The Drag Queen and The Mummy

W.E.B.
Du Bois Institute
The Drag Queen and the Mummy Author(s): Edward Conlon Source: Transition, No. 65 (1995), pp. 4-24 Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2935316 . Accessed: 20/11/2013 08:14
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Indiana University Press and W.E.B. Du Bois Institute are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transition.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 193.55.175.20 on Wed, 20 Nov 2013 08:14:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
T R A N S IT I ON
Position
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
man in her closet The late star of Paris Is Burning and the mystery
Edward Conlon
The apartment on West 140th Street in Harlem was filled with bolts of fabric, feathers, sequins and beads, headdresses, tailpieces, and elaborate gowns which were thrifty facsimiles of exorbitant foreign fashions. A prior tenant was a drag performer who also had a business as a dress and costume designer, and she-polite usage requires the feminine pronoun-required clothing for theatrical, millinery, and everyday use. The apartment was not large and, in addition to her considerable personal effects, contained the belongings of her boyfriend and his brother. But whatever the clutter and overcrowding, the remark by a sergeant from the local precinct that "You could lose a small child in there," was both a truism and an understatement,becausethe body of a grown man had been concealed there for years. The drag performer was named Dorian Corey, and she thus inspired three headlines in 1993, in even, two-month intervals-a coup for any entertainer,but something of a triumph when the first story was her obituary. Corey was a principal subject of Paris Is Burning, a successful and acclaimed documentary about the drag balls of Harlem, and when she died last August, at the age of fifty-six, the New York Times ran a picture of her in drag, the first and only time it has ever done so. In October, two men went to her apartment in hope of finding a costume for Halloween. Their search, led by a friend of the deceased's, took them to a large closet space, the size of a small bedroom. Finding nothing to their immediate satisfaction among the dresses and costumes, they were intriguedby the sight of a large, musty garmentbag. They asked permission to open it and received casual approvalto do so. Inside, they discovered the mummified body of a man, bound up and wrapped in plastic, folded into the fetal position with a bullet hole in his head. He was identifiedas a onetime Bronx
Dorian Corey
Brian Lantelme
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
I
I
'r
who was lastseenby his brother resident around1968. The incidentwas the sort of gory but routine oddity that rates a tabloid farfromthe first buried paragraph, page. For some reason,it was not until Decemberthat Dorian Corey was connectedwith the story,when it madethe Post before gossipcolumnof theNewYork Chi beingpickedup by the wire services. Chi Valenti, a hostess and producerat variousdowntownnightclubs, was quoted saying "This makesher more legendaryin deaththan she was in life." The word "legend"is one of the thematic compasses of ParisIs Burning, and in the it is invoked dual sense of great stature anddubious reality.It takesits title froma dragballof the samename,which washeld in anElk'sClubon 129thStreet in Harlem,andit too is a hub of doubled the capitolof black andtripledmeanings: America as the City of Light,its burning suggestiveof a sudden fashionabledeannihilamand as well as a progressive tion. The legendsarethe eminences, gray and otherwise,of the drag scene, who arriveand endurein statusby force of andperformance. At the balls, personality andthe they "walk"in various categories, dames"who modelled original"grandes on figures fromLubitsch themselves films or Las Vegas floor shows became,over time, only a smallpartof an eclecticpageant of talentsand tastes.The old divas whosecostumes muchmovement forbade the beyond statuesqueentrance were dancers andvoguers,who joinedby break fluidlymovedthroughthe histrionic,almost hieroglyphicposes of fashionphoAs the expansion continuedto tography. an egalitarian extreme,ostensiblymundane categoriessuch as Executive,Colare lege, and even Homeboy"Realness"
lent pathosandbiteby the sensethatthey lives that areas out of reachto represent realm the walkersas those in the rarefied of celebrity.For some, the exclusionis final, beyond mediation.Others perfect theposein orderto rejectit, so thatwhich for others is the laborof a lifetime bedone comes a light-operatic amusement, and dispensedwith in a moment. The and cut deep. ironiesaredouble-edged,
WhenI grew up, you wanted to look like MarleneDietrich,Betty Grable.I didn't know I reallywanted to look like LenaHome
The film was attacked by the AfricanAmerican scholarBell Hooks as exploitof poor ative,andthe immediate prospect black men who want to be wealthy and famouswhite women suggests,at least,a of acute maladjustment. But subculture of the of the more devotees agmany theatrical aresecure categories gressively in theirunderstanding thatthe walk, and the life, is a performance, an artform, suffusedwith a senseof fun andplay, howin purpose everserious andexpertin craft. The breach betweenlife, on andoff-stage, lendsa tensionthat is vibrantly explored: an off-duty drag queen, unshaven,in a t-shirtandjeans, might not look so differentfrom an off-dutyfireman.Others seek to put as much distanceas possible between them and their originalcondition, through hormone treatmentsand a medicaltransformation breast implants, whose radical conclutowardfemaleness
sion is referred to as "the change."
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
