Tag Archives: Underground History

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Way back in 1988, gay marriage was considered so unbelievable and unattainable, that it was a fantasy story-line in the underground magazine that I used to publish, My Comrade.

Little did we realize that 23 years later(!), same-sex weddings would become legal in New York.

The images are fuzzy Xeroxes, but obviously still quite relevant!

 

The cover featured DJ Keoki and downtown sex symbol Aner Candelario…

The all-photo issue featured a visit to The Institute of Homosexual Inclination by a correspondent (Lisa Lederer) from the television news magazine Sixty Photos.

Director of the Institute was drag queen Hapi Phace.  Aner served as a guide.

Priest: Tommie Saeli.  Happy couple: Flloyd and Chris Corey.

 

 

Radical images indeed—now and then!

Photos by John Boyer and Keith Kotick (R.I.P.).

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As long as I’ve been writing about old Times Square lately…

This past weekend I caught The Ultimate Drag Off, a weekly pageant fabulously hosted by my pal Sweetie at the Times Square Arts Center.

On stage, after the show.

Hoo-boy, if those Arts Center walls could talk!  The space used to be the porn palace Show World.  And I used to work there!

 

“Big Top” was the name of the party I promoted for a short while—I brought the drag shows, management supplied the go-go boys—in a gorgeous showroom with zillions of flashing lights.  The rest of Show World, all four floors, was an X-rated playground, and it was hilarious and thrilling to be part of such a naughty atmosphere.

Come into the light...!
Creamy skin! Misstress Formika and a dancer.
The beautiful people! Daisy, Lamar, Christie Love and pal.
Flloyd greets a dancer.
Afrodite strikes a pose.
Francine and the dazzling ceiling.
Chi-Chi LaRue, Misstress Formika, Sweetie, Faux Pas

The places may change, but the drag queens endure forever and ever…

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I’m showing my age by posting these old photos of Times Square, but fantastic and feisty Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York requested that I do so after I sent over a couple of them taken outside the Gaiety Theater, which Jeremiah recently posted about.

The photos are from 1988 and feature the late great Mr. Fashion (a.k.a. Gerard Little), who was part of the kooky Pyramid Club performance scene.

Times Square at the time was definitely rough around the edges, but it was also very campy with its wild mix of seedy porn theaters, tacky clothing and souvenir stores and old-school bars and eateries.  With Mr. Fashion decked out in his leopard-trim best, we found tons of great backdrops.  He posed, I shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It is my honor to have been a witness, with camera in hand, to so many great moments in African-American drag history.

Afrodite, London Broil and Ebony Jet reviving the fabled “Afro” hairstyle.

Mona Foot receiving her first Glammy Award and breaking off its head.

Peppermint fighting for the right to wear slinky thongs.

Milan crusading for dental hygiene.

Shaquanda Coca Mulatta refashioning the black power salute.

Right on!

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She was a lioness!

Ellen Stewart, founder of NYC’s legendary La MaMa Theater (in 1962) and champion of the offbeat and avant-garde, has died at age 91.

By the time I made my playwright debut at La Mama in 2008 with The Bad Hostess, she wasn’t around on a daily basis.  But her presence was strongly felt.  For one thing, she insisted that the color green (unlucky!) be devoid from her stage.  (And my play was set at Christmas!)

But I did see her frequently at La MaMa throughout the years.  It was a tradition for her to introduce shows, and her commanding presence made it clear that she was queen of her domain.

Scores of performers, including myself, bow down to her in honor.   Thank you, Ms. Stewart, for allowing us to do our own thing!