WEBVTT FILE

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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[music playing]

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The best thing about history is

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to be able to go back in the
past to discover yourself.

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And the great difficulty
for we who are marginalized,

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be we women or
Black or gay, is you

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look at what is purported to be
history, and we are invisible.

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We don't exist.

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ROBERT CORBER: Reconstructing
the history of gays

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and lesbians is
difficult because we

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don't have archives of
letters, archives of diaries.

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What we have are archives
of arrest Records

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We're lucky if we have
an uncle or an aunt who

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was gay and can
support or help or give

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you a window into our past
and where we came from.

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Often these letters and diaries

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are destroyed by
families who are

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horrified to discover that
someone in their family

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was gay.

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And so whenever you
find a diary or a set

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of letters written by
gay people themselves,

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it just opens up a world.

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[music playing]

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RENO MARTIN: From Mount
Vernon in New York,

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this is Reno Martin.

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Good morning.

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My friend Reno, he was one
of my best friends in New York,

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and I miss him.

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I told him every little
thing that I did.

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It was all letter writing.

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We felt like sisters
or sisters that were

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really brothers to the public.

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ACTOR AS DAPHNE: August
23, 1955 Dear Reno...

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I'm supposed to be doing
handwritten reports right now,

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and I've got so
much junk on my desk

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that nobody knows
what I'm writing.

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And they love to read this.

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It's like a confidential
book report.

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I look extremely readable today.

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The people on the bus were
dropping dead like flies.

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It's a camp the way I
walk around not bothered.

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I'm wearing one of
my stripette shirts.

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It looks like an Ava
Gardner blouse without tits.

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As always, Daphne.

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This is so wonderful that you
were able to find these things.

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When a historian like me
hears from someone like this,

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it's just incredibly thrilling
because these sources

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are so rare.

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JOE E. JEFFREYS: Photographs
tell us one thing.

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Words tell us another.

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The thing that's brilliant
about these letters

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is that they indicate
to people that there

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are other sources that
have yet to be discovered

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and yet to come to light.

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[music playing]

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Hello!

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[applause]

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(CHANTING) Gay and proud.

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Gay and proud.

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All the queens looked
horrid except for Josephine.

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Josephine, she was a
fabulous drag queen.

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My name is Lennie, and
I'm from a very small town

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near Hershey, Pennsylvania.

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And this small town
in Pennsylvania,

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they're not too broad minded.

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It's a farming area
and very religious.

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Believe it or not, I became
the first male cheerleader

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in Hershey.

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I laugh about it now, but my one
brother was kind of embarrassed

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because everybody wanted
to go into the game

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to see the guy doing a
cartwheel with the cheerleaders.

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So I knew it was time to go.

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I left there when I was 18,
and I went to the military.

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Back in the beginning,
well, like Dorothy, I was born

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in Kansas, Wichita, Kansas.

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We lived on a little tiny
small sort of a farm.

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I mean, we had chickens,
and we had a billy goat.

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And I hated Kansas,
even as a little kid.

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We lived near a
railroad track, and I

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used to go out there and
sit by that railroad track

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and watch those trains
go by and think,

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I want to get the
hell out of here,

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even as a three-year-old boy.

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My mother was very poor.

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She was a working single mom.

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She couldn't afford
to send me to college.

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So my brother had
been in the Air Force,

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and he suggested, you know, why
don't you join the Air Force?

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See the world.

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And so I did.

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I joined the Air Force.

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And then I was shipped
to Biloxi, Mississippi.

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LENNIE: We were all the
military, my fathers,

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my brothers, everybody.

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Well, when I got in, I was on a
ship, and we had our own radio.

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Marty Ryder his name was.

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He used to run shows
on the ship every year.

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And he did a show called
Sound Off of 1953,

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and the star of the
show was DeeDee LaRue.

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And I sang a song
and did a strip.

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I went into France
and bought a wig

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and did a lot more than
I was supposed to do.

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I was supposed to be a guy
that looked like a girl.

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So we did two shows.

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The second show I had to get an
escort to come from where I got

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dressed to go on
stage because the guys

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thought that a real girl must
have got onto the ship somehow.

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And if it wasn't, it was
the closest thing to it,

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and they were going to
try to get it, I guess.

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I got to get out of here
because at that time,

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you got thrown out.

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And thank God, within two
months, my time was up.

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ACTOR AS DAPHNE:
November 13, 1957.

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Dear Reno... did I tell you
the time I met a number

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around my neighborhood?

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It was so butch it's a camp.

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Actually he's fighting
the gay scene.

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He's really in love
with his close buddy

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who is in the Air Force.

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The things that go on in
some circles of straight life

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are enough to make
ours look prudish.

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As always, Daphne.

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[music playing]

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ROBERT: I had never been
in the South before.

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Anyway, New Orleans was an
hour and a half away by bus.

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I was given weekend
leaves, and they give you

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a paper that has all of
the places that are listed

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that are off limits to personnel
in the United States Air Force.

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Well, of course all the
gay bars were on this list,

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so they gave me a perfect
map to find everybody

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in town that I wanted.

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So I pranced down to New Orleans
and had a wonderful time.

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Discovered a whole new
world in the French Quarter.

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GEORGE: I actually was raised in
New Orleans in a shotgun house.

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So consequently when I'm
asked when did I come out?

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I jokingly say I was
born in a shotgun house.

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We had no closets.

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I had a chifforobe,
and I've always

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been out to my knowledge.

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Basically the first time
that I remember being in drag

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and making a production of it...

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My mother always went to
the straight balls, always.

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My mother never missed a ball.

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And she had this orange
taffeta ball gown,

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and I decided I was going to
put it on one day and order

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groceries from the corner.

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And I literally put
this orange dress on

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and just pulled my
hair down like in bangs

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and didn't put any makeup on
because I thought I was pretty.

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So I called the grocery store
and I said, this is George,

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and I want to order
some groceries,

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but I want to Sam
to bring them to me.

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He said, OK.

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So I ordered just
two or three things

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because it was
just at the corner.

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And he came to the door,
knocked on the door,

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and I answered the door
in my orange taffeta gown.

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And he went, little girl,
are these your groceries?

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And I went, yes, those
are my groceries.

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Thank you very much.

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And I closed the
door, and I left.

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I went, man, this
is pretty good.

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This is crazy.

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I can get away with this stuff.

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ACTOR AS CHARLIE: Dear Reno...

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Well, how do you like your
new job in New Orleans?

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Are there any flames down there?

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Do the queens paint very much?

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Take care.

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Regards from all, Charlie.

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ROBERT: My first
carnival in New Orleans...

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Of course at carnival
everyone goes in costumes,

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and many of the
queens go in drag.

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And a friend of mine whose
name was JoJo, and he

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asked me if I would
like to go in drag.

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I said, oh yeah.

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I didn't have a wig, though, so
he bleached my hair snow white,

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and he turned me on to this guy
who made me a gorgeous gown.

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It was aqua blue velvet,
and the top part of it

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was black Chantilly lace, and
it was encrusted with Aurora

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Borealis And it
had a big floating

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collar and one side what's
called a portrait collar.

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It was just beautiful.

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Of course, it's
absolutely jam packed.

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I mean, you're bumper to bumper.

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It seemed like people were just
parting to let me get through.

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So I was getting
a clue that, man,

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you must really look
good if you're getting

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a pathway opening up for you.

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And that's how the whole
drag thing began with me.

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In the service, you know,
there's a whole patriotic thing

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about a lot of people.

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And I was that way when I
joined but not when I came out.

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I'm not patriotic at
this point because I

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finally got my discharge.

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And when I opened
the envelope, it

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was an undesirable discharge.

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That means when
you're undesirable,

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you're not just undesirable.

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You receive no benefits.

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You have no veterans
rights at all.

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The chaplain says to me.

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He said, Mr.
Bouvard, he said, you

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have given this base
the worst reputation

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00:14:04.043 --> 00:14:06.544
of any Air Force base
in the United States

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because of your gay activities.

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So I told him.

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I said, I would have been a
great radio operator whether I

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was gay or whether
I was a unicorn,

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and I tore the discharge up.

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ACTOR: Dear Reno... remember that
number that was bats over me?

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Well, he's in New York
now and out of the Navy.

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He called me earlier this week.

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I flipped.

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00:14:34.807 --> 00:14:38.009
The first thing he asked me
was if my hair was still long.

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00:14:38.110 --> 00:14:39.811
His digs that scene.

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00:14:39.912 --> 00:14:43.581
Then he asked me about
my Liz Taylor eyes.

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00:14:43.682 --> 00:14:45.950
Mary, I cracked.

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00:14:46.051 --> 00:14:48.553
That same night I did
a cleaning of the brows

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00:14:48.654 --> 00:14:52.924
and started a slight application
of mascara for that Liz effect.

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I met him at a YMCA
where he was staying

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00:14:57.196 --> 00:14:59.364
this was 12 applications later.

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00:15:09.909 --> 00:15:11.442
I'm James Bingood.

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00:15:13.045 --> 00:15:15.280
And if you don't
know who that is,

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you won't want to watch this.

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00:15:16.815 --> 00:15:20.451
[laughter] And you
probably don't.

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Yeah, I made a movie, and I
was a drag queen, a fashion

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designer, costume maker.

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I did a lot of stuff.

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I think I've always
been unique, maybe

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because in Madison all
my life I've played

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alone because I was different.

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00:15:45.177 --> 00:15:50.081
[laughter] And I just got to
accept, well, that's life.

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00:15:50.182 --> 00:15:51.316
I didn't turn gay.

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I was born gay.

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I mean, I had the paper doll.

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I had girly toys.

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00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:03.094
When I first saw those
cartoons of little buildings

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00:16:03.195 --> 00:16:05.530
like they have them, I
put them in my movie,

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00:16:05.631 --> 00:16:07.298
and they were like
skyline, and then

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00:16:07.366 --> 00:16:11.102
there's little yellow
windows and the blue sky.

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00:16:11.203 --> 00:16:14.739
First time I saw that, that's
where I knew I wanted to be.

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00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:16.674
There was nothing
like that in Madison.

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00:16:18.310 --> 00:16:20.411
So I got here.

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ACTOR: Dear Reno...

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New York's hotter
than a firecracker,

248
00:16:30.689 --> 00:16:32.323
and I'm not referring
to the weather.

249
00:16:34.793 --> 00:16:36.761
That's been pretty hot
too, come to think of it.

250
00:16:43.335 --> 00:16:45.870
JAMES: When I came to New
York, it was like the movie

251
00:16:45.971 --> 00:16:47.438
version of New York City.

252
00:16:49.675 --> 00:16:52.377
It's sparkled,
and it was colors,

253
00:16:52.478 --> 00:16:55.546
and you could practically
feel yourself ready to do

254
00:16:55.647 --> 00:16:56.948
some Gene Kelly dances.

255
00:16:58.617 --> 00:16:59.650
Maybe it was the fashions.

256
00:17:02.621 --> 00:17:04.655
Women had big skirts
that would "shk."

257
00:17:06.959 --> 00:17:08.693
The minute I
stepped off the bus,

258
00:17:08.794 --> 00:17:10.628
I felt I was where
I was meant to be.

259
00:17:10.729 --> 00:17:11.562
It was fabulous.

260
00:19:46.852 --> 00:19:50.788
ACTOR AS DAPHNE:
September 24, 1957.

261
00:19:50.889 --> 00:19:55.760
Dear Reno... Josephine was with
me at the Valley Sunday night.

262
00:19:55.861 --> 00:19:57.762
I was with my
number from Jersey.

263
00:19:57.863 --> 00:20:01.666
We all danced and danced
and danced and danced

264
00:20:01.767 --> 00:20:03.534
and danced and danced.

265
00:20:05.270 --> 00:20:08.573
My number had to catch the
12 o'clock busted at 42nd,

266
00:20:08.674 --> 00:20:12.243
so me and Baker cruised
the streets for a while.

267
00:20:12.344 --> 00:20:14.312
I felt bummy and
didn't feel like going

268
00:20:14.413 --> 00:20:16.914
home to bed to prepare
for work the next morning.

269
00:20:28.293 --> 00:20:31.662
ACTOR AS DAPHNE: Well, let
me tell you what happened.

270
00:20:31.763 --> 00:20:33.764
We spotted this
hot-looking blonde

271
00:20:33.865 --> 00:20:35.499
on the corner of the Bali.

272
00:20:35.601 --> 00:20:39.170
He looked at us and did one
of those famous retakes.

273
00:20:39.271 --> 00:20:40.471
We couldn't read him for shit.

274
00:20:42.574 --> 00:20:46.143
Josephine said let's ditch,
so she asked for a cigarette.

275
00:20:46.245 --> 00:20:48.613
He was much smiles.

276
00:20:48.714 --> 00:20:51.082
He said he was looking
for a good time.

277
00:20:51.183 --> 00:20:53.784
Well, my dear, you
never saw two party

278
00:20:53.885 --> 00:20:56.587
girls go into action so fast.

279
00:20:56.688 --> 00:20:58.856
We took him to Joey
Ferrara's place.

280
00:20:58.957 --> 00:21:02.627
Naturally he insisted
on walking behind.

281
00:21:02.728 --> 00:21:06.564
We didn't exactly look like
any of his college chums.

