The year 1961 saw the creation of two of Washington's first organized LGBT groups, the Mattachine Society of Washington and the Oscars.  The Academy Awards of Washington, an amalgam of Oscars members and Awards Club (1965) members, incorporated in 1973 in Washington, DC, provides secure venues, mentoring, and a structure for female impersonators in the area.  It is one of the oldest and most enduring organizations in the nation to provide support for female and male impersonators.
 

Drag in DC

Washington is a city of drag queens and kings.  Drag is popular in DC.  By the late 90s, Washington, DC had nearly 40 weekly drag shows, more than New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta or LA.  The Drag Rag, a short-lived periodical of the late 90s, chronicled the city’s drag scene.

This is the town where Avis Pend’avis, founder of New York’s famous House of Pend’avis got her start and learned her art.  DC’s impresario female impersonators created the first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered social and support group.  In the 30s and 40s, Louis ‘the Magnificent’ Diggs entertained at what is now Bohemian Caverns.  The irrepressible Ray Bourbon captivated audiences at the Redskin Lounge on L St NW.  The Jewel Box Review, Craig Russell, Dame Edna, RuPaul and others have followed those leads.

Drag shows have been major entertainment here for decades.  Their performers have led the fundraising for community organizations and continue to raise funds for each other when illness or bad luck strikes.  Washington’s Academy has made an indelible mark on the development of drag, training its leaders and giving structure to an often disparate community.

Until the 60s, a Washingtonian seeking to express an alternated drag persona could often only express his or her drag persona in private.  Though drag was not illegal in Washington, there were few opportunities for public drag apart from Halloween revels.  Major hotels would not rent space for drag events.  Clubs wouldn’t allow customers in drag.  The one refuge was private drag house parties, private drag balls at clubs hired for the purpose, and private drag cruises on the Potomac.

Halloween at the Chicken Hut, Mame Dennis with Howard Cooper the pianist

Some regular house parties became institutionalized as drag ‘houses’ and ‘families’.  The leader, or ‘mother’, often provided not only the opportunity for parties but also instruction and mentoring in the arts of make-up, selecting clothes, lip-synching, portraying a personality, walking, and related skills.  Those taught became ‘drag daughters’, who in turn mentored others, creating entire ‘drag families’.   Drag houses became the first social support groups in the city’s gay and lesbian community.  House names often came from addresses of the house ‘mother’, such as Mother Billy Bonhill’s Belmont House at 15th and Belmont NW, or associations with the ‘mother’s’ chosen personality, as Mame Dennis’s Beekman Place.

Alan Kress created the city’s first drag organization based in large part on those attending parties at his Hollywood House.  Kress, better known as Liz Taylor, noted “I strived to mold an elite group of people whose social life would center around drag.” In the late summer of 1961, Liz Taylor organized a group to make annual awards, called “Oscars” recognizing female impersonations.  The first Oscars awards came in 1962:  Best Actor and Best Actress. Leading local female impersonator, Jerry Buskirk, aka Beulah transformed Ken Frye’s Costume Ball into the Miss Gaye America title in 1962.  The Miss Gaye Universe title was first awarded in 1965 by the Oscars group.

                Liz Taylor at home

During the 60s, Washington’s Buskirk, Alan Kress, Alex Carlino (aka Fanny Brice), Carl Rizzi (aka Mame Dennis), Mark Stewart (aka Patty Duke) in Baltimore, and Ken White (aka Black Pearl), emerged as leading figures in the drag community.  As the community of female impersonators, or ‘drags’, grew and staged annual competitions, these leaders became mothers of their own houses: Fanny Brice led Henry Street, Mame Dennis led Beekman Place, Beulah led Family Affair, Liz Taylor led Butterfield 8, Patty Duke led Maryland House, and Kim Novak led Paramount Plaza.

A rift in the mid-60s split the Oscars group.  Withdrawing from Taylor’s Oscars in 1965, Beulah Buskirk created the Awards Club with its own Emmy awards.  Mame Dennis’s Beekman Place and Brice’s Henry Street joined the Awards Club.

Venues for drag shows and competitions were a constant challenge in the 1960s.  The Uptown Lounge sponsored monthly drag contests, an event later duplicated at Johnnie’s on Capitol Hill.  Chunga’s drag shows at the Golden Key Club in North Beach, MD were a popular Sunday event.  The major hotels’ resistance to drag events was not broken until February 1968 when African-American drag impresario Black Pearl staged the gala Black Pearl International Awards at the Washington Hilton.  It was the drag event of the year.