The ambitionsof the ball-goersveer betweenbold dreamand pure delirium. Somehavea talent;others,merelya wish. The ratherseveredivide between those who fail and those who do not seemsto lie in whetheronewantsto do something, or simply be something. Willie Ninja sought celebrityas a dancerand chorehe hasatandin largemeasure ographer, tainedit in the fashionand musicindustries.A slim, knobbyblonde namedVenus Xtravaganza,on the other hand, wantedto be a "richwhite girl," and a famousactress or model;she alsowanted to be "loved,takencareof, spoiled,"and in a church,wearingwhite. But married Venuswasequidistant fromthe worldsof NormanRockwell and ParisMatch,and as unlikelyto attainconventional fameas she was to makea conventional home. A teenagerunaway,she admittedthat she once hustled but demurelyinsisted the of that life persuaded her to put dangers it behindher.Shemightseea "veryhandsomeyounggentleman" on occasion, who might give her some money "to buy a or someshoes,to makemyselfmore dress, beautiful."Most of the time-"99 percent, or ah, 95"-there was no sex exchangedfor the money, and in any case, it wasno different fromwhat sheinsisted, a housewifedoesfor a new washer-dryer. While she mayhavebeen makingajoke at the expenseof the camera, it would be wrongto believethatshewasin anything in a culturesteepedin but deadlyearnest; the doubleentendre,it is the rarestateA friend mentwhosemeaning is unmixed. tells of her unambiguous ending:Venus was strangled in a motel room, and days her before body was found. passed In spite of its tough-mindedness, its countlesslessons in hard luck, the ball
world sees the largerworld, at least in potential,as a place of delicacyand exquisitepromise.Throughoutthe tesselof latedpatternof the film, its fragments livesbrokenor neverwhole, the motif of indignantoptimismis almostperversely repeated."Life hasn'tbeen fair to me," said one queen, relaxing in a negligee,
"Not yet." Paris Is Burning treads the minefields of race, class, and sex with a light and stylish step, provoking without crude polemic and letting the subjects tell of their predicament with aching poignancy and a sometimes refulgent wit. Its most compelling presence is Dorian Corey. Almost fifty at the time of the filming, she was a generation older than most of the subjects; given the velocity of the life-cycle in that milieu, perhaps more than two generations older. Tall and plump, lightskinned,with a smooth and rueful, smokeburnished voice, she speaks, for the most part, as she looks at the mirror, daubing on eye shadow and rouge. Amid the vanities and mockeries, hers is a singularly generous perspective, self-possessed and self-assured but never dismissive or jeal-
The detritus of a lifetime: Dorian's apa. Inient on West 140th St. in Harlem
Brian Lantelme
AND THE MUMMY 7 THE DRAG QUEEN This content downloaded from 193.55.175.20 on Wed, 20 Nov 2013 08:14:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ousof hercompetitors. an Coreysketches astuteoverview of the cultureand customs of the balls,providinga lucidview into its festivityand bitterfeuds.While the youngercrowdis franklymercenary, an oldCoreyis refreshingly retrograde, time Broadwaytrouperwith a rugged workethic,a shrewdsenseof historyand a knackfor pleasingthe crowd.The generational areas differpointsof reference asCindyCrawent,in eraanddimension, ford and Sarah Vaughn. "With the currentchildren,the childrenthatareyoung,they'vegone to television,you know,"she muses."I'vebeen to several ballsandthey actually had catYou know,theywant egories-'Dynasty!' to to look like Alexis, or Crystal. you try I guessthat's of the times. just a statement When I grewup,you wantedto look like MarleneDietrich, Betty Grable.UnforI didn'tknow thatI reallywanttunately, ed to look like LenaHome. When I grew were up, of course,you know, blackstars wanted to look like stigmatized. Nobody LenaHome. Everybody wantedto look like MarilynMonroe." The criticism,or connoisseurship, of the gay life uptown is never madefrom anarrogant andrisks remove,asthe stakes are ones she has undertakenherself: "When you're undetectable, when they can walk out of that ballroominto the sunlight,and onto the subway,and get home, andstill have all their clothesand no bloodrunningoff theirbodies-those arethe femmerealness queens."And the while is also hardundeniable, frivolity, won: "Daytimes,if they go out they're only goingoutto tryto hustleupa quarter or two, to get theirthingsfor the ball, or go to littlejobs. A lot of them havelittle jobs,theywork-don't thinkthey'relazy.
In New York City, you work or you starve. You work, some kind of work, legal or otherwise, but you have to work to sustain yourself." But Corey also has an acuity of insight that makes many of her observations resonate beyond the world of the balls. She translates in a way that the street corner carollers of "All I want for Christmas is my two, front tits" do not. "If you have on a label, it means that you've got wealth, when it doesn't really. Because any shoplifter can get a label," she said, noting a trend that was hardly confined to her own subculture."(There) was a time when you could spend a great deal of time making outfits, and preparingfor something. Now they come very quickly. And the moods change, very quickly. But I come from the old school of big costumes-feathers and beads. And they don't have that anymore. Now its all about designers. And it's not about what you create, it's about what you can acquire." Jennie Livingston, who produced and directed Paris Is Burning, recalls meeting Dorian Corey in 1985 or 1986, just after moving to New York after graduating from Yale. She noticed the dancers in Washington Square Park and, intrigued, began to go to the balls. She began filming in 1987, in part at Dorian's apartment at 150th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, which Livingston recalls as "quite a neighborhood": "The first shoot we did, there was a gun battle right outside. And there were crew members in the van, and they had to go down to the floor of the van so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire."Corey moved to another apartment, ten blocks down, around 1988, and Livingston was relieved to continue her visits in less hazardousterritory. "We got
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
to be friends,and I'd go up to her place to play scrabble, which was something she likedquitea bit. Shealwayshada TV set or two going on. She was alwaysone of the moreentertaining peopleI've met, she was greatto hang out with." Dorian Corey studiedat the Parsons School of Design, and had a successful businessas a dressmaker and costumer, to both the ball world andthe local selling community.LoisTaylor,anotherfriend,
"Didn'twe meet last night at Riker's Island?"

