makes a Man a Man, which defiantly confronts hostility and discrimination against gay people. Resplendent in drag, Tiffany would elegantly remove one thing at a time until he was in his bikini briefs. Then he would throw on a pair of old jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat, now the picture of masculinity, and crumple his wig in his hand while looking heavenward. That number elevated a cheap and funny drag show to something approaching art. When Tiffany died in 1985, Bobbi went back to a one-person format.

However, he always called the home of Walter W Cole/Darcelle and Roxy Neuhardt’s Portland, Oregon residence his home. Walter said, “You would never know when Bobbi would come back until he would jump in the middle of the bed and say, ‘Mama I’m home!’ “ As described in the book Darcelle: Looking From My Mirror, Walter describes Bobbie, “He came, he went – let’s just say he toured all over the country, but loving New Orleans the most. He always seemed to ‘put us in questionable positions’ – but it always ended okay, I almost always commented to Roxy, “We’re on another Bobbie adventure.” And an adventure it was! Like New Orleans or Vegas – wherever he was, we’d go and we’d sometimes wonder why we ever went. He’d send letters to me, “Dear Mama.” I miss my dear black friend.

When I think of him, I think of all the mischief he’d get us into. One time he called us for from a club in Lake Charles Louisiana called Hollywood East. He was doing his show there and since he knew we were coming to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, he said, “Come here and we’ll do a show. It’ll be so much fun, it’s a beautiful club. The owner is really nice - people come over from Houston.” It was just for a couple of shows, be with him, then go back to New Orleans. “You’ll see, it’s a wonderful way to see the sights and scenery – it’s only a two-hour bus ride from New Orleans.” I thought, “Okay that will be nice.”

We flew into New Orleans; Bobbie meets us at the airport. We then get on a Greyhound bus from New Orleans to Lake Charles. What was supposed to be a two-hour bus ride, turned out to be three and a half hours! We saw the countryside. The countryside was black water pools filled with dead trees. Lake Charles area is drained bayous. No people – just swamp. I loved it – boy this nice – bull shit. I said to Roxy, “We’re on another Bobbie adventure!” When we arrived, it was after dark. We were picked up at the bus station, they got a motel for us then we went to the club. Because the three of us needed to get ready to do the show. We drove down by the water and the road was dark and spooky. We drove up and parked in front of the structure. The car lights hit it and it was a Quonset hut. What the hell - a Quonset Hut?! With a sign on the door that said Hollywood East. Where in the palace we were supposed to play in? “This is it? Bobbie, what the hell?” Although, by this time in our relationship with Bobbie this kind of thing was no big surprise like I said, another adventure. Over the years with Bobbie, we had learned to just go with it and enjoy the ride. Across the street, there was a cross with lights – and since it was night – it was lit.

Once inside, the owner I think her name is Betty or something I could never remember greeted us. Showed us around – which took no more than two minutes, then she showed us the ‘dressing room’ which was the supply room somewhat cleaned out with a table and a couple chairs in it. She pointed to the hornet’s nest high in the corner and said, “Don't worry about the mud daubers. Their sleeping they won’t come out.” I asked, “Why don’t you get rid of them?” “Hell, they’ll just come back.” No arguing with that, and oh yes we’re in the South. “By the way, you just missed the gator run,” she said. I looked at her. She continued, “Gators sex playing - that last week. It’s mating season and they came up out of the bayou behind here, cross the road to the other side. The place is really jumpin’ when that happens.” “Boy, I‘m so sorry we missed it.” There was a home stereo system, okay a boom box, and the stage was made out of plywood. So, everything you did was clunk, clunk, clunk. The audience was great. We did the show and it was very successful. We had a good time. They came over from Houston and a lot of locals as well as people we knew came. We did the show, went back to the motel and that ended our day. The next day they took us to dinner and I said, “I love crawfish, I don’t care how they are prepared.” They brought me a platter – not a plate, a platter with them made all different ways. It was really, really good food. We go back to the “club” the Quonset hut and on the door, there are holes. I turned to Betty and said, “What are these holes out here about the door?”

“Oh, yeah, those. Bullet Holes.”

The door is riddled with bullet holes. BULLET HOLES!

“Really, when did this happen?”

“Oh, a couple of weeks ago. Some good old boys thought they needed to teach us, sinners, a lesson.”

I turned and looked across the road to the house with the giant cross outlined in light bulbs.

“When they were ‘shootin’’ up the place, did the lights on the cross going on?”

“Yep.”