For African American drag artists in the mid-60s, Bob’s Inn on upper 14th St. NW became a performance site.  Rosetta Minor’s ‘Black’ Nugget club at 14th and Chapin NW was one of the few clubs to provide a haven for African American drag queens and transgendered people. African American social clubs also provided a private outlet for drag with drag fashion shows and entertainment.

The 70s liberated local drag with an explosive increase in clubs featuring drag shows.  For club owners, drag entertainment offered an inexpensive way to draw customers: performers provided their own costumes, make-up, and music; the clubs provided space and a sound system.  For female illusionists the clubs offered a performance space and an enthusiastic public. Clubs rarely paid performers.  Drag stars collected their ‘coins’ (tips) from the audience.

In 1973, club-owner Bill Oates brokered creation of the Academy Awards, a reunion of drag houses from both the Oscars group and the Awards Club. The Awards Club itself and its Emmy awards continued as an independent organization through 1988. The Academy Awards (now The Academy of Washington) began a period of creative expansion. It created its own performance space, Oscar’s Eye, on the third floor of Louie’s club at 9th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW.  The Academy also played a major role in staging events at Washington’s gay cabaret, Waaay Off Broadway.

The Academy's Houses in 1976

New club venues drew some of organized drag’s most talented performers to headline shows.  Many of these headliners learned their skills in the Oscars group, the Awards Club and later the Academy.  Club shows, such as those at Bachelor’s Mill, Mr. P’s, Nob Hill, the Rogue, Remington’s, and Ziegfeld’s, became training grounds for club performers. Among leading club drag mothers, many veterans of the Oscars and the Awards Club houses, were Adrienne Blackwell (Nob Hill), Xavier Bloomingdale (Mr. P’s and Club Chaos), Ella Fitzgerald (Plus One, the Rogue, the Other Side, Ziegfeld’s), Erica Kane (Mr. P’s), Sparkle Maharris (Rascal’s), Tina Santana, and Dana Terrell.  Each trained and mentored upcoming performers, many of whom took the drag mother’s surname.

In the 80s and 90s, drag specialized.  Clubs oriented to specific interests emerged.  African American performers and customers frequented the Nob Hill and Bachelor’s Mill clubs. Lesbian clubs, the Other Side and Élan, offered drag evenings. In the 90s, Latino audiences and performers attended shows at Escandalo/Deco Cabano, Ardiente, and Chaos.  Drag clubs with a country-western flavor have  included Remington’s, Sheridan’s, the Hunt Club and Freddie’s.

                                                      

With multiple club and hotel venues for drag came club and city-wide drag titles.  In the 70s and 80s the proliferation of club drag sites spawned multiple club contests.  The city’s annual Pride fest also added an annual drag title in the 90s.

Washington, DC soon became a major participant in national drag pageants.  Marc King organized citywide preliminary titles for the Miss Gay DC pageant, itself a preliminary for the national Miss Gay America title, one of the country’s major drag pageant circuits.  A number of club and other local pageant titles such as Miss Bachelor's Mill, Miss Ziegfeld's, and Miss Sweetheart have been preliminaries for the city title.

Three local performers have held the Miss Gay America title since 1998: Maya Montana, Linda Carrero, and Sabrina White.  There are now annual pageant circuits for Latino performers, African American performers, and preliminaries for other national pageant circuits. The Carrero (drag) sisters, Linda and Sophia Carrero, created a local pageant circuit for Latino female impersonators.

Washington has become a city of drag kings in the past decade.  In 1966, Cheryl Spector inspired the first Drag King contest at the Hung Jury.  In the decade since, DC’s Club Chaos has hosted first Wednesday drag king shows, one of the country’s longest running drag king events. With leadership from Kendra Kuliga, aka Ken Las Vegas, the city has developed its own drag king circuit.

Washington’s drag community has always been a major fundraiser for the GLBT community.  Fanny Brice’s Showstoppers show raised funds for many city events and GLBT institutions.  The Academy itself has raised thousands of dollars for its own members and for GLBT organizations and is a partner with the leather community in the Brother, Help Thyself foundation.  Club drag shows have also raised funds for ailing performers and for city organizations.
 

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