saidthat she was an exceptionalgraphic artist.In her vivid phrase,"Doriancould painther ass off." But Corey considered herselfan entertainer first,andfor several she all travelled over the country years with a drag show called the Pearl Box Revue.Shedanced with a boaconstrictor, and laterregaledfriendswith anecdotes of the suddenmoods and inconvenient deathsof the snakes.Jessie Torres, another friend, managedto communicate the impressionit must have made: "It would bite her, affectionately. She was but it was of the act." bleeding, part Dorian performed most often at II, a TimesSquare Sally's dragclub,where she lip-synched and sometimesservedas mistress of ceremonies. Betweensongs,said "a Livingston,she did great,slightly insulting sort of patter,a kind of AfricanAmericanverbal eloquence with a gay camp sensibility, one-upping someone before they got you." The lush, dark satiresof the forties and fifties, such as
SunsetBoulevard and All AboutEve, could
be quoted at length, and a heckler, or someone who merely caught her eye,
"Didn't we meetlastnight mightbeasked, at RikersIsland?" Sally'sis on West 43rd Street,across fromthe New York Times andnext to the Hotel Carter,which advertisesits $49 nightly rate as "cheaperthan most cab rides."On the stairs which leadup to the memorabilia anda bar,thereis theatrical for the next week's entertainprogram ment, which features Go-Go Boys, MotherHerselfSally,andDorianCorey's Drag Doll Revue.Aroundthe dark,circularbar,red-litfrom above,the patrons were roughly, evenly divided between drag queens and their admirers.Some queens succeeded admirably in their "realness," elegantor funky but impeccablyfeminine;otherswere aging endomorphsin helmets of platinumblonde, with gothic mascara and powdercaking about the dewlaps.The sartorialmales werejust as diverse,a "gorgeous mosaic" sent up from central casting: a young toughin a white t-shirt'and leatherjacket, a classic Brooklyn cornerboy with"Heya doin'!"-accent to match; two athleticyoung blackmen, in sweatpants andwindbreakers, who looked like high schoolfootballcoaches; a suitedexecutive and a goateedbohemian;a middle-aged manwith a long beardand thick glasses, in a white shirtandblackgabardine suit, with an anomalous blue baseball cap:an Orthodox a as Mets fan, or Jew disguised a Metsfandisguised as an Orthodox Jew. The music was a deafeningalternation betweenbump-and-grind disco and sentimentalballads.Whitney Houstonwas a favorite, aswas"AWhole New World," the themesongfromAladdin, andperhaps as well. Below the bar is the stage, Sally's with gold tinsel on the curtainand gold records fromthe glitter-dusted suspended
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
ceiling. White plasticpicnic chairsline the peeling walls and surround a dozenodd fiberboard tables.The atmosphere is both seedyand earnest,its almostcomidecadence with an undercut callyoverripe idealism. insistent,stage-struck Raphaela, husky-voiced and Latin, with long, straight blackhairanda black was miniskirt, pointedout asanold friend of Dorian's.Raphaelastruttedwith deceptivespeed,and had finisheda lap and a half aroundthe barbeforeI caughtup with her. A tap on the shoulderbrought a sensuous, in avoice "Hello!" polysyllabic that droppedhalf an octave when press credentials were rapidlypresented: "Oh. Sure." SheknewDorianforovertenyears, andrecalls heras"Fabulous!" When asked whatDorian's favorite songwas,shebelted out, "I ... can't stop thinkin'about you, baby!" The conversation ended somewhat abruptly,as Raphaelagrew somewhat andalsoattempted teary-eyed, to frisk the interviewer,"to make sure you'renot a cop." Jessie Torres, who lived with the eponymous Sallyfor over ten years,now the manages club. She was a close friend of Corey,"notfamily, butoneof thegirls." She remembers her as prodigiouslytalandengaging:"You ented,kind-hearted, would be somewhere serious and she would crackyou up. She had the gift of the gab.Shewas a headliner, evenbefore Paris IsBurning. Shewaswhatpeoplecame to see." Her costumescombinedexpert skill and extravagant fantasy,andJessie recalls "dresseslike chandeliers,"centaurs, wolf-women, and Marie Antoinette, completewith guillotine."When people come to a dragshow, they don't want to see a dressthat couldbe bought on 34th Street." aswell, Dorian Offstage,
could not be takenlightly: "Shelived in a hardcore andhadto take neighborhood, careof herself." "Therewas definitelyan edge, a hard edge," agreedLivingston."The life she led was not easy although she made a greatgo of it, and had everythingpretty well worked out, particularly compared to otherpeople in that world. She'dsurvived and gone on and found a way of living the way shewantedto live. Dorian hada lot of talentandan abilityto parlay her-I don'tknow if it's a needor a propensity,howeveryou wantto sayit-she wasn'ttransgender in a waythat certainly Venuswas transgender, but to parlayher andherlove fordraginto campsensibility survival. Not aneasything to do. Shewas a hardperson, because she'dbeenthrough some hardthings, and she said a lot of nastythings behindpeoples'backs-you wonderedwhat she saidaboutyou when you leftthe room.ThatI thinkgoesalong with the wit, the pickingthe worldapart, asa way of remaining Andclear dignified. aboutwho you are." Who she was, originally,was FrederickLegg, a boy raisedin relativecomfort on a farmoutsideof Buffalo.Asked if there was any contactwith the Legg family,Livingstonsaid,"Not much, not much.I thinkthe cordhadbeen cut. She talked about 'the farm,' and the wood because she was stove,andthe memories, not originallyan urbanperson.But she didn'ttalkto me aboutparticular people, it was somethingshe definitelyput behindher.Therearepeoplewho canwalk on backhome and say 'Hi, what do you thinkof my tits andmy spangled gown?' And there are people who can't. Most people can't." Forthe lastelevenyears, shelivedwith
10
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
Dorian lip-synching to Regina Bell's "If I Could" at her final perfolrunance, May 8, 1993
Brian Lantelme
a mannamedLeon,a thirty-five yearold employeeof the trophyshop,which supfor the balls.They met at a plies awards andmovedin tobarnearTimes Square, In the wordsof one not after. gether long friend,theywere"anunlikelycouple.An odd match.But they were together,and therewasa homethere,andsomecomfort there." There was a slight tremble in Leon'svoice when he spoke of Dorian, and most of his answersdid not extend beyond one or two words. He recalled that her favoritesingerwas EarthaKitt, a particular butcouldnot remember song,
or anyjokes she told on stage."I moved in with Dorianbeforemy parents moved out of the city," he said. "She always helpedme out when I wasdown andout, to get you know, when I neededcarfare to work and all. I loved Dorian very much." Dorian Corey was diagnosed with AIDS not long beforethe releaseof Paris Is Burning, and though she went on one last tour in the wake of publicityfor the film, she was hospitalized intermittently duringthe three yearsbefore her death. Livingstonwas disturbed by the lack of
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
11
