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"Gone With the Showboat to Oklahoma"
Photo by Robert Altman
The Cockettes were a psychedelic drag queen troupe founded by Hibiscus, aka George Harris. The first performance of the Cockettes took place on New Years Eve, 1969 (December 31, 1969) at the Palace Theatre in San Francisco, combining intricate LSD-influenced choreography, set design, costumes and their own versions of show tunes or original tunes in the same vein. Initially, they performed about once every six weeks, performing on stage prior to the Saturday midnight Nocturnal Dream Show of underground films at the Palace Theatre on the corner of Columbus and Union in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.
John Waters' screen diva Divine was a member of the group, as well as Tomata duPlenty, who went on to sing in the seminal L.A. synthpunk band, the Screamers. 70's disco diva Sylvester was also a member, and later dropped out of the troupe to form his own band. He appeared as the opening act for the first week of the Cockettes run at the Anderson theatre in New York City, in November of 1971. Unfortunately, the show got bad reviews.
The Cockettes came back to San Francisco and they performed their final show in summer 1972, "Journey to the Center of Uranus" (In this show, Divine played the star role of "The Crab at the Center of Uranus".). Other core members of the Cockettes were Link (aka Luther Cupp), Gary Cherry, Rumi Missabu, Goldie Glitters, John Rothermel, "Johnny Cockette", Sweet Pam (aka Pam Tent), Martin Worman, Scrumbly Koldewyn (who wrote tunes to Link's or Martin's lyrics), Fayette, Daniel Ware, Dusty Dawn, Linden, Brent Jensen, Pristine Condition, Reggie (aka Anton Dunigan), and Kreemah Ritz. Many other people too numerous to mention performed in only one or two shows.
The Cockettes were credited at the time with being a huge influence on gay liberation: The term "genderfuck" was coined about them to express what one might make of a drag queen with a beard and a glittered penis.
The Cockettes were the subject of a 2002 documentary, also called The Cockettes.
Bibliography
Tent, Pam (2004). Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette. Los Angeles:Alyson Books. ISBN 1-55583-874-X
External link
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