282
00:21:40.632 --> 00:21:42.333
GEORGE CHAUNCEY: You know,
to have a queen in a bar was

283
00:21:42.434 --> 00:21:45.369
a very risky thing because
the laws against bars

284
00:21:45.470 --> 00:21:46.203
serving gay people.

285
00:21:47.773 --> 00:21:51.842
The mere presence of a
lesbian or gay man in a bar

286
00:21:51.943 --> 00:21:54.745
meant that bar was disorderly
and could be shut down.

287
00:21:58.750 --> 00:22:01.585
You'd be taken to jail
and charged with some kind

288
00:22:01.687 --> 00:22:02.620
of obscenity laws.

289
00:22:05.257 --> 00:22:08.893
The safe route was
you don't come out,

290
00:22:08.994 --> 00:22:12.196
but these drag queen
was really out there

291
00:22:12.297 --> 00:22:14.065
and took a lot of chances.

292
00:22:16.068 --> 00:22:21.138
And that way led often times
to violence, being beaten up.

293
00:22:24.543 --> 00:22:27.778
ACTOR AS CHARLIE:
September 16, 1957.

294
00:22:27.879 --> 00:22:32.650
Dear Reno... Saturday night,
I decided to go to the Cork.

295
00:22:32.751 --> 00:22:34.518
They didn't even
want to let me in.

296
00:22:34.619 --> 00:22:36.120
Later Daphne came
in, and she had

297
00:22:36.221 --> 00:22:37.955
to go through the same thing.

298
00:22:38.056 --> 00:22:42.526
New York is very
hot, cops all over.

299
00:22:42.627 --> 00:22:44.695
Hardly know queens paint.

300
00:22:44.796 --> 00:22:45.496
They have to be careful.

301
00:22:47.666 --> 00:22:49.266
Love your friend, Charlie.

302
00:23:04.716 --> 00:23:11.689
CLAUDE: First time I went in
drag, I was with Billy, Daphne,

303
00:23:11.790 --> 00:23:13.023
and with Josephine.

304
00:23:15.260 --> 00:23:17.094
We were the freaks.

305
00:23:19.064 --> 00:23:21.031
That's what they
called us, the freaks.

306
00:23:23.368 --> 00:23:27.204
We had shaved eyebrows
that went up to here.

307
00:23:27.305 --> 00:23:31.175
They were penciled on and
the eyeliner and eyelashes

308
00:23:31.276 --> 00:23:32.042
that went on forever.

309
00:23:33.545 --> 00:23:36.547
We were as close to being
female as you could get.

310
00:23:38.683 --> 00:23:45.156
I was 15 in a black lace
and sequined strapless

311
00:23:45.257 --> 00:23:51.262
dress that I borrowed from a
hooker and gold-sequined pumps

312
00:23:51.363 --> 00:23:54.565
that I also borrowed
from a hooker.

313
00:23:54.666 --> 00:23:56.467
The only thing that
was mine was my hair.

314
00:23:58.003 --> 00:24:02.940
We all got into a taxi cab
in our respective drags

315
00:24:03.041 --> 00:24:06.277
to be taken out
to the Cork club.

316
00:24:08.013 --> 00:24:10.181
ACTOR: Claudia's back in town.

317
00:24:10.282 --> 00:24:11.949
She was in Florida, you know?

318
00:24:12.050 --> 00:24:14.051
She's back on the
scene with Josephine.

319
00:24:14.152 --> 00:24:16.387
I saw them both at the Cork.

320
00:24:16.488 --> 00:24:20.357
The Cork is quite the scene
for pancaked faces again.

321
00:24:20.459 --> 00:24:22.626
I'm in the mood to
paint like crazy

322
00:24:22.727 --> 00:24:24.562
and make an appearance
there tomorrow night.

323
00:24:29.935 --> 00:24:32.403
ROBERT: The cork
club I went to often.

324
00:24:32.504 --> 00:24:34.939
It was the place to go.

325
00:24:35.040 --> 00:24:36.674
That's where... come
to think of it,

326
00:24:36.775 --> 00:24:39.643
that's where I saw
Josephine and Claudia a lot

327
00:24:39.744 --> 00:24:41.912
was at the Cork club.

328
00:24:42.013 --> 00:24:45.316
Josephine and Claudia,
they were the upper echelon

329
00:24:45.417 --> 00:24:46.851
of drag queens.

330
00:24:48.753 --> 00:24:52.790
In the club was a
section in the back

331
00:24:52.891 --> 00:25:00.831
where there was four booths,
and in those booths is where

332
00:25:00.932 --> 00:25:03.233
the drag queens, we all sat.

333
00:25:03.301 --> 00:25:05.836
But drag queens were accepted.

334
00:25:05.937 --> 00:25:08.105
Drag queens were accepted.

335
00:25:08.206 --> 00:25:08.939
Man, come on.

336
00:25:09.040 --> 00:25:10.574
Sit down over here.

337
00:25:10.675 --> 00:25:11.775
Sit over here with us.

338
00:25:11.877 --> 00:25:12.576
Come on.

339
00:25:12.677 --> 00:25:13.377
You drink?

340
00:25:13.478 --> 00:25:14.979
What do you want to drink?

341
00:25:15.080 --> 00:25:19.517
Only thing I had ever heard
of was I'll have a 7 and 7.

342
00:25:19.618 --> 00:25:22.219
You get him a 7 and 7.

343
00:25:22.320 --> 00:25:24.955
You get my pretty young
thing here a 7 and 7.

344
00:25:26.658 --> 00:25:28.993
And I got a 7 and 7.

345
00:25:29.094 --> 00:25:30.494
ACTOR AS CHARLIE: Dear Reno...

346
00:25:30.595 --> 00:25:33.130
Well, Rose, did you
receive my three letters?

347
00:25:33.231 --> 00:25:35.833
Have I gotten in
the swing again?

348
00:25:35.967 --> 00:25:37.868
I went to the Cork
Club this past weekend,

349
00:25:37.969 --> 00:25:41.305
and you should see the
trade that was there.

350
00:25:41.406 --> 00:25:42.106
Gorgeous.

351
00:25:43.475 --> 00:25:45.242
Josephine was there.

352
00:25:45.343 --> 00:25:48.746
Josephine looks very good
since she lost all that weight.

353
00:25:48.847 --> 00:25:51.949
She told me she had written
you a four-page letter.

354
00:25:52.050 --> 00:25:54.318
Have you answered her?

355
00:25:54.419 --> 00:25:56.086
Your friend always, Charlie.

356
00:25:57.722 --> 00:26:01.158
Josephine was one of the most
famous queens from Brooklyn.

357
00:26:29.054 --> 00:26:31.455
She was a fabulous
drag queen, beautiful.

358
00:26:37.629 --> 00:26:42.399
And his hair was pulled
back, Chinese, bangs,

359
00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:45.135
and an enormous black ponytail.

360
00:26:53.311 --> 00:26:55.913
Josephine needed
to have a sponsor

361
00:26:56.014 --> 00:26:59.350
because she came from the
Dominican Republic illegally.

362
00:26:59.451 --> 00:27:03.821
But I owned beauty shops,
so I sponsored her,

363
00:27:03.922 --> 00:27:08.859
and she did become a citizen
working as a hairdresser.

364
00:27:13.665 --> 00:27:17.701
ACTOR AS JO BAKER:
November 19, 1956.

365
00:27:17.802 --> 00:27:20.371
Dear Reno... how are you?

366
00:27:20.472 --> 00:27:23.140
I wrote you a four-page letter
dishing you all about the drag

367
00:27:23.241 --> 00:27:24.108
and everything.

368
00:27:24.209 --> 00:27:25.476
You didn't get it?

369
00:27:25.577 --> 00:27:28.178
Well, anyway, I hope
you get this one.

370
00:27:28.279 --> 00:27:31.382
So you're still looking
for romance, eh?

371
00:27:31.483 --> 00:27:33.584
Well, the scene is off.

372
00:27:33.685 --> 00:27:34.518
Forget about it.

373
00:27:34.619 --> 00:27:38.055
There's no happiness for a fag.

374
00:27:38.156 --> 00:27:40.391
I'm out today with Claudia.

375
00:27:40.492 --> 00:27:41.659
I walked in.

376
00:27:41.760 --> 00:27:43.160
The door were all opened.

377
00:27:43.261 --> 00:27:46.797
I picked out four gorgeous
sweaters and flew out.

378
00:27:46.898 --> 00:27:49.600
Well, what a scene.

379
00:27:49.701 --> 00:27:51.935
I'm starting my winter
collection already.

380
00:27:52.037 --> 00:27:54.672
Love, Jo Baker,

381
00:27:54.773 --> 00:27:55.973
There was lots of things that I

382
00:27:56.074 --> 00:27:59.677
didn't like about
Josephine, one thing

383
00:27:59.778 --> 00:28:02.046
that he was a kleptomaniac.

384
00:28:02.147 --> 00:28:05.649
And I hope you're not alive,
Josephine, and hearing this,

385
00:28:05.750 --> 00:28:07.985
but a lot of these
guys from Brooklyn

386
00:28:08.086 --> 00:28:11.055
would steal anything that was
not nailed down, literally.

387
00:28:13.358 --> 00:28:14.058
They were wild.

388
00:28:16.027 --> 00:28:18.062
I mean, they were very
glamorous and everything,

389
00:28:18.163 --> 00:28:21.632
but truthfully, both
Josephine and Claudia

390
00:28:21.733 --> 00:28:25.202
had the same problem
with their hands

391
00:28:25.303 --> 00:28:26.970
on other people's belongings.

392
00:28:41.486 --> 00:28:44.722
ACTOR: Just a demented
note to say hello.

393
00:28:44.823 --> 00:28:46.457
I saw Josephine.

394
00:28:46.558 --> 00:28:50.227
We got very dishy,
mostly about the drag.

395
00:28:50.328 --> 00:28:52.963
You remember that
famous fringe place?

396
00:28:53.064 --> 00:28:55.365
You know the one
where we mopped?

397
00:28:55.467 --> 00:28:58.335
Well, Frankie and
Josephine went there

398
00:28:58.436 --> 00:29:01.305
and mopped on the whole
boat of silver lame

399
00:29:01.406 --> 00:29:03.841
and the whole bolt of gold.

400
00:29:03.942 --> 00:29:05.142
Isn't that a camp?

401
00:29:05.243 --> 00:29:08.345
All this dish put me
on the kick, you know?

402
00:29:08.446 --> 00:29:11.281
I can't see spending
all that loot for drag.

403
00:29:11.382 --> 00:29:13.751
Those lucky bums got
everything for nothing.

404
00:29:16.121 --> 00:29:19.823
CLAUDE: There was once a
place called Brooks Costumes.

405
00:29:21.826 --> 00:29:25.362
Brooks Costumes was
the biggest contributor

406
00:29:25.463 --> 00:29:29.266
to drag queenism in America.

407
00:29:29.367 --> 00:29:33.604
There's a picture in my mind of
Josephine, and he went in there

408
00:29:33.705 --> 00:29:37.841
and waited till the owner of
the place went to the back

409
00:29:37.942 --> 00:29:39.843
to take a leak.

410
00:29:39.944 --> 00:29:44.882
And he went in and grabbed this
enormous white ostrich feather

411
00:29:44.983 --> 00:29:46.283
fan.

412
00:29:46.384 --> 00:29:53.357
Picture a 5 foot 9, Hispanic man
with no eyebrows running down

413
00:29:53.458 --> 00:29:59.163
the street with a white
ostrich fan that was taller

414
00:29:59.264 --> 00:29:59.963
than he was.

415
00:30:04.836 --> 00:30:07.237
No, [inaudible], I don't think.

416
00:30:35.033 --> 00:30:38.068
ACTOR AS JO BAKER:
November 19, 1957.

417
00:30:38.169 --> 00:30:43.841
Dear Reno... oh, last night I
was coming home in the rain,

418
00:30:43.942 --> 00:30:47.611
and this kid followed me with
an umbrella and a suitcase.

419
00:30:47.712 --> 00:30:51.715
So I stopped, got under the
umbrella with him not bothered,

420
00:30:51.816 --> 00:30:53.383
and started to dish.

421
00:30:53.484 --> 00:30:56.553
Well, anyway, he's
my neighbor, and he's

422
00:30:56.654 --> 00:30:59.289
in this play "My Fair Lady."

423
00:30:59.390 --> 00:31:00.991
Isn't that a flip?

424
00:31:01.092 --> 00:31:01.992
He's a little gay.

425
00:31:03.828 --> 00:31:05.596
I think he could be a
stead bang or something.

426
00:31:05.697 --> 00:31:07.130
I called Billy Baker.

427
00:31:07.232 --> 00:31:09.366
She surprised you
haven't written her.

428
00:31:09.467 --> 00:31:11.702
She's my silver bugle
sheath for Phil's.

429
00:31:13.605 --> 00:31:14.838
Love, Jo Baker.

430
00:31:17.675 --> 00:31:23.347
Josephine had Billy Baker
make him a silver lame

431
00:31:23.448 --> 00:31:29.653
and rhinestone dress with
fringe that hung down,

432
00:31:29.754 --> 00:31:31.588
whatnot, and the fan.

433
00:31:34.826 --> 00:31:36.627
You could see him clear
across the ballroom.

434
00:31:38.796 --> 00:31:39.963
ACTOR AS BILLY
BAKER: Dear Reno...

435
00:31:40.064 --> 00:31:42.966
I've been very busy
with Josephine's dress.

