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King timeline
Toone produces the all drag Queer Ole Opry with performances by Elvis, Patsy, Minnie Pearl Necklace, Sweetness and The Bucktooth Varmints. Lavender Lounge television broadcasts the event. Theater Rhinoceros hears about Leigh's musical idea and commissions' Toone, Elvis & Kelly Kittel to write, star and produce the first ever Drag King musical. Leigh and Toone appear as the protagonists Deke & Zeke Rivers - The Hillbilly Kings all over town to promote the musical. Gigs include being the first Drag Kings ever to appear at Wigstock and Trannyshack, and the entertainment for the first FTM Conference of The Americas.
Sophie Moorcock and her partner Jewels start the Drag King club Knave. PHILADELPHIA Grassroots Queers produce their first contest and Philly crowns their first King. NEW YORK In December after reading the above article in SF Weekly and seeing Buster Hymen in Provincetown, Mo Fischer creates Mo B. Dick and goes to clubs in the city in drag. 1996 - SAN FRANCISCO May 11th
Hillbillies
on the Moon debuts at Theater Rhinoceros. Starring Leigh Crow
and Annie Toone with an all king cast including Laurie Bushman as Tiberius
and original songs by Toone. Toone and Leigh release it's single with
Swing Like a King
and Hillbillies
on the Moon. Deke & Zeke make the cover of The Bay Times (below right). They're also
reviewed in all the local straight and alternative press and have the
privilege of playing to packed houses, which twice include Butch-Femme
heroes and Gay Liberators Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. Toone & Erin O'Neill launch the Madkats website to promote and document the emerging Drag King scene. THE SOUTH Elvis Herselvis & The Straight White Males tour the south and get national press coverage when she appears at The 2nd Annual Elvis Presley Conference at the University of Mississippi. Graceland withdraws their support when they find out she's a Lezzzbian Drag King! Controversy ensues. VANCOUVER CANADA KC founds the Vancouver Kings. They are featured on the cover of Xtra West. Flare starts out as a member of this early troupe. FLORIDA Pilou Miller, Mother progenitor, founds The House of Ma in Gainesville. They have had as many as 15 performers in their drag cabaret burlesque extravaganzas. NEW YORK Mo Fischer (left) launches Club Casanova with Wigstock dragstar and Squeezebox boss Mistress Formika and begins to perform as Mo. B Dick. Starting at the Pyramid Club, it soon moves to CAKE. As a weekly Drag King club, Club Casanova goes on to get the word out about Kinging, garnering coverage in The New York Post in 96, and The Daily News and the The Face in 97. They closed their doors in 1998, but not before establishing Drag King on the east coast and being written up in The New York Times. Along with Mo, many influential Kings emerge from Casanova including Dred, Lizerace, Willy Ryder and Sir Real as well as jordi N Y C's website and the Drag King discussion list.
COLUMBUS, OH In September, Fast Friday Productions puts on the first Fast Friday. The show consists of Helen [Billy], Ivett [Derek], and Sue [Tony] performing, Julia [qu?ery] spinning and Si'le [Lustivious de la Virgion] as the Master of Ceremonies. H.I.S. Kings are born. NEW YORK Peggy Shaw plays trans bandleader Billy Tipton off Broadway in Slow Drag. 1997- SAN FRANCISCO Duke aka
painter Cooper
Lee Bombadier wins the 2nd Official San Francisco Drag
King contest at The King Street Garage. Elvis and Joan Jett Black
MC. Harry Dodge, Erin O'Neill, Rodney O'Neill Austin, Crush Velvet and
Annie Toone are the Celebrity Judges. Lu Read produces from here on (yes
Virginia, 2 years were skipped entirely). THE SOUTH Elvis Herselvis makes the national news again touring the south in the name of 'The King'. NEW YORK John Waters' interviews Mo B. Dick for Dreamland News. TORONTO, CANADA Flare (left)
founds the The
Fabulous Toronto Drag Kings. Their first show, which features Mitch
and Christopher Noelle takes place in November. They go on to perform
regularly and are written up in Siren Magazine, Xtra,
NOW, Trade Magazine (cover) and MacLeans
Magazine. They also make appearances on Maury Povich,
The View, in a Showtime commercial CALIFORNIA Also in November, Mo takes The Men of Casanova to California. San Francisco hosts The New York Kings for two events called
"More for Les" to benefit Stone
Butch Blues author Leslie
Feinberg. Produced by Stafford, Jordy Jones and Lu Read. Monika Treut chronicles it all for her documentary feature Gendernauts released in 1999, which specifically profiles local genderatti like Stafford (left, with Jake), Jordy Jones and Tex. Madkats has Erin's photos of both nights of performance. The Casanova boyz also play The CoCo Club in San Francisco and The Flame in San Diego before returning to New York.
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