[1] As a Sydney newspaper reported four decades later, "as a boy of ten, little Max from Manly was one of those star-struck kids who used to paper their bedroom walls with movie star pin-ups".
[1] Reportedly attending the local cinema at Balgowlah three times a week, Ritchie became obsessed with "leading ladies of any calibre", including Ginger Rogers, Margaret Rutherford, Dorothy Lamour and Ruby Keeler.
[1] Ritchie's first recorded foray into female impersonation took place as a teenager, when he entered a talent quest at the Manly Theatre dressed as Carmen Miranda, and won first prize.
[2] It was actually outside Australia that Lee obtained his first big break, when, after he had "managed to scrape together enough money for a trip abroad", he travelled to Europe and appeared on stage at the famous Carrousel all-male revue in Paris.
[1] Becoming sufficiently well known to embark on a career as a solo performer, Lee remained in Europe for seven years, appearing in London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, Berlin, Hamburg, Florence, Naples and Milan.
During his extensive world travels over several decades, Lee met (and even befriended) some of the Hollywood actresses whom he had idolised as a child, including Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and Katherine Grayson.
[3] During the 1980s, Lee made several well-received appearances at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre, playing the female matriarchs in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
His performance as Lady Bracknell in the latter play (in which he was billed as "the world famous Mr Tracey Lee") was lauded in the press as "a brilliant portrayal", in which the actor "creates one memorable moment after another".
[10] Queensland-based artist Libby Woodhams, who knew Lee when she worked in Sydney in the late 1980s, paid homage to him with a piece of artwork titled Four places and only one chair.