My drag career started at a bar in the French quarter of New Orleans called the Post Office. I believe that the bar was located at the corner of St. Louis and Burgundy. Drag was a bit different in those days. Most performers had few resources for wigs, costumes, makeup, etc.. There were a few of the older queen performing, that were involved in the Mardi Gras krewes. They had more elaborate wigs and costumes than us younger performers.
When I first started performing, I was still in the Navy. I wasn't making that much money, but I was able to purchase a few nice outfits and a couple of good wigs. After I got out of the Navy and had to support myself with whatever temporary jobs I could find, it was harder to find money for drag. In those days, performers worked only for tips. Usually the amount of money we made was enough for a few cocktails and maybe a meal, but not enough to support ourselves. We did a lot of sharing of resources.
As a performer, my only real claims to fame, was that I looked real and I wasn't good lipsyncer. After I had been performing at the Post Office for about six months, a man named Bruce Richardson was opening a club a block down the street called Fat Sam's Speakeasy. One of my best friends, Paulette, who was not only talented as a performer, but also as a director and choreographer, not to mention extremely beautiful and very convincing as a woman, was asked to join the cast. My mind is a little foggy on exactly who else was in the original cast but I do remember Regina Adams, Sandra, and probably the best performer in town at the time, who was the reigning Miss Gay New Orleans, Lisa Baumann. To my surprise, I also was asked to be part of the original cast. I was thrilled to be in such talented company.
Some of the performers impersonated specific female singers. Lisa Baumann is, without question, the best Liza Minnelli impersonator I have ever seen, but Lisa is just all around talented. I don't think there is anything she couldn't do, once she set her mind to it. I believe, that she was the only person in the cast with legitimate theater training. I did not have anyone in particular that I could make myself look like. I was pretty, in a girl next door kind of way, but I was overweight, so really couldn't make myself look like any of the popular female performers of the day. However, I loved doing anything Bette Midler. Some of my best performances, were her material.
While we all did our own solo numbers, one of my favorite things to do were the cast skits. Most of those were directed and choreographed by Paulette. She could be intensely dramatic on one number and hilarious on the next. I was the least experienced and talented of the group and I only got better because of the generosity of my castmates. My biggest limitations as a performer was the fact that I couldn't dance, was not graceful, and my fashion sense was very lacking. To a certain extent, I could follow choreography. This was one of the most fun and creative times of my life. However, impersonating a female just was not enough for me. I had to become on the outside, the woman I was on the inside.
At one point, my mother came to town for a conference and came to see the show. As I had always been a klutz as a child. She told me she was very surprised at how graceful I appeared on stage. I told her that was only because every move I made was choreographed by someone else. This was the first time my mother had ever seen my female persona. We had talked about the whole "transsexual" thing, but it wasn't until after seeing me this way, that she started to understand. From this point on, she was my biggest supporter.
While doing shows, I met my first celebrity. Dick Cavett, an extremely popular television talk show host and his wife Carrie Nye, a celebrated Broadway actress, were regular attendees to the show. I was introduced to them and was invited to sit with them after the show. To my surprise, they seemed to really like me and after that night, I had many dinners and lunches with them, especially with Carrie Nye, whom I became friends with.
One of the biggest faux pas happened on a night out with them. We were going to the Commander's Palace for dinner with Carrie Nye's childhood friend, Dr. Mary Pillow Scales and I was sitting in the back seat with Dick. He had become very friendly with my pal, Paulette, who like me, was transgender. He told me he could tell that we were different from some of our hard partying friends. I laughed and told him, "so many of those queens are after just three things, booze, dope and dick." I took me a second to realize who I was sitting next to, and fell all over myself trying to apologize and he just roared with laughter. He said it was one of the funniest things he had ever heard. After I left New Orleans for California, Carrie Nye and I remained in touch and my mother was always surprised at the fact that a well known Broadway actress was calling her home to speak to her child.
I read more into the relationship with Dik and Carrie Nye than what was actually there. My first year of college, I was a drama major. I had come up with a wild scheme to go to New York and study acting at NYU. I was counting on this relationship with Dick and Carrie Nye to open some doors for me as far as auditions and maybe getting some roles. It might have been a good idea to have actually told Carrie Nye what I was planning, because when I showed up unannounced in New York and let them know that I was in town, I think they were a bit horrified. They vacationed in New Orleans fairly anonymously in those days. Their life in New York was totally separate. I lasted about six months in New York working for a temp agency. I had only one I audition, could not find any acting classes I could afford, and after getting sick and losing my temporary job, ran out of money. Note to prospective thespians; if you are going to pursue your dreams, have some ready cash to see you through! Dick gave me $200 so that I could drive to New Orleans. This would not be my first time returning to the safety of the rather insulated community of the French quarter. At this period of time, the late seventies and early eighties, there were only a few places where trans women could live without too much violence against them. New Orleans was one of those places. I say "too much violence", only because even as gay and trans friendly the French Quarter seemed, violence did rear it's ugly head. Another story for another time. The violence against me was a very dark time in my life that I am not quite ready to share yet.
After I returned to New Orleans, I went back to work for Bruce Richardson at Fat Sam's new location on Basin street. It was there that I met my next celebrity. Patti Labelle attended one of our shows. I did get to talk to her briefly and hugged her, but never established any relationship with her. I worked there for about six months and was temping to pay the rent. Brue was one of the sweetest people I ever met. He was a huge supporter of the art form of drag. I was very sad to learn that, a couple of years after I left Fat Sam's, that Bruce was brutally murdered. This was my first brush with a close friend dying. That would change later with the AIDS epidemic.
My next opportunity to perform, was at the most famous female impersonator bar in the French Quarter. The name of the club was Papa Joe's, which is still in existence on Bourbon Street today. I only worked there for a few months, because as opposed to doing drag shows, this club was a more about exploitation. Most of the performers were strippers and I actually put on the pasties a time or two myself. This club was mainly for tourists and most of what I did was a comedy routine to end the show, get the current group of tourists on their way, so a new group could come in. I had always felt really comfortable working at the gay, drag bars, but at Papa Joe's, I just felt like a freak.
My next a gig would be bartending at a transgender bar called the Mid Ship. But that's another story for another day.
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