436
00:31:43.067 --> 00:31:44.968
It came out sensational.

437
00:31:45.069 --> 00:31:46.937
I could not get to
see her that night,

438
00:31:47.038 --> 00:31:48.805
but I heard from Daphne
she looked gorgeous.

439
00:31:51.309 --> 00:31:54.111
The drag was supposed
to be on a stick.

440
00:31:54.212 --> 00:31:55.946
Take good care and write soon.

441
00:31:56.047 --> 00:31:58.115
Always, your friend, Billy.

442
00:31:59.417 --> 00:32:05.656
Billy Baker... his real
name was Billy Norton Jr.

443
00:32:05.757 --> 00:32:07.991
LENNIE: He was a very
good dress maker.

444
00:32:08.092 --> 00:32:08.992
He made a few of mine.

445
00:32:10.428 --> 00:32:14.765
They were spectacular
beaded gowns, just brilliant.

446
00:32:14.866 --> 00:32:19.069
I inherited one from Lynn
Carter, which I treasured.

447
00:32:23.608 --> 00:32:28.712
I met Billy because Billy
could sew and sew well.

448
00:32:28.813 --> 00:32:33.817
He had a sewing machine, and he
would make a living doing that.

449
00:32:33.885 --> 00:32:38.322
He will make you a
knock-out dress for $10.

450
00:32:41.893 --> 00:32:43.427
They were lined up
around the block.

451
00:32:45.463 --> 00:32:46.663
ACTOR AS BILLY BAKER:
Please forgive me

452
00:32:46.764 --> 00:32:49.599
for writing this in pencil,
but I'm at my new place

453
00:32:49.701 --> 00:32:51.935
and didn't even
have writing paper.

454
00:32:52.036 --> 00:32:54.871
I am very happy to hear
that you are working.

455
00:32:54.973 --> 00:32:57.307
I am also working.

456
00:32:57.408 --> 00:33:01.678
A dress designer I know got a
gorgeous seven-room apartment

457
00:33:01.779 --> 00:33:03.747
next to the Hotel Pierre.

458
00:33:03.848 --> 00:33:06.216
He's the one I'm working for.

459
00:33:06.317 --> 00:33:08.318
Always, your friend, Billy.

460
00:33:12.090 --> 00:33:16.526
Billy Baker,
Daphne, and Josephine,

461
00:33:16.627 --> 00:33:17.928
we were joined at the hip.

462
00:33:20.898 --> 00:33:21.965
We found each other.

463
00:33:23.334 --> 00:33:24.768
We found each other.

464
00:33:30.008 --> 00:33:34.144
We found where we all belonged,
and we belonged together.

465
00:33:36.881 --> 00:33:39.316
ACTOR AS BILLY BAKER: Well,
enough dishing for now.

466
00:33:39.384 --> 00:33:42.319
I'm putting a picture of
Josephine in this letter.

467
00:33:42.420 --> 00:33:45.889
I hope that you receive it
and someone doesn't mop on it.

468
00:33:45.990 --> 00:33:47.657
Your friend always, Billy.

469
00:33:51.029 --> 00:33:51.728
Oh my gosh.

470
00:33:54.932 --> 00:33:55.999
That's Josephine.

471
00:34:01.105 --> 00:34:06.777
I did his hair, the
wig for this dress.

472
00:34:06.878 --> 00:34:12.582
He stood there, and it was
nude chiffon with beads on it,

473
00:34:12.683 --> 00:34:18.221
a few beads on it, and white
draped over the breasts,

474
00:34:18.322 --> 00:34:22.559
over the hips, and over
the ass, and strategically

475
00:34:22.660 --> 00:34:26.630
placed so that you
couldn't really quite

476
00:34:26.731 --> 00:34:28.565
see what you needed to see.

477
00:34:30.101 --> 00:34:31.968
Josephine, oh my God.

478
00:34:44.348 --> 00:34:46.249
I think it was
[inaudible] apartment.

479
00:34:48.586 --> 00:34:50.921
You must always remember
that when you're dealing

480
00:34:51.022 --> 00:34:53.824
with drag queens in
situations like this,

481
00:34:53.925 --> 00:34:55.258
they can't dress at home.

482
00:34:57.995 --> 00:35:05.435
Him with his Spanish father
seeing his son walk out, no.

483
00:35:08.739 --> 00:35:10.040
Not happening.

484
00:35:23.921 --> 00:35:28.825
TERRY: I was born in
the east in a very small

485
00:35:28.926 --> 00:35:36.926
town with a population of 350.

486
00:35:37.735 --> 00:35:39.803
I never felt good about myself.

487
00:35:39.904 --> 00:35:44.474
I can remember being
embarrassed, terribly

488
00:35:44.575 --> 00:35:49.246
embarrassed and hating
myself because I

489
00:35:49.347 --> 00:35:50.547
wasn't like my brothers.

490
00:35:54.752 --> 00:36:00.023
When you grow up and
you have a father who

491
00:36:00.124 --> 00:36:02.559
says to you that
you're worthless,

492
00:36:02.660 --> 00:36:03.860
you're never going
to be anything,

493
00:36:03.961 --> 00:36:05.829
you're never going to
have a life, what are you?

494
00:36:05.930 --> 00:36:06.830
Who are you?

495
00:36:06.931 --> 00:36:08.231
I don't know you,
I wish you'd never

496
00:36:08.332 --> 00:36:10.467
been born, blah, blah, blah...

497
00:36:10.568 --> 00:36:12.702
If you're told that
long enough as a child,

498
00:36:12.803 --> 00:36:13.737
you start to believe it.

499
00:36:17.975 --> 00:36:21.444
I've always hated
myself to the point

500
00:36:21.546 --> 00:36:28.151
that it kills my
desire to do well.

501
00:36:28.252 --> 00:36:30.620
It sort of plays off on that.

502
00:36:30.721 --> 00:36:37.127
It sort of says, well, you're
not good enough to do this.

503
00:36:37.228 --> 00:36:39.029
You'll never... why
are you doing this?

504
00:36:39.130 --> 00:36:40.397
There's no point in that.

505
00:36:40.498 --> 00:36:42.966
You have to fight that, or I
had to fight that all the time

506
00:36:43.067 --> 00:36:47.871
constantly regardless of
whether I was in drag or out,

507
00:36:47.972 --> 00:36:51.141
you know, because I
didn't feel worthy.

508
00:36:51.242 --> 00:36:53.043
That's the word I'm looking for.

509
00:36:53.144 --> 00:36:56.012
I never felt worthy of anything.

510
00:37:01.252 --> 00:37:04.321
And whether it had anything
at all to do with my deciding

511
00:37:04.422 --> 00:37:07.257
to have the transition,
I don't know.

512
00:37:07.358 --> 00:37:08.959
I'm not smart
enough to know that.

513
00:37:12.230 --> 00:37:12.929
There.

514
00:37:15.566 --> 00:37:18.668
Not bad for an old man of 98...

515
00:37:18.769 --> 00:37:21.471
I'm not 98 for Christ's sake.

516
00:37:21.572 --> 00:37:22.739
What am I?

517
00:37:22.840 --> 00:37:27.277
1990... I was born 1924.

518
00:37:27.378 --> 00:37:28.078
How old am I?

519
00:37:30.982 --> 00:37:32.449
Still got beautiful
legs, though.

520
00:37:36.287 --> 00:37:37.854
You realize how old am I?

521
00:37:37.955 --> 00:37:40.590
1924, quick.

522
00:37:40.691 --> 00:37:42.092
94.

523
00:37:42.193 --> 00:37:43.360
And I've lived here 64.

524
00:37:45.096 --> 00:37:48.098
And the landlord says when
is that old son of a bitch

525
00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:49.666
going to kick the
bucket? because he

526
00:37:49.767 --> 00:37:50.734
wants to get more money.

527
00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:57.007
Don't you think that
$256 a month is not fair?

528
00:38:07.151 --> 00:38:10.654
Tish, to me, is a nickname
because my last name

529
00:38:10.755 --> 00:38:11.621
is Tischette.

530
00:38:14.125 --> 00:38:15.659
So then when I was
working the nightclubs,

531
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:17.827
they said, oh, use Tish.

532
00:38:17.928 --> 00:38:19.596
You're going to wind
up using it anyway.

533
00:38:25.936 --> 00:38:28.004
I'm from Connecticut.

534
00:38:28.105 --> 00:38:31.808
I've got two sisters
and four brothers

535
00:38:31.909 --> 00:38:33.610
who are French Canadian.

536
00:38:33.711 --> 00:38:37.280
[french]

537
00:38:37.381 --> 00:38:39.849
First of all, I'm
the oldest one.

538
00:38:39.950 --> 00:38:42.819
When my father died,
he left me with five

539
00:38:42.920 --> 00:38:45.522
brothers and sisters
younger than me,

540
00:38:45.623 --> 00:38:46.923
which meant I brought them up.

541
00:38:50.494 --> 00:38:55.231
And they all got married and got
lovely children and everything.

542
00:38:55.333 --> 00:38:56.199
I'm Uncle Joe.

543
00:38:57.768 --> 00:38:58.601
Hey, Uncle Joe.

544
00:38:58.703 --> 00:39:00.303
I said, where?

545
00:39:00.404 --> 00:39:03.840
And they say, oh, stop now
because they've all seen me.

546
00:39:03.941 --> 00:39:07.344
You know, they know what Uncle
Joe does or did because I've

547
00:39:07.445 --> 00:39:09.546
seen them in the audience, and
they've come to the audience

548
00:39:09.647 --> 00:39:10.347
to see me.

549
00:39:13.417 --> 00:39:18.154
ACTOR AS DAPHNE: Josephine got
me all hopped up on drag again.

550
00:39:18.255 --> 00:39:21.591
We were having coffee at the
Waldorf about 4 o'clock.

551
00:39:21.692 --> 00:39:24.194
And some butch-looking
rube comes over

552
00:39:24.295 --> 00:39:28.765
and asks us if we know where you
can get big-sized high heels.

553
00:39:30.701 --> 00:39:33.770
Well, that immediately
set the drag ball rolling.

554
00:39:33.871 --> 00:39:37.006
We were sitting with this
psychiatrist we met in the bar,

555
00:39:37.108 --> 00:39:39.175
much the eyeglass number.

556
00:39:39.276 --> 00:39:42.712
He's making a study of
characters like ourselves.

557
00:39:42.813 --> 00:39:44.114
Very nice, though.

558
00:39:44.215 --> 00:39:46.149
Bought us drinks and everything.

559
00:39:46.250 --> 00:39:48.718
He was giving us the whole
dish on the gay scene

560
00:39:48.819 --> 00:39:50.920
and the old Greek times.

561
00:39:51.021 --> 00:39:53.723
I'm sure I was born
in the wrong era.

562
00:39:53.824 --> 00:39:56.059
I think I would have mapped
much more in a toga than

563
00:39:56.160 --> 00:39:57.527
in nell pink tea pants.

564
00:39:59.663 --> 00:40:01.798
The scene was really
on in those days.

565
00:40:03.701 --> 00:40:05.335
As always, Daphne.

566
00:40:09.373 --> 00:40:11.775
The drag scene in the
1950s in New York would

567
00:40:11.876 --> 00:40:14.310
have largely been
private parties, which

568
00:40:14.412 --> 00:40:15.979
were high-risk activities.

569
00:40:16.080 --> 00:40:18.948
Could have easily and
were frequently raided.

570
00:40:19.049 --> 00:40:21.050
I mean if you're just going
to make too much noise

571
00:40:21.152 --> 00:40:24.320
or if your neighbor saw these
oddly dressed people coming

572
00:40:24.422 --> 00:40:26.623
up and down the stairs, right?

573
00:40:26.724 --> 00:40:29.926
In bars and clubs, the
clubs it was happening in

574
00:40:30.027 --> 00:40:32.262
were primarily
heterosexual clubs

575
00:40:32.363 --> 00:40:35.231
that were protected by what
the old-time performers called

576
00:40:35.332 --> 00:40:36.032
the boys.

577
00:40:38.402 --> 00:40:40.470
There's something
we call a gay tax,

578
00:40:40.571 --> 00:40:44.274
and the gay tax is
because it is so desired.

579
00:40:44.375 --> 00:40:45.108
You pay more.

580
00:40:46.877 --> 00:40:48.545
So there was a heck
of a lot of money

581
00:40:48.646 --> 00:40:51.815
to be made in opening and
running these gay bars

582
00:40:51.916 --> 00:40:54.517
and also showcase
places like the 82.

583
00:40:56.921 --> 00:40:59.889
But it was illicit
money, so who does that?

584
00:40:59.990 --> 00:41:00.757
The mafia.

585
00:41:10.167 --> 00:41:12.802
No, when I came to New York,
I went to work in a nightclub

586
00:41:12.903 --> 00:41:16.339
called the Moroccan Village,
which was on 8th Street

587
00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:18.107
and owned by the mafia.

588
00:41:20.945 --> 00:41:23.646
When I used to work in the
club and I sit back there

589
00:41:23.747 --> 00:41:25.882
and I look in the back and
I would see two or three

590
00:41:25.983 --> 00:41:29.219
guys sitting with the owner,
they were either the police

591
00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:32.722
department or they were
guys from the mafia

592
00:41:32.823 --> 00:41:36.192
because the mafia had
their hands in everything.