visitors when she was sick, but Lois Taylor, who said she was the reigning Mother of the House of Corey, said that she wanted still less, preferring to be left alone. They agreed that her treatment at the hospital was "appalling," with the strain of terminal illness exacerbated by what they considered callous treatment by her physicians. Nor was Dorian a tractable patient. Taylor said she often had to "outslick" her just to get her to speak with her doctor. She continued to drink, and Livingston was torn between the desire to make her kick a bad habit and the wish to see her as comfortable as possible in her last days. When she asked for a prescription for tranquilizers, in the hope that Corey would switch to a less toxic balm for her nerves, she was told, "You know, that's habit-forming." A promised move to a specialized AIDS unit never materialized. In August of 1993 she slipped into a coma and died several days later. After her cremation, a memorial service was hosted by Sally and Jessie Torres at the club. "Dorian was just there for a lot of people," said Torres. "We played a couple of songs in her honor-Patti Labelle, 'You Are My Friend,' Regina Belle, 'If I Could.' People from all over came, from all walks. She was very well-liked, and had a wit about her, a humor. She was very theatrical, she could do anything. She was a very specialperson, very special. Dorian was Dorian, just legendary." Two months later, after two men expressedan interest in having a look around Dorian's apartment for Halloween costumes, Lois Taylor agreed to show them around.Taylor saidthat they were straight men, looking for a black cape for a vampire costume. In the closet, they came
across "one of those old-time cloth bags that you put suits in and fold it over. It was dark blue with checks on it, one of those old-time bags." Taylor tried to pick it up, but was unable to: "And I couldn't, you know, because I'm only 135 pounds! And I went to lift the bag, and I couldn't! You know, because I knew Dorian had some heavy, heavy stuff up there in that closet. And I just said, 'Honey, well just go on and cut the bag.' You know what I'm saying? And he cut the bag, and he says, 'This is a lot of plastic here.' So I say, 'Maybe its one of her beaded gowns,'
The news that Dorian Coreymay have been in possession of a body for almost half her life was greeted shock with uniform
'cause, I mean, she's got some tremendous beaded gowns. I didn't know what the hell was in there. So then he stuck it, and then he cut the thing, and then he says, 'There's a scent!' He says, 'I don't know. Is there a dead dog, or what?' And I said 'Dead dog!' and I ran like hell. And then, honey, he says, 'Well, I don't know what it is.' And then he identified himself as a policeman. And I says, "Ohhhh!" So he says, 'Well, I'm going to call the precinct.' And I say, 'Sure, go ahead, do it.' That's when they discovered it. I probably should have gone back there to look at it, because I would have saw something that I never would have got nowhere in my life. "After that, they forgot about the costumes."
12
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
The news that Dorian Corey may have been in possession of a corpse for almost half her life was greeted with uniform shock. Rumors then began to spread in manner befitting a society skilled in extravagance:there was talk of a diary that explained the event, and a deathbed note. At Sally's, the doorman said, "You know they were lovers, right? He was a shady guy, used to beat her up." He then remarked that the body had been dead two or three years. When it was asserted that ten times that amount of time may have passed since the death, it did not seem to unsettle his account. Chi Chi Valenti told a tale that cast Dorian as a blend of Douglas Fairbanks and Gracie Allen, dashing but flighty, handily foiling a burglary but too busy dressing for a show to bother with the clean-up. Among her friends, an initial amazement was often followed by an avowal that whatever happened, Dorian must have been richly provoked. "God only knows what he did. Dorian never mentioned a word to me. If she did do it, he had to push her," said Lois Taylor. "The whole thing is," said Jessie, "Dorian was not a violent person but, excuse my expression, she was not going to be fucked with, either." "I guess anyone I know could possibly be a murderer, could possibly be framed for murder," said Livingston. "I guess anyone in this city, in self-defense, could do just about anything. It struck me always as more likely that she would be framed than she would commit this murder and then carrythis thing around. She always struck me as such a normal, balanced person who was in control of her life. I certainly don't remember Dorian as a perfect person, but this is beyond my picture of who she is or could have been."
"I don't know if she had a gun," she continued. "I wouldn't be surprised.I think actuallythat when the gun battle when we were filmingin 1987, erupted, thatshe might havesaidsomethingabout havinga gun. I would have had a gun if I lived in thatbuilding." that Doriandid own Jessieconfirmed a handgun."One time she was going on stage,and she told me to hold this little eveningbag,"she said."When she gave it to me, my handwent down, andI said, 'What the fuck do you got in here?'It was a little .22. She would have these jokes, 'Someone'sgonna mess with me, I'm gonna shoot 'em up with lead.'We had a standing joke then, that the thing was rusty,and it would neverwork." When a detectivesaidthathe hadbeen told, in the course of his investigation, that Corey "hada temperwhen she hit the bottle,"the prospects of her unblemishedinnocenceseemedstill moredoubtful. One can watchParisIs Burning over and over without the slightest, subtlest hint of violencein DorianCorey,or duplicity, or fear.But she was, afterall, an actress.The closest she came to what on the commentary might be considered situationis the last scene of the film, as she sits in front of the mirror,applying colorsto her face:"I alwayshadhopesof being a big star.Then I look-as you get older,you aim a little lower andyou say, 'Well, you still might make an impression.' Everybodywants to leave something behind them, some impression,a markupon the world. Then you think, you'veleft a markuponthe worldjust by getting throughit. And if a few people remember yourname,you'veleft a mark. You don'thaveto bendthe whole world. It's betterto just enjoy it. Pay your dues
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
13
of explanation, not a verdict. There is no statute of limitations for murder, however, and the police were obliged to proceed as if the crime had been committed yesterday. They began with the elementary information: Dorian Corey moved from 150th Street to 140th Street in the late eighties, and a dead man was found in the apartmenton 140th Street.These two facts bred a sizable family of possibilities, and while some were more or less likely than others, the entire episode had long departed from the realm of the probable. There was not one mystery but several, and the first-the identity of the dead man-was not the least difficult. The photographic record of Dorian Corey is extensive, flattering, and fond, a wealth of old snapshots and glossies, and hours of documentary footage. The only known picture of the man found in her apartment is a polaroid, which has the moriand grisly universality of a memento the clinical circumscription of unique misfortune. The body is set against a black background, posed in half-profile, from the chest up, hunched over as if to listen closely. The complexion is purple and yellow, the nose and ears are nibs of cartilage, and a slight overbite is exaggerated by the loss of flesh. Pertinent facts are noted on an information sheet below: the body is of a black male, 5'10", 140 pounds, wearing blue and white boxer shorts. The case is one of many in a red ledger in the office of Raoul Figueroa, a licensed mortician and a detective in the Missing Persons Squad of the New York City Police Department. Many of the other pictures in the ledger are as gruesome, though some had en-
Drag Queen City: Sally's II

