Farewell to an old fashioned girl

Farewell to an old fashioned girl

Melbourne lost another of its leading transgender entertainers last month, Cherie L’Amour.

A true showgirl, L’Amour was best known for her work at Les Girls and Pokeys in St Kilda.

L’Amour died from liver cancer at her home in Melbourne on November 23, with Stephen, her partner of 28 years, by her side. She was 56.

L’Amour was born on March 6, 1954 in Geelong. Her performing days started at Pinky’s nightclub on Fitzroy St.

Her most memorable performances began in the mid-1970s when she stripped in Art Luden’s ‘TITS’ (This Is The Show) strip club at the Ritz Hotel. Even from those early days L’Amour had her legendary flagon of whiskey hidden in her bag.

In 1973 she moved to Sydney to join Les Girls and stripped at the Cross’s Pink Panther.

Her Melbourne fame dates back to the ‘80s, when she worked with Les Girls at Bojangles and triumphed performing ‘Just An Old Fashioned Girl’.

There she worked with close friends Cherry Ripe, Debra Le Gae, Monica St Clair, Sasha Morrell and Coralee D’Winter.

She joined Doug Lucas and the cast of Pokeys on Sunday nights at the Prince of Wales.

During the mid ‘90s L’Amour made many successful interstate trips touring from Perth to Darwin and through outback Western Australia in the Priscilla: Queen of the Desert Show, with Cherry Ripe and Pepper Hudson.

After a highly successful stage career, L’Amour’s health deteriorated over the past few years.
L’Amour was farewelled at a moving service, on November 29 and buried at Altona Memorial Park Cemetery, fulfilling one of her famous quotes ‘life’s a misery and then you die’.

By Alan Mayberry

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One response to “Farewell to an old fashioned girl”

  1. I was there for all the shows , what a time it was, the Sky Brooks video tribute holds a lot of fond memories, I am sure Cherie will be missed by all that new her. Peter x