593
00:41:38.562 --> 00:41:40.063
As long as they're
treated as well

594
00:41:40.164 --> 00:41:42.832
and they were content with
us, we were content with them.

595
00:41:42.900 --> 00:41:45.368
Well, we had to be content
with them, but you know.

596
00:41:47.571 --> 00:41:52.242
I think the mob saw it as
an easy money-making scheme

597
00:41:52.343 --> 00:41:55.512
because they didn't overpay us.

598
00:41:55.613 --> 00:41:57.046
You may be sure of that.

599
00:41:58.549 --> 00:42:03.253
And I think it was a good match
because the gay people were

600
00:42:03.354 --> 00:42:06.523
easy to control,
really, I would think,

601
00:42:06.624 --> 00:42:10.059
more so than an ordinary
group, wouldn't you say?

602
00:42:32.016 --> 00:42:34.751
JOE E. JEFFREYS: There are
certain performers today

603
00:42:34.852 --> 00:42:37.520
who were around in
the '50s and '60s

604
00:42:37.621 --> 00:42:40.823
who still get very upset
if you call drag queens.

605
00:42:40.925 --> 00:42:42.792
I was not a drag queen.

606
00:42:42.893 --> 00:42:44.661
I was a female impersonator.

607
00:42:44.762 --> 00:42:46.563
I was a female mimic.

608
00:42:46.664 --> 00:42:49.632
I was a female illusionist.

609
00:42:49.733 --> 00:42:52.135
A drag queen was somebody
who walked around

610
00:42:52.269 --> 00:42:55.572
the street in a dress
and may have been turning

611
00:42:55.673 --> 00:42:57.407
tricks or whatever, right?

612
00:42:57.508 --> 00:43:02.478
A female illusionist, female
impersonator, a female mimic

613
00:43:02.580 --> 00:43:03.279
was an artist.

614
00:43:04.748 --> 00:43:07.050
GEORGE: Glamorous
female impersonators...

615
00:43:07.151 --> 00:43:08.952
It was high gloves.

616
00:43:09.053 --> 00:43:10.086
It was boas.

617
00:43:10.187 --> 00:43:11.354
It was furs.

618
00:43:11.455 --> 00:43:13.222
It was heavy, chunky jewelry.

619
00:43:14.892 --> 00:43:15.925
You're a vocalist.

620
00:43:16.026 --> 00:43:17.794
You're a stripper.

621
00:43:17.895 --> 00:43:19.796
You had a craft that
you had perfected.

622
00:43:21.932 --> 00:43:24.233
ROBERT: I don't like the
word drag queen, actually.

623
00:43:24.335 --> 00:43:26.736
It was a detrimental term
to me from the beginning.

624
00:43:26.837 --> 00:43:30.273
And I use it myself now,
and I still don't like it,

625
00:43:30.374 --> 00:43:31.374
but everybody else does.

626
00:43:31.475 --> 00:43:33.977
So if it's acceptable,
I'll use it, you know,

627
00:43:34.078 --> 00:43:36.879
if it makes you understand
more what I'm talking about.

628
00:43:39.083 --> 00:43:40.883
I always call myself
a femme mimic.

629
00:43:42.920 --> 00:43:44.287
A female impersonator got paid.

630
00:43:45.623 --> 00:43:47.390
We didn't get paid.

631
00:43:47.491 --> 00:43:49.892
Nobody gave us a dime.

632
00:43:49.994 --> 00:43:51.027
This was a freebie.

633
00:43:52.396 --> 00:43:57.133
Whatever drag we were
wearing we stole.

634
00:44:00.270 --> 00:44:01.037
That's it.

635
00:44:02.606 --> 00:44:03.306
We stole them.

636
00:44:04.875 --> 00:44:08.678
[music playing]

637
00:45:20.584 --> 00:45:21.284
Let's see.

638
00:45:31.095 --> 00:45:33.763
[laughter]

639
00:45:35.365 --> 00:45:38.034
JAMES: Somebody told
me about the 82 Club.

640
00:45:38.135 --> 00:45:40.937
And I auditioned,
and they hired me.

641
00:45:41.038 --> 00:45:42.472
And then they told
me I'd have to get

642
00:45:42.573 --> 00:45:48.311
a gimmick because I had a
little bulge in my [inaudible]..

643
00:45:57.054 --> 00:45:59.555
GEORGE: It was a very
plush, lush nightclub

644
00:45:59.656 --> 00:46:01.124
down on the Lower East Side.

645
00:46:01.225 --> 00:46:03.392
And it was a very
nondescript opening.

646
00:46:03.494 --> 00:46:08.331
It was just a canopy over
a double door with stairs

647
00:46:08.432 --> 00:46:10.099
that went downstairs.

648
00:46:10.200 --> 00:46:11.667
It just goes way down.

649
00:46:11.769 --> 00:46:13.569
It just seems like
they go forever.

650
00:46:13.670 --> 00:46:14.937
And you are in a basement.

651
00:46:16.507 --> 00:46:19.642
GEORGE: And once you went down
the stairs, you had to walk

652
00:46:19.743 --> 00:46:21.911
into the club to see the stage.

653
00:46:22.012 --> 00:46:25.047
And the stage was sort of raised

654
00:46:25.149 --> 00:46:27.183
up in the middle of all this.

655
00:46:38.929 --> 00:46:41.264
Fabulous, it really was.

656
00:46:41.365 --> 00:46:45.301
They did about 10 acts,
and it was a funny show.

657
00:46:45.402 --> 00:46:47.103
The place was packed.

658
00:46:47.204 --> 00:46:49.539
TERRY: And there were
four dressing rooms, two

659
00:46:49.640 --> 00:46:51.741
large ones and too small ones.

660
00:46:53.177 --> 00:46:54.744
You know, you would just come
in and put on your makeup

661
00:46:54.845 --> 00:46:56.813
and get in your costume and
wait for the show to start.

662
00:46:58.448 --> 00:47:01.818
We would walk up ramps
behind a closed curtain,

663
00:47:01.919 --> 00:47:05.121
and when the overture would
play, the curtains would open,

664
00:47:05.222 --> 00:47:06.689
and then the number would start.

665
00:47:23.874 --> 00:47:27.743
GEORGE: It was girls, drag
queens, and butch lesbians.

666
00:47:29.680 --> 00:47:32.982
The butch lesbians were the
waiters in the nightclub.

667
00:47:33.083 --> 00:47:35.117
The real girls were in the show.

668
00:47:35.219 --> 00:47:38.321
Then the rest were drag queens.

669
00:47:38.422 --> 00:47:40.957
And we used our
own singing voices.

670
00:47:41.058 --> 00:47:44.360
If we sang like this, you
raised it an octave or two

671
00:47:44.461 --> 00:47:46.195
and sang like that.

672
00:47:46.296 --> 00:47:48.764
GEORGE: You had to
be a live performer.

673
00:47:48.866 --> 00:47:50.666
You were not
allowed to lip sync.

674
00:47:50.767 --> 00:47:53.703
You were not allowed
to impersonate

675
00:47:53.804 --> 00:47:55.371
another live performer.

676
00:48:02.679 --> 00:48:04.647
JOE E. JEFFREYS: There's
a long list of celebrities

677
00:48:04.748 --> 00:48:06.249
that came to the 82.

678
00:48:06.350 --> 00:48:08.084
You can hardly name
somebody who wasn't

679
00:48:08.185 --> 00:48:09.151
there at one time or another.

680
00:48:13.490 --> 00:48:17.760
TERRY: Liz Taylor, Richard
Burton, Warren Beatty.

681
00:48:17.861 --> 00:48:22.031
HENRY: Natalie Wood
and Debbie Reynolds.

682
00:48:22.132 --> 00:48:23.599
I mean, the Gabors came in.

683
00:48:23.700 --> 00:48:25.668
The Kennedys came in.

684
00:48:25.769 --> 00:48:28.237
TERRY: Judy, of
course, was there.

685
00:48:28.338 --> 00:48:30.706
Salvador Dali
would come in and do

686
00:48:30.807 --> 00:48:36.178
sketches on napkins and send
them in the back to Ella-Funt.

687
00:48:36.280 --> 00:48:37.980
And Ella-Funt would go,
oh, what is this shit?

688
00:48:38.081 --> 00:48:39.482
She'd throw it and throw
it the garbage can.

689
00:48:39.583 --> 00:48:42.218
She must have thrown away over
200 Salvador Dali sketches.

690
00:49:14.251 --> 00:49:16.752
GEORGE: Adrian was
a show stopper.

691
00:49:16.853 --> 00:49:19.121
I mean, when she
concocted that act

692
00:49:19.222 --> 00:49:22.591
and brought out the head of St.
John the Baptist on a platter,

693
00:49:22.693 --> 00:49:23.526
people went insane.

694
00:49:23.627 --> 00:49:26.329
[applause]

695
00:49:28.298 --> 00:49:30.566
The audience was not very gay.

696
00:49:30.667 --> 00:49:33.035
It was all, like, tourists.

697
00:49:33.136 --> 00:49:34.437
The people that were
coming to the shows

698
00:49:34.538 --> 00:49:35.371
were your mom and dad.

699
00:49:37.307 --> 00:49:40.543
They were heterosexual
couples, by and large.

700
00:49:40.644 --> 00:49:42.611
They would bring through
literally tour buses.

701
00:49:47.384 --> 00:49:50.519
It was just people had
heard about this hootsie show

702
00:49:50.620 --> 00:49:53.622
where the women were all men.

703
00:49:53.724 --> 00:49:55.624
And the economics
of that had to do

704
00:49:55.726 --> 00:50:00.196
with straight people on a night
out gawking at gay people.

705
00:50:00.297 --> 00:50:01.664
HOST: Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.

706
00:50:01.765 --> 00:50:02.598
Mr. Ty Bennett.

707
00:50:02.666 --> 00:50:03.532
[applause]

708
00:50:03.633 --> 00:50:04.867
TY BENNETT: I'm
quite sure you know

709
00:50:04.968 --> 00:50:06.569
your reputations were
shot to hell the minute

710
00:50:06.670 --> 00:50:08.004
you came in this joint.

711
00:50:08.105 --> 00:50:09.405
So now that you're
here, relax and enjoy

712
00:50:09.506 --> 00:50:11.173
it or we'll lock the doors
and make you one of us

713
00:50:11.274 --> 00:50:12.274
or just make you.

714
00:50:12.376 --> 00:50:13.376
I think that's what
the hell you all need.

715
00:50:13.477 --> 00:50:14.176
I'm not sure.

716
00:50:14.277 --> 00:50:15.011
You know what they say.

717
00:50:15.112 --> 00:50:17.313
If you can't lick 'em join em.

718
00:50:17.414 --> 00:50:19.081
I licked them and I joined
them, and here I am.

719
00:50:19.182 --> 00:50:21.150
[laughter]

720
00:50:21.251 --> 00:50:25.121
It was hard to watch because
the drag queens would circulate

721
00:50:25.222 --> 00:50:28.224
in the crowd at certain
points in the show,

722
00:50:28.325 --> 00:50:31.427
and the guys much more than
the women... the guys were like,

723
00:50:31.528 --> 00:50:33.362
[gasp], don't touch me.

724
00:50:33.463 --> 00:50:36.565
You know, I mean,
very visceral kind

725
00:50:36.666 --> 00:50:42.905
of reactions where you could
see the stigma in the air.

726
00:50:43.006 --> 00:50:43.739
You know, it was visible.

727
00:50:45.842 --> 00:50:48.644
So it was a performance
by stigmatized people

728
00:50:48.745 --> 00:50:52.114
for the normals.

729
00:50:58.321 --> 00:51:03.359
In spite of being mob run,
we all felt rather protected.

730
00:51:05.529 --> 00:51:07.296
ESTHER NEWTON: It was a
way for them to survive.

731
00:51:07.397 --> 00:51:11.067
I mean, survival in this
world was a big deal.

732
00:51:11.168 --> 00:51:12.802
It wasn't something you
could take for granted.

733
00:51:14.371 --> 00:51:17.406
TERRY: The general
manager at the 82 Club

734
00:51:17.507 --> 00:51:19.542
who was Pete Petillo.

735
00:51:19.643 --> 00:51:22.044
His sister was Anna.

736
00:51:22.145 --> 00:51:25.448
She was married
to Vito Genovese.

737
00:51:25.549 --> 00:51:27.216
GEORGE: Who I later found
out was the head of the mob

738
00:51:27.317 --> 00:51:29.285
of New York and New Jersey.

739
00:51:29.386 --> 00:51:30.553
It was Anna's club.

740
00:51:32.823 --> 00:51:35.458
TERRY: Anna was a
very nice person.

741
00:51:35.559 --> 00:51:38.194
She and I got along
very well together,

742
00:51:38.295 --> 00:51:40.696
and she did good things for me.

743
00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:45.267
I tried to be a gay man.

744
00:51:46.870 --> 00:51:49.105
I couldn't be a gay
man because I didn't...

745
00:51:51.041 --> 00:51:54.143
I wasn't attracted
to gay men sexually.

746
00:51:56.980 --> 00:52:02.885
So I thought, well, then
let's do this transition

747
00:52:02.986 --> 00:52:04.520
because that's the
only way you're

748
00:52:04.621 --> 00:52:07.456
going to have any peace in
your life in the years to come.

749
00:52:09.759 --> 00:52:11.727
I had been at the 82
for a couple of years

750
00:52:11.828 --> 00:52:16.332
before I even started thinking
about making my transition.