Model: Monica Mugler. Photo: Brian Lantelme
and enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you."
* * i
If Dorian Corey killed a man fifteen years ago, there would have been over 25,000 homicides in New York City between that time and the present. If the death was in 1968, which appears to be the better estimate,there would have been more than 40,000. In that context, the event might seem a historical curiosity, like the vanished settlersof Roanoke, an event in need
14
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
duredfurtherindignityafter death, and thepages,Figueroa ashe turned explained the reasons for bloat or discoloration, dents, cuts or "that shiny spot" with economyandcalm.Wheneverthe viewer might adjustto the faces,in the dulling sameness of theirestate,somefreshhorror would disruptwhatevertentativeacclimationhad been made. An old woman who hadsuffered muchfrom"whattime and water does" was accompanied by a which her circular distributed by family, showed a smiling, well-coiffed grandmotherin a Sunday dress."Alzheimers," saidFigueroa. "Sheeitherjumpedor fell in the water.There'snothing to suggest a homicide.It happens." Foranother case, "Thisis a torso. therewasno photograph: There'sno sensein takinga picturehere becauseit would not help. The doctor sayshe might be anywherefrom sixteen to twenty-two,I thinkhe mightbe younger, so I cover everything.You'll notice he's a male, most likely black, could be dark-skinnedHispanic. And that's it. threwhim in thewater.Where Somebody are his arms,head and feet? I still have everyhope thatI will get him ID'd. You never know." While the rate of identificationis generallyhigh, factorssuch as prolonged homelessnessor illegal imfor sucdiminishthe prospects migration cess. In general,said Figueroa,men are harderto identify than women because "women normallyhave a close attachment to somebody.They can be on the street-drug addicts,prostitutes-they formsomeclose attachment. Veryrarerare do it-but its thatthey have you very cut all ties. Men, on the other completely hand, they're macho, they take off and they may call their mothertwice a year,
Christmas,Easter, stuff like that. The rest of the time they could be anywhere on earth." The man from Dorian Corey's apartment presented formidable technical and logistical difficulties. Though a body can be identified through dental or medical records, hospitals do not ordinarily keep such information after six years, and initial estimates of this case put the time of death as much as fifteen years before. No witness to the event was likely to come forward.And fingerprints,which were the most promising means of identification, would be a macabre challenge to obtain. "So I cut the fingers below the second joint, and then it took me several days to work on it because, technically, even
Fluid in the body settled, rather than evaporating. "There was all this muck"
though it says 'mummified'-he was in a mummified state, but in a soupy sort of mummified state," he explained. The plastic prevented the loss of moisture necessary for true mummification, and fluid in the body settled, rather than evaporating. "There was all this muck, many pounds of muck. You have to clean it off, but you gotta do it soft because you don't want to destroy it, it's a painstaking sort of process. The minute it gets destroyed, you do the wrong thing, it's gone forever, and then you got nothing to work with. "So I was working on secondary skin, the lower one, beneath what you see. Secondary skin slippage-you've seen a floater come out of the water, you've seen the
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
15
hand,like a glove, comingoff?That'sthe skin, it's not as slippage.The secondary pronouncedas your regularskin. It's a twin of whatyou mightlose in a sunburn, or regular wear and tear. "So I hadto come up with something to try to be ableto dealwith the fingers, becauseof the skin, it was-we all have thateitherwerenearthe microorganisms, when he was enclosed, or on the body body itself. They will eat through the holes,that skin,leavingthesemicro-little can't see but where you really you can't because its injectanything gonnaleakout. Very slowly, but it leaks out. So there's not much you can do. If you try to put ink on thatit will not adhereto the skin. It was a problem, andI endedup-I can't give away secretsbecause,well, it's beneficialto us to keep it moreor less secret. But I workedout something,and I was able to close those holes. Then drying, which is a common-knownthing with acetoneanda varietyof otherthings,drying the skin,thenusinga littlebit of heat. You might have to soften it, put it in specialliquidsto softenit. And I was able to securethe print." To do so, Figueroa put the skinon his own fingers,like a glove, over the latex gloves he wears, inked them and rolled themfor the print.His success wasbetter thanhe expected,andhe was ableto get printsfrom all ten fingers.A matchwas madewith one RobertWells, who was bornin December,1938, and arrested in the Bronx in 1963. A sisterwas located in Fairmont,North Carolina,who informedhim thathis realnamewasRobert Worley. Anotherbrother,who lived in Harlem, told Figueroathat he had not seen his brothersince 1968.
"He seemedlike a very nice individual,verycourteous, verydecent,"saidFithatwe found gueroa."He was surprised brother's He used to live in [his body]. the Bronx, he lived with him, and he The weirdthing, he was livdisappeared. ing not too farfromwhere the bodywas found.He spokewith the restof the famto buryhim. ily andhe gaveuspermission He says, 'We know where he's at, we know what happened to him."' therewould Were it not for his arrest, be no usefulsocialrecord of Robert Worand friends would be ley. Family deprived of the consolationof at least knowing when to mourn,andwhy. A law-abiding citizenin a like circumstance would simbe a number and ply assigned put in the ground.The occasionwhich enabledthe stateto informthe Worleyfamilyof their brother's demiseoccurred on March27, when he arrested was for rape. 1963, with the criminal Foranyonefamiliar justicesystemin New York City, to hear the number 347/63, andknow thatit refersto an Aprilindictmentin the Bronx, of nostalgia. is to be sent into a rapture 347 indictments by April suggestsa rate of just over one thousandper year. In 1993, therewere over 9000, andthe record, set in 1990, was 10,892. In 1963, New York City was saferthanit is today andmeasurable in mostmeaningful ways, with the compellingexceptionof sexual andcrimes of children offenses. The abuse the home were rarely occurringwithin exposedto publicview. Rape,in partica dramatic ular,has undergone legal and The entire catesocial transformation. rapewas virtually gory of acquaintance andwholesale exemptfrom prosecution, to diclassesof victims,from prostitutes
16
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
4
I i
I
vorcees, might not have been considered presentable to a jury. At the same time, those rapeswhich were prosecuted might be pursued with great vigor, especially when a woman's "virtue" as well as her body had been subject to violence and violation. In several states, generally southern ones, rape was a capital crime. Linda Fairstein, Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, said that the most salient reform of the rape statute was the abolition, in 1972, of the corroboration requirement. Three elements of the crime had to be established independently of the claims of the victim: the identification of the assailant;the sexual nature of the of-
fense, usuallythroughmedicalevidence; andthe useofforce,eitherthrough visible or the of a injury recovery weapon. "If all three of those elementswere not independently proved,then the case could Forexample,as the New not go forward. YorkTimes printedin 1970, more thana 1000 men were arrestedin New York andonly eighteen City for sexualassault, were convictedof the crime. The overwhelmingnumberof cases,before1972, never got pastthe arrest phase." WorAccordingto courtdocuments, ley forceda womaninto the vacantstore below his apartment and raped her. It be that might supposed they were acbeforethe incident:the woman quainted
Are we not men? The crew at Sally's II

