Bruz Fletcher

 ( Gay Singer-songwriters ) 

By 1929, Fletcher had written songs for actresses Leatrice Joy and Ruth Roland to perform, while author A. M. Williamson said that Fletcher had written a musical score for her book Bill the Sheik. In 1929 and 1930, he performed as a pianist in vaudeville with actress Esther Ralston, who sang songs he had crafted for her. They travelled around performing at theatres owned by RKO Pictures. They performed at the Orpheum in Los Angeles, at the Keith-Albee Theatre in Boston, at Proctor's Theatre in Yonkers, New York, at the Hennepin-Orpheum at Minneapolis, at the New Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa, at the Orpheum in Omaha, Nebraska, at the RKO Mainstreet in Kansas City, Missouri, at the Earle Theater in Washington D.C., at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, at Shea's Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, as well as other venues in Brooklyn, in Rochester, New York, in Mount Vernon, New York, in Paterson, New Jersey, in Cincinnati, in St Louis, in South Bend, Indiana, and in Philadelphia.

Fletcher's first novel Beginning with Laughter (being sold at $2) was published in January 1932. The plot was about an orphan, who would become a nightclub hostess in debauchery-laden New York, as well as her lover, a songwriter, and their patron, a rich owner of nightclubs. By May 1932, another novel of Fletcher's, entitled Only the Rich, was published (also being sold at $2), regarding an heiress who flees an arranged marriage and finds new romance. By August 1932, he was said to have written a Broadway theatre play, Aggie's Affairs. As a chronicler of the demimonde, during his career, Bruz spiced his literary works with details that provided candid glimpses into a world populated by society , misfits, celebs, Addiction, servants, lovers, and eccentrics who reflected a wide variety of sexual orientations and behavior.

Fletcher in December 1932 was writing sketches for Queenie Smith to perform in New York. The play Not a Saint, written by Fletcher and John Montague, starring Queenie Smith and George Walcott, was performed from June 1933, about a salacious actress who ultimately fails to woo a man and dies from a drug overdose; Fletcher and Montague had to deny allegations that the play was based on the life of Jeanne Eagels. In February 1934, Fletcher began performing at the Casino Town Club in New York together with Smith, with Fletcher singing while playing the piano.

Fletcher and Casey Roberts in March 1934, held an exhibition in New York for their photographs, including those of Serge Obolensky, the wife of Vincent Astor, and Casey's cook. In December 1934, Fletcher and Roberts travelled to Palm Beach, Florida, after having released another novel, October Again, and crafted the lyrics of the Frimi musical and comedic performance for Christmas in New York. In January 1935, Fletcher started a daily singing routine during cocktail hour in the Sidewalk Cafe at The Patio in Palm Peach. In February 1935, Fletcher contributed the lyrical composition of a musical number for the Bal de Tete dance event in Palm Beach's Everglades Club. During these months, he was noted to have mixed around with Maurice Fatio and Hugh Dillman. In March 1935, Fletcher and Casey Roberts exhibited more of their art in Palm Beach, including Fletcher's watercolor drawings and photos.

Fletcher returned to New York in April 1935, to edit his play, Velvet Lined, after it was bought for performance at Broadway. In July 1935, Fletcher was made by Ted Healy to perform in front of Joan Crawford and other cast and crew in the midst of a film production in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Later that year, Fletcher performed at Sunset Boulevard, first at the Three Stars nightclub by August, where he was once arrested for being complicit in selling alcohol after permitted hours (which he denied), and then at Cafe LaMaze. During that time, Fletcher's performance of "I Live in the House Where Garbo Used to Live", regarding Greta Garbo, was noted to have offended a producer working at Garbo's studio despite the song's innocuous lyrics, such that the cafe he was performing at forbade Fletcher from performing that song there henceforth.

Fletcher had moved to Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles by 1936; he counted among his friends Queenie Smith, Ted Healy, Nancy Carroll, Jane Darwell, Grace Hayes, Maude Eburne and Helen Ainsworth. In June 1936, his comedic play Commuting Distance was shown in the Beechwood Theatre of Scarborough-on-Hudson in New York. By the next year, Fletcher had developed the hobby of growing herbs, including catnip for his pet cats, with local media reported that he may have "the only complete herb garden on the Pacific Coast".

In the late 1930s, Fletcher became renowned as a nightclub entertainer, during what came to be known as "Pansy Craze". "The Pansy Craze: The Story and the Music". Queer Music Heritage. He performed in glamorous venues, delighting his sophisticated patrons with witty and risqué songs punctuated with salacious patter, clearly influenced by Noël Coward and Cole Porter. Fletcher wrote at least six plays, many for summer stock, including The Greater Thing (1930). Fletcher was known as "The Singing Satirist". His four-year-plus run in Club Bali in the second half of the 1930s, underscored a bawdy, party-like atmosphere for the city's most outrageous celebrities and notables. Bruz Fletcher. Queer Music Heritage. "It was on the Sunset Strip that a Tiki culture called Club Bali opened its doors," wrote historian Jenny Hamel. "Waiters wearing would serve drinks and 'curried dishes' to all the patrons sitting on red couches. And the headlining act for five years was an openly gay, high society piano and song man by the name of Bruz Fletcher."Hamel, Jenny (May 11, 2018). "The Pansy Craze: When gay nightlife in Los Angeles really kicked off". Santa Monica, Calif.: KCRW. "Hollywood’s artistic crowd would fill the Bali night after night," During his run at the Bali, Fletcher's name received about two hundred mentions in the Los Angeles Times. Some show business legends who caught Fletcher's act were dismissive. "After a movie tonight I stopped at Bali to have a look at Bruz Fletcher, a cousin of Elizabeth's, the son of the rich, rich cousin (Stoughton Fletcher) who ruled Indianapolis," wrote producer/screenwriter Charles Brackett. "This poor little guy ... survives by singing songs at the tawdriest of pansy night clubs. He's a wisp of a creature, too touching to think about."Brackett, Charles, It's the Pictures That Got Small: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age, ed. by Anthony Slide, Columbia University Press, 2015

