Beverly Shaw (ca. 1910–May 26, 1990) was an American

nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...

whose career centered on

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

clubs in California. She was also the owner of a gay nightclub in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Biography

Shaw was from

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She began her career in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, singing

torch song A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affecte ...

s at the lesbian bar Mona's (where she performed up to the mid 1940s) and the Chi-Chi Club. During World War II, she drove a

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

to support herself and sang as a headliner at Mona's at night. Shaw moved back to Los Angeles in the early 1950s. There, she sang at the Flamingo Club for a few years before buying her own nightclub in

North Hollywood North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

, Club Laurel. She turned Club Laurel into a popular upscale gay night spot catering to the film community and ran it for 14 years. She placed a photograph of herself in the front window of Club Laurel captioned "Miss Beverly Shaw, Sir!", later saying that she borrowed the 'sir' from a

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

interview with

Tallulah Bankhead Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Lif ...

in which he called her sir. The club's matchbooks were similarly captioned. Shaw was the Laurel Club's star singer. Her style was influenced by

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

. In either the late 1950s or early 1960s, she produced an album titled "Songs Tailored to Your Taste." The album includes her signature song, "Honeysuckle Rose." Shaw occasionally sang at other Los Angeles–area venues, including Club Bayou, Linda's Little Log Cabin, Larry Potter's Supper Club, and Joani's Bar. Shaw was a finalist on the radio show ''

Major Bowes Amateur Hour The ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' was an American radio talent show broadcast in the 1930s and 1940s, created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946). Selected performers from the program participated in touring vaudeville performances, under ...

''. She died of cancer in 1990 at the age of 80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Beverly 1990 deaths American lesbian musicians Nightclub performers Singers from Los Angeles