Lavern Cummings

Like all good professionals, Lavern is and always was an exception!   Checking out oneself before making an entrance for the awaiting audience . . . making sure you look your best . . . giving it your all, so the audience would leave with an everlasting remembrance of your performance!

One case in particular comes to mind;   A customer one night, sitting ringside had come in right after my exiting the stage.   He had quite a winning streak at the racetrack and was being generous to the entertainers who would appear one by one.   They had all picked up a $20 bill that he had put on stage.   When it was Lavern's time she hadn't picked up the $20, so he put up a $50 bill and Lavern left the stage at the end of her performance with the $50 bill still sitting on stage!   I remember making a comment to Robin Price at the time saying I thought that perhaps Lavern should have picked it up, and Robin replied, "Libby, that was a sign of Class."   And guess what? Robin was right!   In a way I'm glad that the customer had come in after my performance, because truthfully I don't know to this day what I would have done.

One Saturday night, backstage by the wings, Joe Finocchio was bragging in his charming Italian accent, to let us supporting acts know how lucky we were to have a job at his Club: " Mrs. Finocchio and I get a hundred a letters a month from people wanting to work here.   Singers are a dime-a-dozen, and anyway we need some a new faces around here!".   Lavern heard this remark as he was returning from the stage and replied: "Mr. Finocchio, where are all these new singers?    Anyway, what's wrong with the old faces?"   Lavern knew very well, just as Carroll Wallace and I did, that all of the new acts being hired at the time were for their chorus line, The Eve-ettes.   All they had was youth . . . they lacked talent and some of them were not even that pretty in drag.

Another Saturday night Joe Finocchio took Lavern to the side but loud enough for others to hear: "Boy, your roots are a showing!".   You see, Lavern used to comb his own hair over the front of his wig and had it tinted to compliment his natural blonde hair that was graying.   Lavern answered emphatically: " Mr. Finocchio, with inflation nowadays and the salary I am getting here, I can't afford to colour my hair!"

Lavern Cummings = Fantastic!!!   Beautiful costumes, excellent make-up, a great performer.   I remember seeing Lavern at Finocchio's when I visited the San Francisco landmark club, and the crowd reaction was the same every time:   Lavern Cummings was a Star.   Rumor had it Lavern's hair was her own; whatever.   I think she could have worn a hood over her hair and still blown everybody away!   Lavern had a terrific singing voice, and played the part of a female thrush incredibly well.   In any other showcase, "Female Impersonator" would never cross your mind.   Lavern was a songstress singing her songs amidst a collection of men artfully transformed into women.   Many presumed her to be a "ringer" [real girl] tossed into the lot to complete the grand illusion!   Remarkable then, joyfully memorable today.   Thank you, Lavern, for some really terrific entertainment.