BrianLantelme
THE DRAG QUEEN AND THE MUMMY
17
was able to offer the following observations:"A confessiondoesn'tautomaticalIt sounds ly satisfyall the requirements. like he's admittingthat he's the guy, but he'snot admitting force.My guesswould be that it's a bettercase than many if it was indictedandgot into the system,but it musthave been lackingsomethingfor thereto be that kind of pleabargain. For the time, the bail is probably high. The whole thing reallydependson an evaluationof the victimandher story.Whether or not they knew eachotherwould be an issue.Is she somebody who was drinking with him at that location?That case is morelikely to be pleadeddown thanif they'd never seen each other beforeand he just pulled her off the street in his drunkenstate.There are too manyvarididn't know what happened to him." ablesmissingfor me to say much, but I There was no record of any prior arrests. would say that there was certainlysome His bail was originally set at $3500 and merit to the case and it sounds,with an then reduced to $1500. Three weeks after assault charge,that he certainlysmacked his arrest,he pleaded guilty to assault,and her aroundat some point. It might well was sentenced to two to four years in state have started-I'm guessingthis because prison, of which, his brother recalls, he of proximityof location-as an evening served almost the full term. drinkingtogether,and that'swhy it was was the Worley Legal pled down. That's simply an educated, represented by
Aid Society, and there are three different attorneys of record at arraignment, plea, and sentencing. None are listed in the most prominent directoryof attorneys,and neither is the prosecutor and the judge. They may have retired, or they might not practice law, or they might practice, but not at a law firm. They also might be dead. According to police records, there have been two detectives named Robert Rose. One was eight years old in 1963, and the other died in 1991. While the information in the court file is too sparse to permit all but the most speculative interpretation, Ms. Fairstein experienced guess." Frederick Worley is a wiry man of medium height in his mid-sixties, with thick glasses and a broad, gap-toothed smile. We spoke in a vacant apartmentin the Harlem building where he is superintendent, as he awaited a prospective tenant. He wore a corduroy baseballcap, and a sweatshirt with a picture of a bandoliered Mickey Mouse with pistols blazing. His speech was measured and judicious, with sly, suggestive pauses, and his voice rose and fell in southern-inflected, preacherly rhythms. Mr. Worley and his six brothersand sistersarefrom Fairmont,
lived right aroundthe cornerfrom him, andthe arrest occurred within hoursafter the crime.Worleywascharged with kidand intercourse assault, napping, having with "a female,not his wife, againsther will andwithoutherconsent." The woman was employedas a nurse'saide, and she had a commonEnglishname,which makesit likely thatshe, too, wasAfricanAmerican. Worley gavehis "truename" as "RobertWells," and stated that his were dead,which was also false. parents His occupation is listedas "finisher," his raceas "C"for "colored." In an affidavit, Detective RobertRose wrote that "the defendantstated that he did perpetrate acts of sexual intercourse with the deponentat the abovelocation.He alsostated that he had been drinkingwine and
18
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
a small town in the cotton and tobacco cornerof North countryin the southeast Carolina.Fourof the Worleys came up is the to New York City, but Frederick who remained."I had only living sibling losttrack so manyyearsago.At sometime I hadsomenotionthatsomethingwasn't quiterightwith his lifestyle,but I didn't knowwhich way he went. My sister,one of my sistersand I, who lives in North we resigned to the ideathatposCarolina,
sibly he was dead," he said. Bobby, as they
called him, had complainedof passing blood in his urine, and his brothersand sistersfelt it might lead to a seriousor even fatal medicalproblem.When detectivescalled his sister,he went to the to "piecethingstogetheras localprecinct best we could. But there'sa lot of gaps becauseof the fact that, like, he fell off
the face of the earth." Mr. Worley left Fairmont in 1956, and Bobby followed him sometime later on: "I was twenty-six at that time, so he was seventeen, right? He might still have been-what was he doing at that time? Just out of school? By the time he'd reached a certain age, I'm courting, getting myself marriedand getting out. I was a young man with a wife and child, needed to work, so I came to New York." For ten years, the elder Worley worked in a Bronx lumberyard, rising to the position of foreman, and then he became an insurancesalesman. "In fact, I still sell some when I'm industrious enough," he said. Since 1985, he has been working at the building on 158th Street, as superintendent and managing agent. The difference in age between the two brothers, and the distance in time from their last meeting, made recollection difficult. "I don't recall exactly when I
whenhe hadcometo New York," learned he explained."I think I learnedthrough backwith the family.At correspondence that time, my mother and father were living. You know how it is, when Mom andPopswereliving, the correspondence is moreregularthan when they passon. "Well, he was the babyof the family. I don'tremember-he was like anyother kid growingup. Afterall, we were born into a family that had a no-nonsense father, and a no-nonsense mother. And when you're born into a situationlike that,you got it going andcoming.So you haveto, got to prettymuchkeepyourself in line. However,I do remember a letter frommy mother.He worriedmy mother quitea bit, beforehe left North Carolina. He got intoafew littlescrapes downthere, I neverreallyknewhow serious theywere or anything like that.But I knowthatshe finallywroteme, andI wroteto herwhen I found out abouther spendingmoney, getting him out of little scratcheshere andthere...." Askedif it was anythingas seriousas, for example,stealingcars,he responded with an emphatic denial: "My father wouldhavewhupped him!What I would have calledmischievous things, like getinto a little ting fights, public drunkenness, becauseyou know that for many NorthCarolina wasa drystate.And years, if you drankpublicly,you were going to the caboose, right.Shemusthavepaidfor him to get out of a few things like that, right. At this time, she was in declining turnthis health,andI told her, 'You must loose. Let him He's to boy got runhis go.
course.' You couldn't tell her that, she's gotta make up her mind. She's gotta cut this kid off the string. Finally, I remember, she wrote me a letter. She told me,
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
19