751
00:52:18.168 --> 00:52:24.240
And I didn't feel like I could
afford to go to the transgender

752
00:52:24.341 --> 00:52:26.142
guru of the time.

753
00:52:26.243 --> 00:52:28.444
And apparently I
told that to Anna

754
00:52:28.545 --> 00:52:31.680
because she said, well, I'll
send you to my personal doctor.

755
00:52:33.550 --> 00:52:35.151
He's over in Brooklyn.

756
00:52:35.252 --> 00:52:36.552
I'll send you over there.

757
00:52:38.455 --> 00:52:42.258
I went, and he treated
me for 18 months.

758
00:52:42.359 --> 00:52:46.695
And he would give me
a shot once a week

759
00:52:46.796 --> 00:52:51.734
and give me the pills
you take every day,

760
00:52:51.835 --> 00:52:54.270
and he didn't charge me a cent.

761
00:52:54.371 --> 00:52:57.139
Not only that, he
arranged for my surgery.

762
00:52:59.709 --> 00:53:03.245
I took two years of
thinking about it.

763
00:53:03.346 --> 00:53:06.215
I took the hormones
for 18 months

764
00:53:06.316 --> 00:53:09.919
before I decided
whether to do it or not.

765
00:53:10.020 --> 00:53:14.456
You see, there were some
who thought, you know,

766
00:53:14.558 --> 00:53:18.160
that it was just the worst
thing you could do because they

767
00:53:18.261 --> 00:53:23.532
called it self-mutilation,
and they dug up

768
00:53:23.600 --> 00:53:25.768
words like that to describe it.

769
00:53:25.869 --> 00:53:32.441
But I thought, yeah, maybe,
but it's going to allow

770
00:53:32.542 --> 00:53:34.843
me to have the life I want.

771
00:53:34.945 --> 00:53:37.413
So to me, it's not mutilation.

772
00:53:37.514 --> 00:53:45.514
It's rearrangement so that I
can live my life as I wish.

773
00:53:56.266 --> 00:53:59.902
ACTOR AS DAPHNE:
February 7, 1958.

774
00:54:00.003 --> 00:54:01.904
Reno Zambambansteen.

775
00:54:03.607 --> 00:54:07.142
Well, here's Hedda again
giving you the latest dish.

776
00:54:07.244 --> 00:54:10.379
This lady is a tramp,
but unlike the song,

777
00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:14.183
she does dish the dirt
with the rest of the girls.

778
00:54:14.284 --> 00:54:16.518
There's a young
ex-Marine beauty working

779
00:54:16.620 --> 00:54:18.520
here out on the platform.

780
00:54:18.622 --> 00:54:20.055
I think he digs me.

781
00:54:20.156 --> 00:54:22.491
He's staring at me right now.

782
00:54:22.592 --> 00:54:26.061
Maybe it's the paint
I'm wearing, full face.

783
00:54:26.162 --> 00:54:28.430
He said hello today
when he came in.

784
00:54:28.531 --> 00:54:29.231
I nearly fainted.

785
00:54:30.634 --> 00:54:32.635
I thought he didn't like me.

786
00:54:32.736 --> 00:54:34.270
As always, Daphne.

787
00:54:41.344 --> 00:54:43.979
A lot of other more
gender-conforming gay people

788
00:54:44.080 --> 00:54:45.748
were kind of horrified
that all straight

789
00:54:45.849 --> 00:54:48.017
people would think this is
what all gay people were like.

790
00:54:49.386 --> 00:54:50.919
REPORTER: What do
other homosexuals think

791
00:54:51.021 --> 00:54:53.088
about the so-called queens?

792
00:54:53.223 --> 00:54:54.957
What are their feelings
about themselves

793
00:54:55.058 --> 00:54:56.058
and their place in society?

794
00:54:58.295 --> 00:55:00.696
We think the swish or the queen

795
00:55:00.797 --> 00:55:03.932
represents actually a
small minority within

796
00:55:04.034 --> 00:55:06.602
the whole homosexual grouping.

797
00:55:06.703 --> 00:55:10.506
But to the public, this
is the stereotyped view

798
00:55:10.607 --> 00:55:13.575
or picture by which all
homosexuals are judged,

799
00:55:13.677 --> 00:55:14.376
it seems.

800
00:55:15.745 --> 00:55:18.547
These people actually,
in most cases,

801
00:55:18.648 --> 00:55:22.184
are not even liked by the rest
of their homosexual brethren

802
00:55:22.285 --> 00:55:25.921
because they have perhaps
rejected themselves,

803
00:55:26.022 --> 00:55:28.757
and they feel that
society has rejected them.

804
00:55:30.727 --> 00:55:33.162
Drag queens were
revered and reviled.

805
00:55:34.597 --> 00:55:38.334
It was a form of embodiment
of what gay people loved

806
00:55:38.435 --> 00:55:41.337
about being gay and
what people hated

807
00:55:41.438 --> 00:55:43.839
themselves for about being gay.

808
00:55:45.608 --> 00:55:46.475
ACTOR AS CHARLIE: Dear Reno...

809
00:55:48.178 --> 00:55:50.346
As you must know by
now, Jo and I have not

810
00:55:50.447 --> 00:55:52.281
been seeing much of each other.

811
00:55:52.382 --> 00:55:54.616
When we do, it's on the sneak.

812
00:55:54.684 --> 00:55:57.152
Her sister and brother caught
us at the diner one night,

813
00:55:57.253 --> 00:56:00.622
and they both laid Jo out
about being seen with me.

814
00:56:00.724 --> 00:56:05.194
She told Jo to stay away from
me because I look like a girl.

815
00:56:05.295 --> 00:56:08.564
So now when I call, I
have to give a phony name.

816
00:56:08.665 --> 00:56:10.265
Your friend always, Charlie.

817
00:56:55.545 --> 00:56:58.747
[italian singing]

818
00:57:31.748 --> 00:57:33.882
ACTOR: Jerry's in
jail for four months.

819
00:57:33.983 --> 00:57:36.618
She was caught in drag
at the Wagon Wheel.

820
00:57:36.719 --> 00:57:38.253
Her friend Shelly
was working there

821
00:57:38.354 --> 00:57:40.055
in drag as the hatcheck girl.

822
00:57:40.156 --> 00:57:41.857
She's that pale redhead.

823
00:57:41.958 --> 00:57:43.158
Remember her?

824
00:57:43.259 --> 00:57:45.194
She's always in the can too.

825
00:57:45.295 --> 00:57:47.362
The cops had known Jerry.

826
00:57:47.464 --> 00:57:49.064
She was sitting at
a table with Shelly

827
00:57:49.165 --> 00:57:50.933
when the bulls pinched her.

828
00:57:51.034 --> 00:57:53.202
They never knew a
girlfriend was a fraud too.

829
00:57:54.737 --> 00:57:55.971
Poor Jerry.

830
00:57:56.072 --> 00:57:57.005
She'll be out in the spring.

831
00:59:38.241 --> 00:59:42.511
Choosing to even temporarily
give up the power that

832
00:59:42.612 --> 00:59:47.916
was invested in them by
being born men was huge,

833
00:59:48.017 --> 00:59:52.955
but it also kind of
challenged the whole concept

834
00:59:53.056 --> 00:59:53.889
of patriarchy.

835
00:59:55.291 --> 01:00:02.197
When girls take on boys
roles, we call them tomboys,

836
01:00:02.298 --> 01:00:04.032
and we admire them.

837
01:00:04.133 --> 01:00:07.235
But the boy who is a sissy
is always stigmatized,

838
01:00:07.337 --> 01:00:09.905
and it has something
to do with stepping

839
01:00:10.006 --> 01:00:15.043
out of a role that is
associated with a certain kind

840
01:00:15.144 --> 01:00:15.844
of privilege.

841
01:00:15.945 --> 01:00:16.878
Why would you do that?

842
01:00:16.980 --> 01:00:17.679
You must be sick.

843
01:00:19.882 --> 01:00:21.583
And I think that
for many Americans,

844
01:00:21.684 --> 01:00:25.954
that was very disturbing,
and the evidence is

845
01:00:26.055 --> 01:00:28.523
its association or its
understanding as a kind

846
01:00:28.625 --> 01:00:31.560
of pathology, a mental illness.

847
01:00:35.865 --> 01:00:40.535
They shipped me to a place
called Bellevue Hospital.

848
01:00:43.239 --> 01:00:45.273
By then I was closing in on 16.

849
01:00:47.043 --> 01:00:55.043
And they put me in a place
called PQ5, the whacko ward,

850
01:00:55.284 --> 01:00:56.618
because I was gay.

851
01:01:06.095 --> 01:01:10.165
And every day I had to
have a sit-down session

852
01:01:10.266 --> 01:01:14.603
with the shrink, and
all they wanted to do

853
01:01:14.704 --> 01:01:15.537
is get their paycheck.

854
01:01:17.173 --> 01:01:20.475
Well, why did you run away,
blah, blah, blah, blah?

855
01:01:20.576 --> 01:01:22.711
Because I wasn't having
a whole lot of fun

856
01:01:22.812 --> 01:01:24.413
being beaten up every day.

857
01:01:24.514 --> 01:01:25.213
That's why.

858
01:01:27.917 --> 01:01:35.857
They finally released me
because after a certain point,

859
01:01:35.958 --> 01:01:37.092
they can't keep you.

860
01:01:37.193 --> 01:01:39.461
I haven't done
anything but run away.

861
01:01:41.230 --> 01:01:46.168
The only phone number I could
remember was Bobby Perez.

862
01:01:46.269 --> 01:01:48.303
Bobby Perez was Josephine Baker.

863
01:01:50.973 --> 01:01:51.973
Tell me where to meet you.

864
01:01:52.075 --> 01:01:54.276
She said, tell me
where to meet you.

865
01:01:54.377 --> 01:01:57.979
And I hooked up again with
Josephine and with Daphne

866
01:01:58.081 --> 01:02:03.752
and with Billy Baker,
and then I started

867
01:02:03.853 --> 01:02:08.423
turning tricks because I had
no other source of income.

868
01:02:13.496 --> 01:02:14.963
So I had to.

869
01:02:15.064 --> 01:02:19.234
It was a matter of, well, do
you want to be hungry or you

870
01:02:19.335 --> 01:02:20.669
do not want to be hungry?

871
01:02:20.770 --> 01:02:21.470
Pick one.

872
01:02:23.673 --> 01:02:26.408
And then I found out
that I could make lots

873
01:02:26.509 --> 01:02:30.312
more money if I did it in drag.

874
01:02:37.653 --> 01:02:40.355
ACTOR: Claudia's back on
the scene with Josephine.

875
01:02:40.456 --> 01:02:45.460
They mopped four paste-ons from
the Metropolitan Opera House.

876
01:02:45.561 --> 01:02:48.530
They sold one to Terry,
one to Ricky from Brooklyn,

877
01:02:48.631 --> 01:02:50.065
and kept the other two.

878
01:02:57.774 --> 01:02:58.473
Oh.

879
01:03:48.024 --> 01:03:49.558
ACTOR AS JOSEPHINE
BAKER: Dear René...

880
01:03:49.659 --> 01:03:52.694
Well, the latest
seed was that Claudia

881
01:03:52.795 --> 01:03:55.430
and I mopped at the Met.

882
01:03:55.531 --> 01:03:56.832
Ha!

883
01:03:56.933 --> 01:04:00.635
35 paste-ons, all
gorgeous... white,

884
01:04:00.736 --> 01:04:03.972
red, brown, black,
every color you

885
01:04:04.073 --> 01:04:05.874
could think of, the end wigs.

886
01:04:07.376 --> 01:04:10.078
There's a white one
that's down to the ass.

887
01:04:10.146 --> 01:04:13.849
Most of them flew
already for $75 or $50.

888
01:04:13.950 --> 01:04:17.552
I have a blonde paste-on
ponytail that's fab.

889
01:04:17.653 --> 01:04:19.054
Ah!

890
01:04:19.155 --> 01:04:21.890
Well, I'm going to bed
now, so write soon.

891
01:04:21.991 --> 01:04:22.691
Good night.

892
01:04:22.792 --> 01:04:23.825
Josephine Baker.

893
01:04:25.795 --> 01:04:28.597
PS... burn this letter please.

894
01:04:28.698 --> 01:04:29.998
That Met scene
was in the papers.

895
01:04:31.634 --> 01:04:32.334
Don't dish.

896
01:04:34.704 --> 01:04:37.072
We were working again at
Loew's State on Broadway,

897
01:04:37.173 --> 01:04:39.875
and Josephine Baker came
backstage with another queen

898
01:04:39.976 --> 01:04:43.211
named Claudia with
this bag of wigs,

899
01:04:43.312 --> 01:04:46.848
beautiful lace-front
wigs, which are the most

900
01:04:46.949 --> 01:04:48.283
expensive kind of wigs.

901
01:04:51.621 --> 01:04:53.622
So a lot of the
people in the show

902
01:04:53.723 --> 01:04:56.291
bought wigs because
they were expensive wigs

903
01:04:56.392 --> 01:04:57.759
selling for much less.

904
01:04:59.095 --> 01:05:02.564
You could buy, you know,
$1,000 wig for $70.

