#265 Absolutely Flawless: A History of Drag in New York City

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Television audiences are currently obsessed with shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and FX's Pose, presenting different angles on the profession and art of drag. New York City has been crucial to its current moment in pop culture and people have been performing and enjoy drag performers in this city for over 120 years. In the beginning there were two styles of drag -- vaudeville and ballroom. As female impersonators filled Broadway theaters -- one theater is even named for a famed gender illusionist -- thrill seekers were heading to the balls of Greenwich Village and Harlem. By the 1930s, the gay scene began retreating into the shadows, governed by mob control and harshly policed. By design, drag became political. It also became a huge counter-cultural influence in the late 1960s -- from the glamour of Andy Warhol's superstars to the jubilant schtick of Charles Busch. But it was the 1980s that brought the most significant influences to our current pop cultural moment. Joining Greg on this show are two experts on two late 80s/early 90s scenes -- Felix Rodriguez, a videographer of the ballroom culture (made famous by the film Paris Is Burning) and Linda Simpson, one of the great queens of East Village drag. FEATURING: Drag kings! Wigstock! And the famous drag queen who got struck by lightning. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 265, the history of drag in New York City.
0:06.0	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:11.0	Hey, support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:16.0	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:25.0	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:28.0	Tom Meyers was supposed to be here for this show.
0:32.0	But unfortunately he had an urgent family emergency and was called away just a couple days ago.
0:38.0	So I am very heartbroken as we have both actually been working on this show for quite some time for a few months actually.
0:46.0	And we're definitely going to miss him here today.
0:49.0	The profession of drag is the subject of this week's show.
0:54.0	Gender illusionists, costume entertainers that span the visual gamut from supermodel to rodeo clown.
1:03.0	Drag queens have entertained millions from fire island to the Castro, from Paris to Rio de Janeiro.
1:10.0	Drag is amusement, political and cultural statement, performing art and rebellion.
1:17.0	Today, thanks to RuPaul's Drag Race, it's also an increasingly accepted art form.
1:23.0	New York City is at the center of drag history.
1:27.0	Performers influenced by the city's rhythms and its own history have redefined this craft for decades,
1:34.0	from the West Village to Harlem, from city Bowry Dives to the heights of the Broadway stage.
1:41.0	In this show, I'll present to you almost 120 years of drag legacy, from all aspects of New York's cultural scene.
1:51.0	And I won't be alone on stage here.
1:54.0	Two major movements in drag culture were specifically born here in New York in the 1980s.
2:00.0	And to help me tell these stories, two individuals who documented those scenes.
2:06.0	Felix Rodriguez, a videographer formally of the ballroom house of Milan,
	...

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