Francis Joseph Pearson (22 March 1937 – 7 November 2003) was a British drag queen and nightclub owner known professionally as Foo Foo Lammar (with his surname also being spelt as Lamarr or Lamar). The Times called him "One of the North of England's most popular female impersonators", whilst the BBC described his performance as "a legendary drag act". Lammar, who was based in his native Manchester, worked in entertainment for over 30 years, and amassed a fortune of over £5m. He became an established name in Manchester from the 1970s onwards, and was well known in the city until his death in 2003.
Early life
Francis Joseph Pearson was born to a working-class family on 22 March 1937 in Ancoats, Manchester, then part of Lancashire. He was one of five brothers, and his father was a rag-and-bone merchant. Francis, known as Frank, left school at 15 without any qualifications and worked as a delivery boy for bread vans. This was followed by a stint at a cotton mill, and then Butterworths, a waste paper reclamation firm. In his teens, he was a boxer, and lived on the same street as future Coronation Street actor Bill Tarmey.
Career
Drag queen
It was at the age of 20 that Pearson originally discovered drag; he claimed to have first worn a dress in a sketch at a Christmas party for mill girls. Whilst working in the paper mill as general manager, Pearson began to appear in pubs as Foo Foo Lamarr by night, taking the surname from the film actress Hedy Lamarr (the surname was latterly spelt as Lammar). It was suggested by him that the first name was a result of a Frenchman being unable to pronounce Frank. Lammar later told the story of his father throwing a bar stool at him after discovering what his son was doing. "Somebody told my dad that I was singing in the Ancoats Arms, but what they did not tell him was that I was stretched across the piano in a frock," Lammar commented.
The 1960s was a boom period for drag acts in the northern clubs, and by the 1970s, performers like Danny La Rue and Larry Grayson had made camp entertainment mainstream, a niche which Lammar slotted into. "Appearing on stage in blonde bouffant wigs and expensive sequinned gowns, he was known for his caustic wit and repartee with tough northern audiences", The Times wrote of his act.
Although drag has long been associated with the gay community, Lammar mainly played to straight audiences. "I don't see myself as a drag queen," he said, adding "I'm more of a comic in a frock." The Guardian described Lammar's performing persona as "an outrageous cross between Bet Lynch and Myra Breckinridge."
He appeared on television, radio and in theatres, working with La Rue. The BBC 1 series Nationwide profiled Lammar in a May 1981 edition of the programme, and he was a guest on TV chat shows, such as Granada's Weekend in December 1984. Lammar and his club were also the subject of an August 1985 episode of BBC Radio 4's Actuality documentary series titled "No Vulgarity Tonight", in which parts of his live act were broadcast. In an April 1990 episode of the BBC 1 TV drama Making Out, he had a cameo in character: appearing under his Foo Foo alter ego in a nightclub scene, he was billed as the Compere. Lammar's life was the subject of a short BBC 2 documentary, By Day, By Night, which was broadcast in August 1995.
In 1996, Lammar took part in Liz Dawn's House Party!, a direct-to-video release hosted by Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn. In October that year, he was seen in The Ghost of Ivy Tilsley, a Channel 4 documentary about another Coronation Street actress, Lynne Perrie, who had played Ivy Tilsley in the soap opera. In February 1997, Lammar had a small role in the final episode of the BBC comedy drama TV series Common as Muck. Lammar played Martin, a character seemingly based on himself, who wears drag and works in a nightclub. Lammar also hosted a segment for the Men & Motors channel, Hot Agony Aunt, in which he gave advice to viewers' problems.