905
01:05:02.665 --> 01:05:04.532
So we immediately...
I bought one,

906
01:05:04.634 --> 01:05:06.935
Lynn Carter brought one,
a few of the other people.

907
01:05:08.337 --> 01:05:11.673
Two days later, the
police come back stage.

908
01:05:33.396 --> 01:05:35.263
Of course, we didn't know
where the wigs were from.

909
01:05:35.364 --> 01:05:39.634
So they arrested everyone who
had bought a wig on possession

910
01:05:39.735 --> 01:05:40.502
of stolen property.

911
01:05:43.072 --> 01:05:44.172
We went to jail.

912
01:05:48.144 --> 01:05:50.946
[sirens]

913
01:05:53.015 --> 01:05:55.951
INTERVIEWER: Police have
recovered 17 of the 33 wigs

914
01:05:56.052 --> 01:05:58.453
allegedly stolen from
the Metropolitan Opera

915
01:05:58.554 --> 01:06:01.589
three months ago by two
young men who sold them

916
01:06:01.691 --> 01:06:04.459
for fancy dress-ball adornment.

917
01:06:04.560 --> 01:06:08.897
Police revealed Wednesday that
the arrest of Robert Perez, 23,

918
01:06:08.998 --> 01:06:13.301
hairdresser, and Claudia Diaz,
22, a waiter, for burglary

919
01:06:13.402 --> 01:06:15.470
in connection with
the wig lifting.

920
01:06:15.571 --> 01:06:17.706
According to authorities,
Perez and Diaz

921
01:06:17.807 --> 01:06:20.976
heard about a gay Thanksgiving
costume ball in Harlem

922
01:06:21.077 --> 01:06:25.413
and decided to get the wig
concession by hook or crook.

923
01:06:25.514 --> 01:06:28.683
They gained entry into the Met
by imitating ballet dancers

924
01:06:28.784 --> 01:06:32.420
arriving for a rehearsal
and danced off with $3,000

925
01:06:32.521 --> 01:06:33.488
worth of headpieces.

926
01:06:33.589 --> 01:06:34.289
Yes.

927
01:06:40.196 --> 01:06:45.567
One, we did not get
in with the dancers.

928
01:06:48.671 --> 01:06:51.373
They still don't know
how we got in there.

929
01:06:51.474 --> 01:06:52.941
Do you have a piece
of paper and a pencil?

930
01:06:55.478 --> 01:07:01.449
These were all gates, and
each one of these gates

931
01:07:01.550 --> 01:07:03.084
was enormous.

932
01:07:03.185 --> 01:07:07.422
Each one had a lock,
and they used to use

933
01:07:07.523 --> 01:07:10.125
these to move in scenery.

934
01:07:11.894 --> 01:07:19.894
Some idiot in this thing didn't
have the brains to make sure

935
01:07:21.670 --> 01:07:27.108
that they were locked,
and the one in the middle

936
01:07:27.209 --> 01:07:28.209
was left unlocked.

937
01:07:32.515 --> 01:07:34.049
And then we went up the stairs.

938
01:07:35.818 --> 01:07:41.056
And after the last steps,
I was standing stage level,

939
01:07:41.157 --> 01:07:45.560
and I stepped out onto the
stage of the Metropolitan Opera

940
01:07:45.661 --> 01:07:50.465
House, and I stood there looking
up at that enormous chandelier,

941
01:07:50.566 --> 01:07:52.200
and I got my cookies off.

942
01:07:54.003 --> 01:07:54.702
I did.

943
01:07:54.804 --> 01:07:56.871
I got my cookies off.

944
01:07:56.972 --> 01:07:59.107
Josephine said,
what are you doing?

945
01:07:59.208 --> 01:08:04.379
I said I am saving this memory.

946
01:08:04.480 --> 01:08:05.447
That's what I'm doing.

947
01:08:08.050 --> 01:08:09.918
We went upstairs
one more flight,

948
01:08:10.019 --> 01:08:13.288
and it was the wig room,
and I kicked the door open.

949
01:08:15.891 --> 01:08:17.759
We went out the
same way we came in.

950
01:08:19.562 --> 01:08:20.261
Very simple.

951
01:08:22.331 --> 01:08:25.266
We started selling some of them,
the ones that we didn't want.

952
01:08:27.803 --> 01:08:28.903
Some were in Brooklyn.

953
01:08:29.004 --> 01:08:30.305
Some were in New Jersey.

954
01:08:30.406 --> 01:08:32.140
Some were the Jewel Box Revues.

955
01:08:32.241 --> 01:08:33.908
Some were at the 82 Clubs.

956
01:08:35.744 --> 01:08:40.582
And one idiot ratting
out the whole thing.

957
01:08:40.683 --> 01:08:45.453
We gave them back
synthetic, cheap wigs,

958
01:08:45.554 --> 01:08:47.455
and cops didn't
know the difference.

959
01:08:53.095 --> 01:08:54.863
So the best they
could do was the guys

960
01:08:54.964 --> 01:09:02.737
for breaking and entering, which
is a year at Rikers Island,

961
01:09:02.838 --> 01:09:04.639
which is a whole other thing.

962
01:09:09.512 --> 01:09:14.382
This wig I'm holding here was
part of "Rigoletto," the opera.

963
01:09:16.719 --> 01:09:18.520
This is a 60-year-old.

964
01:09:18.621 --> 01:09:20.155
INTERVIEWER: Why do
you still have it?

965
01:09:23.325 --> 01:09:29.430
Part ego, part
here New York police.

966
01:09:31.167 --> 01:09:35.670
You couldn't find your
way out of a closet,

967
01:09:35.771 --> 01:09:40.808
and two faggots have both
outsmarted all of you,

968
01:09:40.910 --> 01:09:43.478
and you still don't
know how we got in.

969
01:09:47.616 --> 01:09:50.685
ACTOR AS JOSEPHINE:
October 27, 1957.

970
01:09:50.786 --> 01:09:54.455
Dear Reno... well, the
ball is this Friday

971
01:09:54.557 --> 01:09:57.926
at the MacAlpin Hotel, and
I don't know what to wear.

972
01:09:58.027 --> 01:10:00.228
I have a blonde
wig that's the end.

973
01:10:00.329 --> 01:10:02.964
And I want to pull a blond
scene with a blue dress,

974
01:10:03.065 --> 01:10:07.235
but I heard everybody will be
there, so I'll wear the gold.

975
01:10:07.336 --> 01:10:09.137
Well, that's all the
dish for a while.

976
01:10:09.238 --> 01:10:10.905
I have to start
douching for tonight,

977
01:10:11.006 --> 01:10:12.907
and I have to cut my
lashes now before I forget.

978
01:10:13.008 --> 01:10:14.909
Write me soon.

979
01:10:15.010 --> 01:10:16.878
Love always, Josephine.

980
01:10:20.516 --> 01:10:24.118
A drag ball is
when a party is held

981
01:10:24.220 --> 01:10:27.322
and everybody comes dressed
as the opposite sex.

982
01:10:31.827 --> 01:10:38.299
There were maybe 10 or
12 different drag balls.

983
01:10:40.769 --> 01:10:43.638
A special permit that would
allow this type of thing

984
01:10:43.739 --> 01:10:46.341
to happen for one
night at that venue.

985
01:10:48.143 --> 01:10:52.380
CLAUDE: And what they were
were an excuse for all of us

986
01:10:52.481 --> 01:10:56.851
to get into drag, and we did.

987
01:10:59.088 --> 01:11:00.788
We took advantage of it.

988
01:11:00.889 --> 01:11:03.591
ACTOR AS CHARLIE:
August 3, 1961.

989
01:11:03.692 --> 01:11:08.763
Dear Reno... well, there's
two drags the same night,

990
01:11:08.864 --> 01:11:11.532
Mickey Marlowe's and Daisies.

991
01:11:11.634 --> 01:11:14.335
Marlow got a fantastic
ballroom with water

992
01:11:14.436 --> 01:11:15.870
fountains and chandeliers.

993
01:11:15.971 --> 01:11:18.106
It's really gorgeous.

994
01:11:18.207 --> 01:11:21.276
Daisies got her permit
already and the ballroom.

995
01:11:21.377 --> 01:11:24.612
She's not dishing yet
where it's going to be.

996
01:11:24.713 --> 01:11:26.714
I'd love to make them both.

997
01:11:26.815 --> 01:11:28.316
Do you think it's possible?

998
01:11:28.417 --> 01:11:30.551
If I don't lose 30 pounds,
I'm not going to none of them

999
01:11:30.653 --> 01:11:31.686
in drag.

1000
01:11:31.787 --> 01:11:33.554
I'll just go painted.

1001
01:11:33.656 --> 01:11:34.656
Love, Charlie.

1002
01:11:41.330 --> 01:11:44.532
Yeah, Dayzee Dee's
Thanksgiving Eve Costume Ball.

1003
01:11:47.936 --> 01:11:55.843
My drag name is Dayzee
Dee, and I ran those balls

1004
01:11:55.944 --> 01:11:57.345
for seven or eight years.

1005
01:11:59.081 --> 01:12:04.585
The very first ball, I
printed 1,500 tickets.

1006
01:12:04.687 --> 01:12:09.157
I figured if we sell 600
or 700, we'll be lucky.

1007
01:12:09.258 --> 01:12:16.764
That ball, we had between 1,2000
and 1,500 the very first year.

1008
01:12:16.865 --> 01:12:20.101
GEORGE: This picture here
is when we went to Dayzee

1009
01:12:20.202 --> 01:12:22.070
Dee's ball in Brooklyn.

1010
01:12:22.171 --> 01:12:25.873
That's Bubbles and me
and Brandi Alexander.

1011
01:12:25.974 --> 01:12:26.841
It was a fun night.

1012
01:12:28.744 --> 01:12:31.879
TERRY: Everybody who was
anybody in the drag world went.

1013
01:12:35.751 --> 01:12:36.851
LENNIE: There I am on stage.

1014
01:12:40.022 --> 01:12:42.290
This is what Billy
Baker made for me.

1015
01:12:42.391 --> 01:12:43.191
That was in '62.

1016
01:12:48.464 --> 01:12:50.531
Here's Tish, me and Tish.

1017
01:12:54.970 --> 01:12:56.771
It was elegant, number one.

1018
01:12:56.872 --> 01:12:59.173
It wasn't draggy,
draggy, faggy, faggy.

1019
01:13:00.642 --> 01:13:02.276
They were giving
out first prizes

1020
01:13:02.378 --> 01:13:05.380
for the most beautiful wardrobe,
first prize for the most

1021
01:13:05.481 --> 01:13:06.881
beautiful hairstyle.

1022
01:13:06.982 --> 01:13:08.216
Everything was elegant.

1023
01:13:09.818 --> 01:13:12.520
CLAUDE: Everybody walked
around and paraded.

1024
01:13:12.621 --> 01:13:18.292
It was like somebody had
opened a gigantic pair of doors

1025
01:13:18.394 --> 01:13:23.798
and threw them open, and
all these crazy people

1026
01:13:23.899 --> 01:13:30.204
and the way they looked
were suddenly filling...

1027
01:13:30.305 --> 01:13:34.942
Literally filling this
gigantic place in drag.

1028
01:13:40.382 --> 01:13:42.450
And at the end
we'd see which one we

1029
01:13:42.551 --> 01:13:44.852
would name the queen of the
ball or the king of the ball

1030
01:13:44.953 --> 01:13:45.653
or whatever.

1031
01:13:47.956 --> 01:13:52.860
Terry Noel, she came to
my ball and won first prize.

1032
01:13:52.961 --> 01:13:55.096
She was beautiful,
very beautiful.

1033
01:13:57.833 --> 01:13:58.699
It was really fun.

1034
01:14:04.006 --> 01:14:07.475
Dayzee's drag ball was
not the only drag ball.

1035
01:14:12.614 --> 01:14:15.016
GEORGE CHAUNCEY: In Harlem,
there was a very vibrant

1036
01:14:15.117 --> 01:14:17.585
gay society, as they called it.

1037
01:14:17.686 --> 01:14:21.389
It was a very visible
culture, especially

1038
01:14:21.490 --> 01:14:22.757
in the African American press.

1039
01:14:26.995 --> 01:14:28.663
MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS: You
know, you had all these spots

1040
01:14:28.797 --> 01:14:31.065
in Harlem that were
known to be patronized

1041
01:14:31.133 --> 01:14:35.570
by gays and as much
gay activity in Harlem

1042
01:14:35.671 --> 01:14:37.205
as you had in Greenwich Village.

1043
01:14:38.774 --> 01:14:43.678
And the thing that struck
me was the discovery

1044
01:14:43.779 --> 01:14:46.948
that the most
luminous luminaries

1045
01:14:47.049 --> 01:14:49.383
of the Harlem Renaissance
were all gay and lesbian.

1046
01:15:12.007 --> 01:15:13.241
ACTOR AS DAPHNE: Dear Reno...

1047
01:15:13.342 --> 01:15:16.244
All the queens are
selling for Phil Black's.

1048
01:15:16.345 --> 01:15:17.979
It will be at the
Rockland Palace.

1049
01:15:18.080 --> 01:15:19.547
Where else?

1050
01:15:19.648 --> 01:15:22.817
There are so many
new nels in town.

1051
01:15:22.918 --> 01:15:27.255
But as Josephine says, they all
fade into the crowd at a drag.

1052
01:15:27.356 --> 01:15:29.891
I'm going to paint
like crazy tonight.

