These pages will form a lasting, (and growing), tribute to a Transgender Pioneer who did so much for thousands of people who in those early days had no other outlet to express themselves in the light hearted, don't take yourself too seriously, way that Ron engendered.

Ron Storme By Richard Smith
News Article Saturday December 2nd, 2000 The Guardian

The huge drag balls that Ron Storme, who has died of liver cancer, probably aged 74, organised at London's Porchester Hall in the late 1960s - with his hefty Canadian friend and fellow drag queen, Jean Fredericks - offered the first opportunity for British gay men to meet in large numbers in public.

Advertised mainly by word-of-mouth, the balls attracted around 800 gay men, usually under the cover of drag. With homosexual acts only decriminalised in 1967, a year before the Porchester Hall events began, the crowd of shop workers, theatre queens, hairdressers and merchant seaman were thrilled at being able to dance and socialise together. Ron decorated the place with stock on unofficial loan from Selfridges. Outside, crowds would often gather to watch the fabulous frocks and elaborate costumes.

One could argue that Porchester Hall was where British gay life finally emerged from the shadows, and where the modern gay club scene began. Ron Storme came from a working-class family in Richmond, Surrey. His theatre career began as a child dancer in 1938. During the second world war, he toured in the then popular, all-male drag review shows, but, after the anti-gay clampdown of the mid-1950s, he moved to Tunisia, where he worked for several years as a stripper and singer. After returning to London, he featured in a series of risqué shows, including the Gaiety Box Revue, fronted by Larry Grayson.

A talented costume-maker, Ron made outfits for himself and many of London's best-known drag acts. His love of frocking-up was not confined to the stage. He wore drag at private parties, and out on the town. He looked so stunning that many people failed to realise he was a man. Earlier this year, he recalled in Gay Times, one night in the 1960s when he had emerged from the London Hilton's Starlight Rooms: "I was walking with this guy, and these two burly coppers were on the pavement. They both stepped aside and tipped their helmets as I walked by. And I thought, 'Yes mate, if you only knew'."

During the early 1960s, Ron and his partner George, whom he had met in 1947, were renowned for the parties they held at their house in Putney, south London. Guests included Kim Philby, Dusty Springfield and Ronnie and Reggie Kray. When the events outgrew the property, the Krays reputedly suggested what became the fancy dress balls at Porchester Hall. In 1980,

Ron opened a new night-spot, Club Travestie Extraordinaire, in Stepney, east London. It rapidly became an east end institution, attracting a devoted crowd of straight cross-dressers, drag queens and admirers. Earlier this year, the club celebrated its 20th anniversary, and is arguably the country's longest-running gay night spot. Until last summer, when he was taken ill, Ron was always on the door, welcoming people in - and almost invariably looking more fabulously dressed than anyone else.

His partner George died in 1981. Ron Storme, female impersonator and gay activist, born February 2 1926; died October 3 2000

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