I finally she said,'You know something? in the hands of God." put Bobby "Well, you will neverguesshow happy that made me, becausetruly, I don't knowwhatyourattitude towardGod the Creatoris, and I'm not aboutto askyou that, but I felt that that was reallywhat she should do. Becauseyou can't make anyoneover.If a personis inclineda certain way, that personmust come to see the errorof theirwaysin orderto change the errorof their ways. She finally told
Lifein New YorkCity could not have been moredifferentfrom Fairmont,North Carolina
me that she had given him up. And it musthavebeenafterthatthathe cameto New York. That's what might have promptedhim getting out from down there, that she wasn't going to bat no morefor him. So this put him constantly on the run. Of course,that'sonly a guess
on my part." When askedif he knew anything about the name "Robert Wells," Mr. Worley laughed: "I would suggest that he had gotten into some kind of trouble." He was told that Bobby had been arrestedfor rape, but didn't know any of the circumstances. He vaguely recalls something about prison at Dannemora, but he did not discuss it with his brother, who lived with him for some six months to a year after his release. It was not a pleasant time for either of them: "I could tell that his lifestyle wasn't something that was gonna set well with me and my family. But he stayed on
with me until he finally ... moved on. He at thattimewas drinking. I would say borderline alcoholism.He was drinking vodka, straightfrom the bottle. He got one night, when he came so inebriated home, my wife had-we had a low-boy radiator and our childrenwere going to school at the time, and she had laid a He camein dursweateron the radiator. I the and guesshe wasso stewed ing night he thought he was in the bathroom. 'Well,' I said,'Hey, no. No! This is not going to makeit."' Between the drinkingand his unembetweenthe brothers ployment,relations were strained. Bobby went out with friends,but Frednevermet them. When Bobbyfinallydid landajob, his firstpriones: "He saw oritieswere not practical this woman that he just had to have, apparently,and when he got his firstpay, to her.In the meantime, he went straight he didn'tgive me anyof the moneyI had him about given him, and I approached it in the basement of my buildingthere. And,oh, he started tellingme, 'Theytook the restof the moneyout of my pay!'And I said,'Well, where'syourpaystub?' 'Oh, I didn't get one!' And I said, okay, fine. To makea long storyshort,shortlyafter don'tworry thatI toldhim, I said,'Listen, aboutpayingme any money. Saveyourself somemoney,get yourselfa place.Because my apartment is for me and my and this is the way it has to be. family, You musthaveyourown place.'So it was afterthatthathe dropped out of sight on me and I didn't know which way he went." The life which Bobbyled, andthe life which manyseemedto leadin New York City, could not havebeen moredifferent
20
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
from the one Frederick Worley knew in North Carolina. A small town in a rich, agriculturalregion, Fairmontwas the kind of place "where teachers are very familiar with the families of the children they are teaching. Parentswill still tell you, 'Look, you have any problem with him, we'll take care of it. And let me know!' It's a nice quiet town, not a lot of notoriety. People arebasically church-going people, a lot of them living quite well, nice houses with two cars in the garage. Doing better than I am!" Mr. Worley's father was an engineer, in his words, who made ice for the town. His mother died in 1964, and his father died some twelve years later. "Generally, we came up in an area where any adult could speakto us, and we recognized that, because God forbid, an adult would speak
to me and I gave that adulta hardtime, andmy fatherfoundit out! It was to the woodshed!When we came along, this word 'child-abuse' had not been coined. In those daysif you got out of line you got whatyou hadcomingto you, andthat
was it."
Brian Lantelme
LindaWorley Thompson'srecollections of her brotherare less recentthan The and more affectionate. Frederick's, last time she saw Bobby was in 1962, bebeforehis drinkingandlegaltroubles untainted her were and by gan, regrets with his later,lesser self. bitterexperiences In a letter,she saidthatBobbygraduated from RosenwaldHigh School in 1957, that he was an activestudentwith excellent grades,and that he enjoyedsports, especiallybasketball."He loved music very much and played in the band. He
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
21
wanted to be a musicianone day," she And that'sreallywhere his troublestartsaid, and her "fondest memorieswere ed. My father,he was a strictdisciplinardifferent when he wouldtalkabout things ian.Andhe would let the boysknow that thatmight affecthim reachinghis goal." they would haveto do rightto stayin his Bobby was spirited,she said, rambunc- house.Well, a lot of times,I don'tknow not whatBobby wouldbe doing,buthe would tious anddriven,andwas "definitely mother to whatmy older be gonea lot. According a Mama'sboy," although "my wouldalways helphim get whathe want- brothersaid, he would be with his girlworkerandhad friend.She would send for him. And so ed."He was an assiduous and as a he starteddoing things that my mother warehouses in the tobacco jobs After he left for and fatherdidn't agree with. And they assistant. veterinarian's New York,he would sometimes slipinto triedto help him, but then theyjust had town for a visit with his mother,and he to turnhim loose, let him go. Becausehe would alsocall or write.Mrs.Thompson had sort of a wild streakin him. And it did not evade mention of his problems, washardto get him,you couldn'tget him but treatedthem with a certaintact and under control. But he was so smartin indirection.He had a temper,she said, high school!He wasvery good in school, butif some- but then when he got out, I don'tknow, caused andhe "never trouble, one botheredhim, he would fight." At he just startedgetting into trouble." "This girl said he did something to the end of his daysin Fairmont,"I feel at life her.In Fairmont. That'swhy hejust left. that Bobbywas very disappointed and decidedto go away to make a new But the girl, she was alwayscallinghim, her.Andwhen life for himself." wantedhim around always on she elaborated On the telephone, they had a falling out, she accusedhim the good qualitiesand ominous trends. of doing somethingto her." Her son, Eric,was five when Bobbyleft, Bobby left Fairmontto escape one but she was not the only one but his memoriesof his uncle aretender girlfriend, lot a of would he left. Therewas another,by whom he andwarm."Bobby spend who nevermetherfather. time with Eric,"she said."He seemedto hada daughter, a time "Shedidnot knowone thing abouthim," carea lot abouthim."Ericrecalled when he was aroundfive yearsold, and continuedMrs. Thompson."When she he "somehow"threw out Bobby'shigh foundouthe wasdead,shewasveryupset, school classring. The boy was terrified, becauseshe never got a chanceto know buthisunclewaskindandunderstanding. him as a father.And, of course,she has "He does have fond memoriesof him, three children.Shejust wished that she he wouldtakethetimewith him," could have had a relationship with him. because she said. "But he was like that during He hadthe desireto do somethingin life, to but some way, some how, he got off thoseyears.Then somethinghappened him. track...." a was "Atmy recollection, good Bobby person but he would, well, he got involved with girls. I don't know. While he was in high school, I was in college. As of thiswriting,DetectiveJohn Roe of to be-hejust lovedgirls. the 26th Precinct thatthe homicide stated Womenseemed