1053
01:15:29.992 --> 01:15:32.059
Nobody even noticed
me last night.

1054
01:15:32.160 --> 01:15:33.127
Very next!

1055
01:15:33.228 --> 01:15:36.998
But tonight... As always, Daphne.

1056
01:15:49.511 --> 01:15:53.681
Phil Black was a
female impersonator

1057
01:15:53.782 --> 01:15:57.251
that was kind of a celebrity
in the gay world at that time.

1058
01:16:11.033 --> 01:16:13.668
And the queens started making
their dress for next year

1059
01:16:13.769 --> 01:16:15.803
as soon as they got
home that night.

1060
01:16:15.904 --> 01:16:18.105
It was like their life.

1061
01:16:34.489 --> 01:16:37.058
They went crackers.

1062
01:16:39.895 --> 01:16:43.164
Like we were at a move premier
in Hollywood waving to us

1063
01:16:43.265 --> 01:16:44.465
and throwing kisses.

1064
01:16:44.566 --> 01:16:46.567
And there was no prejudice.

1065
01:16:46.668 --> 01:16:47.835
It was wonderful.

1066
01:16:53.041 --> 01:16:56.711
And that's one of the things
that makes this so interesting

1067
01:16:56.812 --> 01:17:02.683
to me is that it is both the
first time in American history

1068
01:17:02.784 --> 01:17:06.821
when you have African Americans
and whites interacting

1069
01:17:06.922 --> 01:17:08.623
in a non-clandestine way.

1070
01:17:11.860 --> 01:17:15.129
This was a place where
all the races mixed.

1071
01:17:17.299 --> 01:17:18.666
So this was kind
of an integrated

1072
01:17:18.767 --> 01:17:19.700
space, which was unusual.

1073
01:17:22.504 --> 01:17:27.675
And it's also then one of
the first instances in which

1074
01:17:27.776 --> 01:17:30.444
ordinary heterosexuals
have some experience

1075
01:17:30.545 --> 01:17:35.216
of an interaction with gays
without any hostile judgments.

1076
01:17:38.654 --> 01:17:42.023
CLAUDE: I felt at home,
I feel, at the drag ball

1077
01:17:42.124 --> 01:17:44.759
because I was no
longer the weirdo.

1078
01:17:47.396 --> 01:17:53.868
I belonged, which I had not
belonged anywhere before that.

1079
01:17:57.706 --> 01:18:00.574
ACTOR AS DAPHNE:
October 26, 1955.

1080
01:18:00.676 --> 01:18:04.378
Dear Reno... just a
few lines to say hello

1081
01:18:04.479 --> 01:18:06.447
and a word or two to let
you know that I haven't

1082
01:18:06.548 --> 01:18:09.083
forgotten completely about you.

1083
01:18:09.184 --> 01:18:12.520
My God, with the upcoming
drag, I've been in such a spin.

1084
01:18:12.621 --> 01:18:15.656
I haven't had any time to
dish or anything with you.

1085
01:18:15.757 --> 01:18:18.693
As a matter of fact, I'm very
upset and a little nervous

1086
01:18:18.794 --> 01:18:20.361
about some dish I
heard about myself.

1087
01:18:23.899 --> 01:18:27.535
Daphne, he had
the most beautiful

1088
01:18:27.636 --> 01:18:31.439
pair of legs you have ever
seen on anyone in your life.

1089
01:18:33.775 --> 01:18:37.144
I know women that would give
their souls for legs like that.

1090
01:18:39.548 --> 01:18:46.587
They came up to here, and
there wasn't a hair or a bump

1091
01:18:46.688 --> 01:18:50.191
or a [snort] on them anywhere.

1092
01:18:50.292 --> 01:18:50.991
They were gorgeous.

1093
01:18:53.662 --> 01:18:54.895
ACTOR AS DAPHNE:
Many of the girls

1094
01:18:54.996 --> 01:18:57.531
have been saying they don't
think I'll map as a blonde.

1095
01:18:57.632 --> 01:18:59.700
I'm beginning to wonder myself.

1096
01:18:59.801 --> 01:19:01.035
It is a shocking change.

1097
01:19:02.704 --> 01:19:05.940
Everything will depend
on my makeup job.

1098
01:19:06.041 --> 01:19:08.776
If worse comes to worse, I'm
fucking all respectability

1099
01:19:08.877 --> 01:19:11.846
and I'm shaving off
my complete browettes.

1100
01:19:11.947 --> 01:19:13.881
There's nothing like
that Lana Turner

1101
01:19:13.982 --> 01:19:16.150
pencil line of gorgeousness.

1102
01:19:16.251 --> 01:19:17.118
Fuck Liz Taylor.

1103
01:19:17.219 --> 01:19:19.053
I want to be a bum that night.

1104
01:19:19.154 --> 01:19:20.688
As always, Daphne.

1105
01:19:23.825 --> 01:19:27.828
He had a silver lame dress
made that was like this.

1106
01:19:29.231 --> 01:19:30.898
It was also like this.

1107
01:19:32.267 --> 01:19:35.803
But on this side here hidden
where you couldn't see it,

1108
01:19:35.904 --> 01:19:39.039
there was a zipper that
opened up and opened...

1109
01:19:39.141 --> 01:19:42.176
Literally opened
up to the hip line.

1110
01:19:42.277 --> 01:19:45.713
And he stood there, and
the woman he stood...

1111
01:19:45.814 --> 01:19:47.815
Opened his legs,
there were the legs.

1112
01:19:49.584 --> 01:19:56.190
And it was like, oh my God,
and people would freak out,

1113
01:19:56.291 --> 01:19:57.458
and he looked fabulous.

1114
01:19:58.827 --> 01:20:03.330
He was wearing two wigs
because the person who

1115
01:20:03.431 --> 01:20:10.004
was supposed to do
his hair dumped him,

1116
01:20:10.105 --> 01:20:13.941
and he had everything
but the hair.

1117
01:20:16.077 --> 01:20:22.583
And I wound up putting two
blonde wigs on his hair,

1118
01:20:22.684 --> 01:20:24.418
the hairline showing, but...

1119
01:20:30.559 --> 01:20:38.559
With great big... and he looked
amazing, absolutely amazing.

1120
01:20:42.404 --> 01:20:45.739
[music playing]

1121
01:20:53.949 --> 01:20:54.648
Oh shit.

1122
01:21:08.296 --> 01:21:08.996
Yeah.

1123
01:21:12.033 --> 01:21:12.733
Oh.

1124
01:21:14.803 --> 01:21:18.639
[crying]

1125
01:21:22.410 --> 01:21:23.077
Oh.

1126
01:21:31.086 --> 01:21:33.187
Oh shit.

1127
01:21:47.769 --> 01:21:55.769
I suddenly feel as though
somebody had just stabbed me

1128
01:21:56.978 --> 01:22:04.978
because I remember that night,
and I remember putting the wigs

1129
01:22:06.888 --> 01:22:11.959
on him and pinning them
down, and his own hair

1130
01:22:12.060 --> 01:22:14.161
was as black as black can be.

1131
01:22:17.966 --> 01:22:18.933
Oh God.

1132
01:22:25.340 --> 01:22:30.511
I have to keep in
mind that that's over.

1133
01:22:34.883 --> 01:22:37.384
That's over and finished.

1134
01:22:43.992 --> 01:22:48.896
And I'm sorry that it's over and
finished, and you have no idea.

1135
01:22:59.274 --> 01:23:03.243
ACTOR AS DAPHNE:
November 20, 1957.

1136
01:23:03.345 --> 01:23:07.948
Dear Reno... well, it's me
again, star reporter of the New

1137
01:23:08.049 --> 01:23:10.384
York gay set rat race.

1138
01:23:10.485 --> 01:23:12.386
I'm going steady
with this number Bob

1139
01:23:12.487 --> 01:23:13.988
from my neighborhood.

1140
01:23:14.089 --> 01:23:18.025
Ella, I've had numbers that dug
me, numbers that featured me,

1141
01:23:18.126 --> 01:23:20.594
and others that were
even bats for me,

1142
01:23:20.695 --> 01:23:23.230
but this one takes the cake.

1143
01:23:23.331 --> 01:23:25.799
He calls me constantly,
and when we're together,

1144
01:23:25.900 --> 01:23:28.702
it's much kissing me
every two minutes,

1145
01:23:28.803 --> 01:23:31.405
holding my hands
on trains, buses,

1146
01:23:31.506 --> 01:23:35.476
movie houses, lobbies, and
just about everywhere we go.

1147
01:23:35.577 --> 01:23:38.612
To put it mildly,
he's demented for me.

1148
01:23:38.713 --> 01:23:40.381
Much kisses and
claiming he can't

1149
01:23:40.482 --> 01:23:42.483
sleep or eat ever since we met.

1150
01:23:42.584 --> 01:23:44.485
And, Mary, I love it.

1151
01:23:44.586 --> 01:23:45.919
I never felt so cunty.

1152
01:23:47.355 --> 01:23:49.056
I actually miss him
and his compliments

1153
01:23:49.157 --> 01:23:50.124
whenever he's not around.

1154
01:23:51.593 --> 01:23:55.362
He came upon me like a shot
in the arm, the kind I needed.

1155
01:23:56.865 --> 01:23:58.565
As always, Daphne.

1156
01:24:52.954 --> 01:24:55.923
We all used to
laugh about old age.

1157
01:24:56.024 --> 01:24:57.424
I said, don't worry.

1158
01:24:57.525 --> 01:25:00.227
I have a house in Pennsylvania.

1159
01:25:00.328 --> 01:25:04.865
Well all go there, and we can
spend the rest of our lives

1160
01:25:04.966 --> 01:25:06.700
reminiscing, but we're not
going to do that until we're

1161
01:25:06.801 --> 01:25:09.903
in our 70s or maybe 80s.

1162
01:25:10.004 --> 01:25:12.239
We're still going to
be living in New York.

1163
01:25:15.543 --> 01:25:22.382
And then starting in 1983, I
guess, the first AIDS cases.

1164
01:25:26.087 --> 01:25:28.388
MAN: Gary, Tate.

1165
01:25:36.464 --> 01:25:37.998
MAN: My friend Micah.

1166
01:25:40.568 --> 01:25:41.902
And they knew it.

1167
01:25:42.003 --> 01:25:43.036
They knew it was
going to happen.

1168
01:25:50.778 --> 01:25:55.782
TERRY: Were a lot
of them who did.

1169
01:25:55.884 --> 01:26:03.884
MAN: Steven, Samuel,
Mike, DeRost.

1170
01:26:41.829 --> 01:26:44.131
I met Geno in New
York when we were

1171
01:26:44.232 --> 01:26:46.333
at Loew's Theater on Broadway.

1172
01:26:46.434 --> 01:26:50.136
And he was in the audience
several different times.

1173
01:26:50.205 --> 01:26:54.041
He sent notes back to me, and
we became very good friends.

1174
01:26:56.611 --> 01:27:00.380
After I got out of the New
York, I moved to San Francisco

1175
01:27:00.481 --> 01:27:05.118
with Geno, and we lived
on Guererro Street

1176
01:27:05.220 --> 01:27:06.486
close to the Castro area.

1177
01:27:07.889 --> 01:27:09.256
I just loved Geno.

1178
01:27:09.357 --> 01:27:10.891
I thought he was a
beautiful person.

1179
01:27:13.628 --> 01:27:18.265
Geno and I went to be tested for
HIV, and we both were positive.

1180
01:27:21.936 --> 01:27:23.570
And there was no
cure for it then.

1181
01:27:27.075 --> 01:27:29.543
Geno two years
later died of AIDS.

1182
01:27:35.383 --> 01:27:38.518
The reason I lost my right leg,
it's because of a blood clot.

1183
01:27:39.954 --> 01:27:42.289
I don't do that well
on the prosthetic,

1184
01:27:42.390 --> 01:27:44.791
but I'm OK on the wheelchair,
and I can get around.

1185
01:27:44.892 --> 01:27:47.494
And I still clean my own
house and do my own cooking.

1186
01:27:50.331 --> 01:27:53.634
And luckily I'm still here
many years afterwards.

1187
01:28:00.975 --> 01:28:02.009
(ON PHONE) OK.

1188
01:28:02.110 --> 01:28:05.212
Jerry I know is coming
over on the 12:30 ferry,

1189
01:28:05.313 --> 01:28:07.347
so just whenever.

1190
01:28:07.448 --> 01:28:09.883
Whatever you want to do,
just deal with it, OK?

1191
01:28:09.984 --> 01:28:10.751
MAN: (ON PHONE) All right.

1192
01:28:10.852 --> 01:28:12.786
I want... I'll shave here...

1193
01:28:12.887 --> 01:28:13.720
Yeah.

1194
01:28:13.821 --> 01:28:16.657
MAN:... and nail
down my eyebrows.

1195
01:28:16.758 --> 01:28:18.825
Yeah, because everybody else
is putting on the whole face

1196
01:28:18.926 --> 01:28:20.460
but carrying the
wig and the clothes

1197
01:28:20.561 --> 01:28:21.528
over to the thing, whatever.

1198
01:28:35.710 --> 01:28:42.449
The summer of '68, I won
Miss Fire Island 1969.

1199
01:28:42.550 --> 01:28:44.584
It'll be my 50th
anniversary of winning.

