I know it's not Friday yet, but have we ever needed a reason to drink or get happy??? After all, there's always time for a cock-a-tail!
But then I went and designed my own shutdown cock-a-tail, a
Dump Towering Inferno. I ended up going with Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey, a favorite shot of mine, and a troublingly popular spirit that appeals to the basest instincts of our palates with its powerful blast of cinnamon. Then, because the dump is so oddly angry for a guy born into millions, I cut it with bitter Cynar and topped it with milk. Unstirred, there’s a Dumpish wall between the milk and the liquor. A few drops of Peychaud’s on top visually represent the GOP's bloodbath that has resulted from the Dump's campaign. A dangling ringlet of orange peel or a yellow puff of cotton candy finishes the towering inferno, which is bound to happen. And just like him burring everyone, it will burn coming out!!!!
Optional garnish: A smear of New Jersey bridge tar, left behind when Chris Christie tried to glom onto it.
Doris Fish was the stage name for Sydney-born and Sydney and San Francisco-based drag queen, artist, actor and writer Philip Mills. As Doris Fish, Mills wrote and starred in the cult movie classic Vegas in Space.
Art and performance Sydney
Mills began performing as Doris Fish in Sydney in 1972, as one of the three core performers of the political drag group Sylvia and the Synthetics, along with Miss Abood (Danny Abood, Daniel Archer) and Jacqueline Hyde. In 1975 Mills visited San Francisco for the first time on holidays before moving there permanently the following year. Doris regularly returned to Sydney, Australia in the late 1970s, comparing shows for Cabaret Conspiracy performing in the Sydney Gay Theatre Group's production of Noel Greig's As Time Goes By, or performing at venues such as Garibaldi's along with the Doreen's. During 1978–1979 Mills as Doris was also the American West-Coast Correspondent for Campaign, a national gay and lesbian newspaper in Australia. With the development of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras Workshop in 1983, Mills would return annually to volunteer in the Workshop building community floats and creating costumes for Doris' individual and group floats. Doris also continued to host events, including the first Mardi Gras Awards at Kinselas in 1987.
San Francisco
In 1976 at an audition for the rock group The Tubes, he met fellow drag queen Tippi, and they became roommates. In 1977 San Francisco gay leaders urged no drag on Gay Freedom Day. Doris and many other drags turned out in force. Also in 1977, Doris was cast in the James Moss directed feature-length film Magazine movie, a magazine format film about San Francisco, playing herself, "a fake woman from Australia who has won the heart of San Francisco". At a come-as-your-favorite-Fellini-character party in 1979. Mills met Miss X who wasn't yet serious about doing drag, but by the end of the year Doris Fish, Tippi and Miss X were performing as Sluts-A-Go-Go. Contrary to popular belief, Sluts-A-Go-Go is not a group featuring Anne Marie, Duchess Deedles and myself.
Throughout the 1980s Doris Fish was one of the more prominent drag queens in San Francisco. On stage, Doris Fish performed for over 10 years in San Francisco with Miss X and Tippi as Sluts A-Go-Go.Sluts A-Go-Go performed in venues like Club 181 with shows such as Marc Huestis' Naked Brunch, Nightclub of the Living Dead, along with other performers such as Sandelle Hebert and Tommy Pace. In 1986, Doris and Tippi did a weekly cable news show about the gay community, although some viewers complained that Doris was a negative stereotype.As a visual artist, Mills painted hyper-realistic canvases depicting of drag queens, although as he once said, "If I could, I would paint my eyeballs."
Mills' major legacy to date is the cult camp classic film Vegas in Space, which he co-wrote and starred in with Phillip Ford, not to mention the endless hours of charity work and monies raised for various foundations.
Poor Doris is no longer with us... she died from complications from AIDS in San Francisco in 1991.The last performance by the great drag performer Doris Fish- in a benefit performance at SF Victoria Theatre -shortly before she died.
All of the photogrpahs in this post happen to be of renowned Female impersonator Francis Renault... who was the featured model in a number of women's fashion shows and burlesque performances. Francis Renault was a active and popular ‘femme mimic’ from the early 1900s to the 1950s. He was born Antonio Auriemma in Naples Italy on September 5, 1895. He grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, where, after a show, he reportedly met and was inspired by the great Edwardian drag queen, Julian Eltinge. Francis made his vaudeville reputation impersonating Lillian Russell, the great American beauty whose career and pulchritude spanned decades before and after the turn of the twentieth century. Like Lillian, he wore gorgeous gowns. His investment in gowns was extensive, tallying in the tens of thousands of dollars. At some theatres like the Palace, his costumes were displayed in theatre lobbies, where women could get a closer look at their richness and craftsmanship. Unlike Eltinge, Renault was in the habit of wearing his female costumes on the street of the various cities and towns where he toured. This created a great deal of publicity for his show, but frequently incensed local authorities. He was arrested and released on several occasions for female impersonation, notably in Dallas and Atlanta.
Out of costume he was a masculine man, like many drag queens and female impersonators, with many male admirers, one of whom was the young Archie Leach before he changed his name to Cary Grant. In his last years, Francis sang at Carnegie Hall billing himself as ‘The Last of the Red Hot Poppas”. In 1945 he was crippled with polio, and was paralyzed for two years. He overcame this and returned to performing at Carnegie Hall for several more years. Just another fabulous queen to pave the way for the modern day queens we have. I also find it interesting how elegant they were, and very seldom dropped the standards and their attention to detail was very impressive.
