Tracey Lee (born Maxwell Ritchie in 1933) won first prize in a talent quest in a Manly Theatre dressed as Carmen Miranda. While still at high school, his mother took him to see the all-male Kiwi Revue, a New Zealand troupe of ex-servicemen, with three female impersonators.His own career as a female impersonator began in the 1950s at Sydney's Artists Balls and his first professional part in 1953, at the Stork Club (Tom Ugly's Point). The character `Tracey Lee' was created in 1959 while working at Andres, one of Sydney's top nightspots. He performed all around in the world in many famous caberets, Carrousel, Drap D’Or on the Champs Elysees, Follies Pigalle, L’Indifferant and Chez Nous in Berlin. He starred in many stage musicals including Hello Hollywood with Normie Rowe (1975) and appeared as a television and film actor for The Set (1970), Demolition (1978) and one episode of Chopper Squad (1978).
