Picador Club (Manchester CBD)

 

The Picador was at 50 Newgate Street off Bradshaw Street off Shudehill, Manchester 4.  It was close to Manchester Victoria Railway Station.

 

In 1971 The Picador was brought by British drag queen, flamboyant entertainer and night club owner Frank 'Foo Foo' Lamarr (b. Francis Joseph Pearson, Monday, March 22, 1937, Ancoats, Manchester 4, Lancashire, England d. Friday, November 7, 2003, Christie Hospital, Withington, Manchester 20, Lancashire, England of cancer).

Pearson (Lamarr) a handy boxer in his teens was one of five brothers and the son of an Ancoats, Manchester rag-and-bone man, left school at 15 and begin singing in clubs as Foo Foo Lamarr at night, while holding down a day job as a general manager of a waste paper recycling plant. He borrowed his stage name from Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr and had originally found drag at 20 in 1957. He claimed to have warn his first dress as in a sketch at a Christmas party for mill girls.

 

Lamarr then brought The Celebrity which was at 56 Dale Street, Manchester 1 and had opened on Friday, November 29 to Saturday, November 30, 1968 from 9pm to 2am which he renamed Foo Foo's Place which opened in 1975.