Bambi Lake (Oct. 20, 1950-Nov. 4, 2020) was a performer who sprung out of the Cockettes, the radical, gay, hippie performance troupe, and the Angels of Light, the free-theater child of the Cockettes. She was a San Francisco-of-yesterday fixture who persevered into the new millennium and established herself as an actress, street-level poet, and chanteuse.
Bambi was born in Palo Alto, California, on October 20, 1950. She was the fourth of eight children. She attended Sequoia High School in Redwood City. From an early age, she knew she was destined to perform and often said that she survived high school by plunging herself into the never-ending whirl of local theater. After studying theater at Cañada Junior College, in 1970, she met future Cockette piano player Peter Mintun, who picked her up hitchhiking. He told her about a new merry band of hippies, and the next thing she knew, she was at a Cockette rehearsal. The Cockette's founder, Hibiscus, took her under his wing, and together they became Angels of Light. In 1973 she made Berlin her home. At this time, Bambi started taking hormones and, before she knew it, became who she always knew she was. She returned to San Francisco in 1978 and threw herself into San Francisco's fledgling punk scene. She sang with the all-female band VS and went on to tour Europe with The Stranglers.
In the 1980s, she began writing poetry and putting her words to music. Her best-known song, the autobiographical "The Golden Age of Hustlers," is performed all over the world. She sang sad songs on stages of all sizes all over San Francisco for more than 50 years and released her debut album, My Glamourous Life as a Broadway Hostess, in 2005. In a 2017 interview, she said her greatest talent was "making people cry." Her voice was fierce and filled with enchanting melancholy. After a brief hiatus, she launched a comeback in 2016 following her documentary, Sticks and Stones, directed by Silas Howard. Her last public performance was as part of the cast of the Dan Karkoska-produced Cockettes Are Golden: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, Jan. 4, 2020 at the Victoria Theatre.
She died of cancer on November 4, 2020, she was 70 years old.