22
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65
of Robert Worley is still an open case. As such, a full and frank discussion was not possible for legal reasons, as well as frequent practical ones ("Not today, I got a fresh double murder").Roe conceded that Worley's death probably occurred not long after his disappearance,and he said that he was convinced that Dorian Corey knew of the body. To me, this knowledge
A black drag queen in possession of a cadaver could not expect more sympathetic treatment fromthe police than fromsociety at large
strongly suggests responsibility. The theories that depend on proxies and oversights-that the body was there when she moved in, that she was "protecting" someone, and so on-began to seem desperately wishful and elaborate, although the ultimate conjecture-that Corey killed Worley, and brought the body with her when she moved-is hardly a prosaic deflation of the event. My initial guess was that it was a street pick-up that turned into a robberyattempt. Eventually, someone told me that something like that did occur, and though I found it persuasive, the information was of a piece with the rest of what I heard-speculative, sketchy, and never better than second-hand. Jessie Torres said that in her last days, Dorian began to tell Sally about her secret, on the phone, over two or three calls. Although Sally's health was fair at the time, she would die three months after Dorian. During one such call, Sally asked Jessie to listen in on the extension. "God
forgive me," saidJessie, "And may she rest in peace, I said, 'Sally,that AZT is eatingthat queen'smind up.' She was in a delirioussituation.I saidit was impossible-she lived in two different placesa have Girls do she? would tendency why to exaggerate." Until October,all practicaland reasonablebelief dictatedagainstthe story, it to be a melancholy andJessieassumed of the body, Afterthe discovery delusion. the lesserdetailsof the account converged of its implausible in support premise."In Harlemthereareguysthatwe would call take-off artists,"she explained. "They andjust wantto take would come around from the queensthe little bit you have. Fromwhat I'm told, this is the situation. He hadrobbedherbefore,fromwhat I'd heard.He was known in the neighborhood as a junkie. If he knew you had a littlebit of money,he wouldcomearound here, come aroundthere with the attitude,'Fuck you,you-allarefaggots.'Fuck takewomen off too. Seebitch! He'd you ing that society frowns on junkies, they feel, you know, they could frown on us. I couldimagine.I havebeen in situations like that-guys who say, 'Go ahead,call the police, you faggot!' He had taken things from her a couple of times. One time, she was fed up. And she was not havingit." While there is no reasonto dispute Dorianwas the sincerity of the confession, from a neurological impairment suffering andrecallinganeventof perhaps twentyfive yearsbefore, an event which itself may have occurredin a chaotic instant, amida welterof terror, fury,anddismay. The accountthat Jessie overheardmay fromwhatin facttrandiffersubstantially spired.Then again,it maynot. If Dorian was entirelyjustifiedin her actions,she
THE
DRAG
QUEEN
AND
THE
MUMMY
23
remained ablackdragqueenin possession of a cadaver,and did not expect more sympathetictreatmentfrom the police than she would from societyat large.At the sametime, it is unknownwhat force, still less lethal force, might have been called for; it is likely that her gun was andshe mayhavebeenrelucunlicensed, tantto callthe authorities of some because additionalculpability.Robert Worley's version of the incident will never be known. The greaterwonder, and one which will abide,is why she never disposedof the body.Those who understand herposition are unlikely to make public their own. As a movie buff,Dorianknew that it is the raremysterywhere some clue, sometrickof the plot does not betraythe identityof the killer. In a way, she read the situation correctly, leaving well enough alone until she was unavailable for comment.The Corey-Worleymysteryendedwith a twist thatshe couldnot predict,though one she would have apin herclosetwanted asshoppers preciated, a vampire costumeandgot a mummyinstead.The ironies,at least, were to her taste.
* * 0
Over half a centuryago, in placesin the to the northandthe southof countryside the city,two womenheldchildren whom cannot have would ever they expected meet. Nor couldthey have imaginedthe
way eachlife would takeshape,andwere of theirsons,one they to seephotographs shrunken and stiff on a morgueslab,the otherwith breasts and a blondewig, gyratingbeneatha live boa constrictor,it wouldbe difficult to guesswhich woman wouldbe moreshocked.CoreyandWorley were blackmen without much money, closein age,who movedto New York As victimsof AIDS City fromruralareas. and homicide,they embodytwo of the main statistical basesfor abbreviated life in Harlem.Worley was burexpectancy ied in Potter's Field,on HartIslandin the westernLongIslandSound,in a common andherashes grave.Coreywas cremated, werescattered offCityIsland in theBronx. The two islandsare separated by half a mile of water. Thereseemsto be an instructive likeness between them but their moraland material resemblance is tangential,shiftThere are travels, ing. changesof name. One wassentto prisonfor a crimeagainst a woman,andthe othermadea living as a femaleimpersonator. When Coreyleft, came back. The relationis arWorley like the rhythmic, oblique, pattern of dropletsthat fall from a tap. The intersectionof their lives was brief,andnone were awareof it until both were gone. They left behindunanswerable questions, loved ones in painedandfond memories, mourning.One left a legend;the othera child. And for worse and for better,toeachmadea markupon getherandapart, the world.
24
TRANSITION
ISSUE
65

The Drag Queen and The Mummy

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

The Drag Queen and The Mummy

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Drag Queen and The Mummy

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

W.E.B.

"Didn'twe meet last night at Riker's Island?"

Drag Queen City: Sally's II

Are we not men? The crew at Sally's II

THE DRAG QUEEN AND THE MUMMY

You might also like