1200
01:28:52.827 --> 01:28:55.996
Today, the drag queens
are still drag queens,

1201
01:28:56.097 --> 01:28:58.432
and some of the older drag
queens are still there,

1202
01:28:58.533 --> 01:29:00.867
and there's a younger
bunch of drag queens.

1203
01:29:02.470 --> 01:29:03.370
MAN: Gorgeous.

1204
01:29:03.471 --> 01:29:04.571
[applause]

1205
01:29:04.672 --> 01:29:05.539
Nice.

1206
01:29:05.640 --> 01:29:07.341
You've got that
lipstick on pretty.

1207
01:30:32.393 --> 01:30:34.795
MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS: When I
first came out in Akron, Ohio,

1208
01:30:34.896 --> 01:30:37.297
I would meet all
these drag queens,

1209
01:30:37.398 --> 01:30:40.367
and they all just
seemed to love me.

1210
01:30:40.468 --> 01:30:44.771
And to my consternation
and discredit,

1211
01:30:44.872 --> 01:30:47.574
I would be on the street, and
there would be some drag queen,

1212
01:30:47.675 --> 01:30:49.376
and she would
start waving at me.

1213
01:30:49.477 --> 01:30:52.045
And I would just want to sink
to the sidewalk and think,

1214
01:30:52.146 --> 01:30:55.081
oh no, she's going to
come over because I

1215
01:30:55.183 --> 01:31:00.287
didn't want to
experience the scorn

1216
01:31:00.388 --> 01:31:03.123
of being gay by association.

1217
01:31:03.224 --> 01:31:05.592
I felt like, you know, I
could hide in plain sight,

1218
01:31:05.693 --> 01:31:06.993
but these people
were not hiding.

1219
01:31:12.333 --> 01:31:13.700
MC: Can you Imagine?

1220
01:31:13.801 --> 01:31:16.937
She somehow has been Miss
Fire Island for 50 years,

1221
01:31:17.038 --> 01:31:18.004
but she's only 13.

1222
01:31:20.608 --> 01:31:23.477
JOE E. JEFFREYS: The queens at
that point crossing the line

1223
01:31:23.578 --> 01:31:25.278
was dangerous.

1224
01:31:25.379 --> 01:31:28.348
It was against the grain of what
society was telling them they

1225
01:31:28.449 --> 01:31:31.351
should do, who they should be.

1226
01:31:31.452 --> 01:31:33.420
So you have to
admire their bravery

1227
01:31:33.521 --> 01:31:36.256
and courage to do such
a thing, much less

1228
01:31:36.357 --> 01:31:38.091
put themselves on stage.

1229
01:31:38.192 --> 01:31:39.693
But it also tells you
then how committed

1230
01:31:39.794 --> 01:31:42.863
they were to the art form,
to what it was that they

1231
01:31:42.964 --> 01:31:45.365
wanted to present to the world.

1232
01:31:51.572 --> 01:31:53.106
They were performing
this resistance

1233
01:31:53.207 --> 01:31:54.808
and they were making
political statements

1234
01:31:54.909 --> 01:31:57.978
and they were sort of lobbying
and fighting for social change

1235
01:31:58.079 --> 01:32:00.514
and for acceptance by the
very fact of existing.

1236
01:32:02.149 --> 01:32:04.885
JAMES: It can't be
something you want to do.

1237
01:32:04.986 --> 01:32:08.421
It has to be something
you have to do.

1238
01:32:08.523 --> 01:32:13.827
It's to speak to people
and say something,

1239
01:32:13.928 --> 01:32:15.428
make them see something.

1240
01:32:20.001 --> 01:32:23.670
This is the most
fucked-up fucking world.

1241
01:32:23.771 --> 01:32:25.238
It's just nothing's right.

1242
01:32:26.641 --> 01:32:28.675
Nothing's right.

1243
01:32:28.776 --> 01:32:33.346
[laughter] Well, Judy was good.

1244
01:32:34.882 --> 01:32:37.884
We should throw a drag march.

1245
01:32:37.985 --> 01:32:40.887
We should throw a drag march.

1246
01:32:40.988 --> 01:32:45.559
[drums]

1247
01:32:45.660 --> 01:32:46.693
[applause]

1248
01:32:46.794 --> 01:32:49.362
MC: There are so many
legends on this stage.

1249
01:32:49.463 --> 01:32:50.864
Are you ready?

1250
01:32:50.965 --> 01:32:54.334
[thunder]

1251
01:33:07.481 --> 01:33:10.650
MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS: Just to be
gay in general costs something

1252
01:33:10.751 --> 01:33:13.253
and particularly in the past.

1253
01:33:13.354 --> 01:33:16.189
And the one thing
that I discovered

1254
01:33:16.290 --> 01:33:18.692
was that so many
people had spent

1255
01:33:18.793 --> 01:33:22.295
a lifetime hiding from most
people who they really were.

1256
01:33:24.165 --> 01:33:26.666
And yet in their
80s and 90s they

1257
01:33:26.767 --> 01:33:29.636
were coming to the
realization that if they

1258
01:33:29.737 --> 01:33:33.006
didn't reveal their
stories to someone,

1259
01:33:33.107 --> 01:33:33.974
they would die with them.

1260
01:33:34.075 --> 01:33:36.443
(CHANTING) Gay rights!

1261
01:33:36.544 --> 01:33:37.744
NIH need us!

1262
01:33:37.845 --> 01:33:39.145
Got no...

1263
01:33:39.246 --> 01:33:43.049
We did it, and
nobody gives a shit.

1264
01:33:43.150 --> 01:33:44.351
MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS:
It's now or never.

1265
01:33:44.452 --> 01:33:47.454
I mean, I don't want her
stories to die with me either.

1266
01:33:47.555 --> 01:33:50.290
MAN: I believe in the gay power.

1267
01:33:50.391 --> 01:33:52.759
I believe in us
getting our rights

1268
01:33:52.860 --> 01:33:56.730
or else I would not be out
there fighting for our rights.

1269
01:33:56.831 --> 01:33:58.198
Revolution now!

1270
01:34:06.741 --> 01:34:09.643
GEORGE: I was in full drag, and
these two little young queens

1271
01:34:09.744 --> 01:34:10.844
came up to me.

1272
01:34:10.945 --> 01:34:13.313
And they said, you know,
we don't realize what you

1273
01:34:13.414 --> 01:34:17.417
older gay men went
through that allows

1274
01:34:17.518 --> 01:34:20.387
us to do and be as we are now.

1275
01:34:20.488 --> 01:34:23.823
And it was very nice
to hear that because we

1276
01:34:23.924 --> 01:34:25.358
thought nothing of
doing it because we

1277
01:34:25.459 --> 01:34:26.860
were doing it for ourselves.

1278
01:34:26.961 --> 01:34:28.328
We didn't realize
that we were doing

1279
01:34:28.429 --> 01:34:29.663
it for the next generations.

1280
01:34:35.169 --> 01:34:40.373
People fought and risked
their lives and, in some cases,

1281
01:34:40.474 --> 01:34:43.343
lost their lives to
win what we've won.

1282
01:34:58.025 --> 01:35:00.627
RENO MARTIN: Well, it looks
like it's just about time to end

1283
01:35:00.728 --> 01:35:02.295
our rendezvous for today.

1284
01:35:02.396 --> 01:35:05.832
This is Reno Martin saying
thanks for listening.

1285
01:35:05.933 --> 01:35:08.768
[music playing]

1286
01:35:56.150 --> 01:35:59.185
This is Reno Martin saying
so long until tomorrow

1287
01:35:59.286 --> 01:36:01.621
when we'll rendezvous
with the stars.

1288
01:36:11.999 --> 01:36:13.733
ACTOR AS BILLIE: Dear Reno...

1289
01:36:13.834 --> 01:36:15.869
Please forgive me for
not writing sooner.

1290
01:36:17.872 --> 01:36:21.708
I feel awful, Reno, not being
able to say goodbye to you.

1291
01:36:21.809 --> 01:36:24.944
I didn't find out you
left until days after.

1292
01:36:25.045 --> 01:36:26.980
I didn't even have your address.

1293
01:36:27.081 --> 01:36:29.149
I called up Daphne and got it.

1294
01:36:29.250 --> 01:36:31.818
Well, Reno, take
care of yourself

1295
01:36:31.919 --> 01:36:34.320
and forgive me for
not writing you.

1296
01:36:34.421 --> 01:36:35.555
I miss you.

1297
01:36:35.656 --> 01:36:37.090
Your friend, Billy.

1298
01:36:38.392 --> 01:36:40.126
INTERVIEWER: Whatever
happened to Billy?

1299
01:36:41.495 --> 01:36:42.195
He was murdered.

1300
01:36:54.041 --> 01:36:58.211
This kid, when he found
out, went to the kitchen,

1301
01:36:58.312 --> 01:37:00.413
grabbed a knife, and
stabbed him to death.

1302
01:37:02.316 --> 01:37:07.887
It made me sick to think that
you survived everything else

1303
01:37:07.988 --> 01:37:11.124
from strangers and
tough times, whatever,

1304
01:37:11.225 --> 01:37:14.360
and now the closest person
to you is going to kill you.

1305
01:37:29.810 --> 01:37:31.344
ACTOR AS JOSEPHINE: Hi there.

1306
01:37:31.445 --> 01:37:33.713
Sorry I couldn't write sooner.

1307
01:37:33.814 --> 01:37:36.216
Here's hoping to find
you in good spirits.

1308
01:37:36.317 --> 01:37:39.786
Well, the beach is
marvelous to say the least.

1309
01:37:39.887 --> 01:37:43.623
The weather is fantastic,
every night so far in the 80s.

1310
01:37:43.724 --> 01:37:44.724
Very romantic.

1311
01:37:46.227 --> 01:37:48.094
There's so much loot
to be made down here

1312
01:37:48.195 --> 01:37:51.631
if you're a call girl, but I'm
afraid I threw in the heels

1313
01:37:51.732 --> 01:37:53.566
for a while.

1314
01:37:53.667 --> 01:37:56.369
Well, René, I have
to close for now.

1315
01:37:56.470 --> 01:37:57.937
I'll write you soon.

1316
01:37:58.038 --> 01:37:59.572
Regards, Josephine.

1317
01:38:03.978 --> 01:38:05.245
CLAUDE: Josephine died of AIDS.

1318
01:38:07.248 --> 01:38:15.088
And when he died,
his family refused

1319
01:38:15.189 --> 01:38:18.524
to let any of his friends
come to the funeral.

1320
01:38:22.029 --> 01:38:27.033
If I had known in time,
I think his mother

1321
01:38:27.134 --> 01:38:28.835
would have let me come.

1322
01:38:31.338 --> 01:38:36.109
And I blame myself
a lot for that.

1323
01:38:36.210 --> 01:38:41.681
I lost track of
who I really was,

1324
01:38:41.782 --> 01:38:45.351
and that's something that
I live with every day.

1325
01:38:49.823 --> 01:38:51.624
I don't want to talk
about that any more.

1326
01:39:10.177 --> 01:39:11.377
ACTOR AS CHARLIE: Dear Reno...

1327
01:39:11.478 --> 01:39:13.446
Glad to hear you're doing well.

1328
01:39:13.547 --> 01:39:14.981
Your friends called.

1329
01:39:15.082 --> 01:39:18.217
I told them you moved
to California for good.

1330
01:39:18.319 --> 01:39:22.388
As for settling down to pipe
and slippers, forget it.

1331
01:39:22.489 --> 01:39:26.960
Once a "bomatza,"
always a "bomatza."

1332
01:39:27.061 --> 01:39:29.729
Well, I must dash.

1333
01:39:29.830 --> 01:39:33.366
Take care, stay
well, and write soon.

1334
01:39:33.467 --> 01:39:35.535
Your friend always, Charlie.

1335
01:39:46.880 --> 01:39:48.514
ACTOR AS DAPHNE: Dear Reno...

1336
01:39:48.615 --> 01:39:50.383
I'm typing this
letter at work, and

1337
01:39:50.484 --> 01:39:52.752
the only reason I'm not
writing it out in longhand

1338
01:39:52.853 --> 01:39:54.354
is to fool my boss.

1339
01:39:54.455 --> 01:39:56.956
He thinks I'm doing
my regular work.

1340
01:39:57.057 --> 01:39:59.225
Remember that beauty, Ace?

1341
01:39:59.326 --> 01:40:01.260
Well, he was back in town.

1342
01:40:01.362 --> 01:40:03.096
He digs Josephine.

1343
01:40:03.197 --> 01:40:06.699
He asked about her
and you, of course.

1344
01:40:06.800 --> 01:40:09.435
They all asked about you.

1345
01:40:09.536 --> 01:40:13.239
I've really got to be going
now, it's way past my time.

1346
01:40:13.340 --> 01:40:16.342
And besides, this documentary
is practically long

1347
01:40:16.443 --> 01:40:18.611
enough for book publication.

1348
01:40:18.712 --> 01:40:21.047
I'm hoping you are in fine
health and good spirits

1349
01:40:21.148 --> 01:40:22.548
when this autobiography arrives.

1350
01:40:23.951 --> 01:40:25.918
La de da for now.

1351
01:40:26.020 --> 01:40:28.921
Love, as always, Daphne.

1352
01:40:53.647 --> 01:41:00.219
My name is Michael Alagna,
but my real name is Daphne.

1353
01:41:08.429 --> 01:41:11.964
[music playing]