I turned to Bobbie and said, “Thank you – this is that ‘lovely lounge’ you act in.” You see it was dark last night, we didn’t see this part of the lovely décor – or we’re so taken back by the idea of a Quonset hut – bullet holes – a Quonset hut, mud daubers, gators, good old boys with guns, a cross that lights up – “Bobbie, you have outdone yourself this time.”.

We were there for two days and packed them in both nights. When it was time to get paid, Betty handed us each a bag of coin. Maybe she had a laundromat somewhere? It didn’t matter, we got paid and well, coins spend just the same as paper, it’s just a bit harder to carry around.

We got up early the next morning to catch the bus, and as I’m sitting on the bus, I look out …“Bobbie, look – and our boxes of costumes – being loaded on a different bus!”

He smiled, “It’s okay – they’re going back to Portland.”

“How can that be? I mean, we didn’t buy a ticket to Portland.”

“Don’t need a ticket.”

“I hate to disagree – we do.”

“Nope, really, it’s okay.”

“Why?”

“I slept with the driver of that bus last night.”

Off we went BACK to New Orleans – I believe we had our baptism in what doing drag in the south is all about.

For about 10 years, Bobbie hosted a show in Provincetown, NY at the Pilgrim House in the Madeira Room wherein The Mirror newspaper, July 30, 1986 edition stated, “every major talent-in-a-frock has dragged his skirts over the last decade.”

The Madeira Room is in the basement of the Pilgrim House Hotel on Commercial Street, P-Town's main street. In the 1950s, a dance orchestra played on Saturday nights in what was then called the Sea Dragon Club. In the 1960s, its name was changed to the Madeira Club. A young comedian performed on its stage while gaining fame on the Gary Moore Show on CBS-TV. Her name is Lily Tomlin. In an interview with The Advocate Magazine for their July 20, 1967 issue where she said, “I love it here but it’s frustrating not being able to grow a beard.”She played the room for two years before joining the cast of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In on NBC.

The hotel was purchased in 1975 by a well-known drag artist Lynn Carter who has been appearing in the long-running Jewel Box Review showcase. Her first appearance was in 1966 in his infamous Bette Davis impersonation. Early in his career, and as an encouragement to pursue drag as a profession, world-renowned Josephine Baker gave him numerous Dior and Balenciaga gowns and tutored him in French. Lynn had in 1957 recorded an album She’s a He, appeared on various talk shows such as The Merv Griffin Show and Mike Douglas Show, in the Fun City Review (1968). It is believed that Lynn was the first female impersonator to perform at Carnegie Hall which took place in 1971.

When Mt St. Helens erupted in 1980, Bobbie took the moment to brand himself as “Hotter ‘n’ St. Helens.

In 1981, Bobbi, petitioned that his name be changed from Robert Samuel Smith (birth name) to Robert Samuel Callicoatte. It was gratned on March 3, 1981 - in the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for the County of Multnomah.

In 1983 he was given The Best of Provincetown - Golden Gull Award.

In the Provincetown Magazine, they cite Bobbie as, “enjoying his eighth season entertaining in Provincetown and his second as director of the Cotton Club – a spectacular drag revue…Bobbie has been wowing audiences with his sensational looks for more years than you can count on your fingers and toes and he still has the beauty of an ingénue. He’s a national phenomenon, television personality, and night club star. Behind the graceful stage presence is hard work, timing, the mastery of mannerism and character creation, add stage direction, and costuming expertise to begin to get a notion of what goes into his shows.”

When it is stated that he was a national phenomenon, he had played clubs from New York to the Elks’ Club in Mount Vernon, Washington.

In August 1990, Molly K.N Omiz MD wrote to Adult Family Services, “Mr. Callicoatte has recently been hospitalized for Pneumagsts Carinii Pneumonia, a serious complication of patients with AIDS. During his hospitalization, he was determined to be HIV(+) which for him is a new diagnosis. At that time, he retired from performing.

Facing a health crises, Bobbie reached out to Pope John Paul II, in return, a blessed rosary was sent to him.

His last few months were spent at Our House, an AIDS hospice house in Portland, Oregon. Bobbie died in a Portland hospital of pneumonia arising from acquired immune deficiency syndrome on Monday, July 20, at 6:15 pm. He was 52, having just celebrated his birthday on July 16. His obituary stated and was misrepresented that he had worked with Carol Channing, Diana Ross, and Katherin Hepburn when it actually was that those were the people he immolated with this drag performing. He did possibly meet through Maxine Andrews [The Andrew Sisters] because she performed at Darcelle XV Showplace twice, and he did work with Wayland Flowers and Madame as that act performed as part of the shows at the Madeira Room.