By July 1936, Fletcher was reported to be performing at the Bali nightclub in Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles (Fletcher himself claims he started at Bali in July 1935). Fletcher in February 1937 was robbed of $18 while in the Bali, as witnessed by Elaine Barrie, and three men were later arrested over the incident. Local media reported in March 1937 that Fletcher "is the chief attraction at the Club Bali". Fletcher was noted to choose his dinner jacket color to match guests he was entertaining. Given his performances, he was allowed to write a guest column for the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, which he did so in the form of a poem. Also that year, Fletcher allowed Lee Wiley to perform some of his songs for a fee. He told the media that his childhood and enduring ambition was songwriting, and other than that he had "no ambition at all", but that he had to sing to earn money to survive, even though "I really hate to sing", and would also prefer to be employed as a playwright or a novelist. After visiting Mexico for six weeks in late 1937, Fletcher experienced stage fright upon returning to entertain in Bali.

Among those Fletcher entertained at the Bali in 1937 included Peggy Fears, Patsy Kelly, Bradford Ropes, Jack Kirkland, Phyllis Brooks, James Ellison, June Travis, Dick Purcell, Dave Rubinoff, Gypsy Rose Lee, McClelland Barclay, Addison Randall, Louise Brooks, Thyra Samter Winslow, Henry Wadsworth, Alice White, Frank Morgan, Jimmy Durante, Jack Haley, Paula Stone, Charles K. Feldman, Fred Perry, Helen Vinson, Regis Toomey, Alan Campbell, Dorothy Parker, John Warburton, Polly Ann Young, Rowland V. Lee, Maurice Murphy, Dixie Dunbar, Gloria Holden, Robert Benchley, Chester Morris, Alice Brady, Virginia Faulkner, Philip MacDonald, and Edward Stevenson.

When Fletcher went to a drugstore to purchase cigarettes, his $20,000 Laurel Canyon house was entirely burnt down in June 1938, destroying all his possessions and killing his two cats, his dog and his monkey; it was unknown how the fire started. Fletcher, who had not yet fully paid for the cost of his furniture, cameras and piano, had to continue paying the remaining installments despite these possessions being destroyed in the fire. In light of the losses, Alice Brady and Jean Acker helped to raise funds and collect items for Fletcher and Casey Roberts. By August 1938, Fletcher had constructed a new home in the Valley (later reported to be in Tarzana, Los Angeles); this time he purchased insurance for his home. In November 1938, Fletcher suffered bruises after he accidentally rammed his car into a tree after trying to avoid a dog. In December 1938, Fletcher's garage was destroyed in a fire.

In 1938, as part of "the longest run anyone has had in a night club" in Los Angeles according to the Los Angeles Times, Fletcher entertained at Bali. Among those entertained were Ronald Reagan, Anita Louise, Humphrey Bogart, Mayo Methot, Howard Hughes, Mary Maguire, Patricia Ellis, Travis Banton, Bonita Granville, Virginia Field, Peter Lind Hayes, Frances Robinson, Louise Stanley, Howard Shoup, Lila Lee, Ona Munson, Clara Kimball Young, Ralph Forbes, Heather Angel, Lew Pollack, and Margaret Hamilton. For some months in mid-1938 Fletcher appeared on KMTR evening radio. By 1938 he had forged connections with three of Charlie Chaplin's wives, but not Chaplin himself, as Fletcher had performed in vaudeville with Mildred Harris, written songs for Lita Grey, and entertained Paulette Goddard. Fletcher's performances led him to be described by the Los Angeles Times as the "Dwight Fiske of the Coast, except that he writes sentimental chansons as well as cynical fables".

In 1939, Fletcher entertained at Bali: Gladys George, Leonard Penn, Gertrude Michael, and Maxie Rosenbloom. Also, Fletcher's pet Capuchin monkey monkey Patsy escaped from Fletcher's Encino, Los Angeles ranch for two weeks, biting two people who tried to catch it, before in January 1939 Patsy was apprehended. Patsy and another weeper monkey, Peter, both escaped from Fletcher's ranch in October 1939 when Fletcher travelled to San Francisco, with Patsy returning to the ranch, but Peter disappearing. In June 1939, Fletcher was driving when his car hit another car, injuring two people in the other car, resulting in Fletcher's arrest for potentially driving while drunk. A trial was held in October 1939 for Fletcher, to decide if he was guilty of a felony, with the arresting officer testifying that Fletcher was drunk, with alcohol in Fletcher's car. Fletcher denied that he was drunk or driving into traffic at the time of the incident. This trial resulted in a hung jury, with 10 in favor of acquitting Fletcher and 2 against. Another trial was arranged, and the second jury in December 1939 found Fletcher guilty of drink driving. That month Superior Court Judge Georgia Bullock sentenced Fletcher to three years probation on the condition that he abstain from alcohol during this period.

In mid-December 1939, Fletcher announced he would leave his entertainer job at the Bali nightclub in January 1940. However, he did later make some appearances to entertain at Bali in August and September 1940. By mid-1940, Fletcher had written a play entitled Ah, Lovely Day for Leonard Penn to produce. In October 1940, Fletcher began performing at New York's Brevoort Supper Club, before moving to perform in New York's Ruban Bleu in November 1940. By the end of 1940, Fletcher had composed a song for Penn's wife Gladys George to perform at the British War Relief Ball.

Over the course of his career, Fletcher recorded more than two dozen songs on 78 rpm records, many issued by Liberty Music Shop Records.