According to friend-of-LVA Dennis McBride in one tiny snippet of his exhaustive opus on the history of the gay community in Las Vegas (some of which is on view at outhistory.org), "Female impersonation has always lurked at the edge of Las Vegas entertainment culture. Famed impersonator Billy Richards played the Fremont Tavern and the Green Shack in the 1930s, while Gordon Stafford and Francis Russell performed at the notorious Kit Kat Club during World War II. Beginning in the 1950s, such stars as T. C. Jones, Lynne Carter, Jim Bailey, and Craig Russell all brought their revues to Las Vegas. None of these shows, however, played longer than two or three weeks, or became part of Las Vegas entertainment tradition in the way that Lido de Paris, Folies Bergere, or Bottoms Up! did.
"Until Friday, May 13, 1977, when Kenny Kerr debuted This Is Boy-Lesque at the Silver Slipper’s Gaiety Theatre."
Dennis goes on to explain that the power of Boy-lesque was in how it combined the "classic" female impersonator stage shows with the Las Vegas-style revue, with short-attention-span segments of singing, dancing, and comedy.
Kenny Kerr himself was perfect to launch this new breed of show. "While the variety of celebrity female impersonators, flashy costumes, and energetic choreography dazzled audiences, it was always Kerr himself who brought those audiences back. Kerr’s routines were not scripted. His repartee was ad-libbed and genuinely funny. Kerr himself sang rather than lip-synching. His ability to put audiences at ease and create an intimate venue out of an ordinary showroom made Boy-lesque one of the most popular shows in Las Vegas history."
Kerr’s signature impression was Joan Rivers. Frank Marino, star of La Cage, also a Joan Rivers impersonator, had a highly vocal feud for decades, with Kerr accusing Marino of stealing his act and Marino accusing Kerr of being a drama queen.
Kerr headlined the Silver Slipper for nearly 11 years, till it was sold in 1988 (to Margaret Elardi, who tore it down and turned it into a parking lot for the Frontier). From there, Kenny Kerr relocated up the street to the Sahara. After concluding that run, Kerr played a number of second-tier venues, including the Stardust, the Plaza, and the Debbie Reynolds, at tickets prices that never surpassed around $25.
In March 2001, Kerr returned to the location of his breakthrough, the Frontier, but he lasted only two months. From there he performed short stints at the Regent, the Orleans, and the Suncoast.
In 2003, Kenny Kerr released his first, and as far as we know only, CD, Songs from the Heart; in the liner notes, he refers to himself as the "longest-running headliner in Las Vegas history."
By 2004, Kerr had taken his act beyond Las Vegas, playing various venues, such as hotel showrooms, cruise ships, and cabarets, returning now and again to Vegas. For example, in August 2004, Kenny Kerr and Friends played Sunset Station, with tickets at $20, but they lasted only a month. And in June 2007, Kerr made a late-night appearance at the Bootlegger Bistro. Concerning that performance, Norm Clark, Las Vegas Review-Journal gossip columnist, reported that Kenny Kerr and Frank Marino "met for dinner and reportedly put all the bad feelings behind them."
"Along the way," Dennis McBride tells us, Kerr dealt with "embezzling employees, bankruptcy, a still-born talk show venture called 'Vegas Nights,' a failed bar called Kenny Kerr’s Fantasy, and, in 1997, a near-miss business involvement with Torsten Reineck, owner of the Apollo bath house in Las Vegas, who was later associated with serial killer Andrew Cunanan who murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace."
The last we heard about Kerr was in September, when he made a special appearance at Goodtimes, a bar-nightclub in the Liberace Plaza on E. Tropicana. Kerr and the Dionne Warwick look-alike, Tim Dunn, headlined a show that brought together the alumni of An Evening at La Cage.
Today, according to Dennis McBride, Kerr splits his time mostly between Las Vegas and Palm Springs.
