Wednesday, January 23, 2019

GENEROSITY AMID GLITTER


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.

15 comments:

  1. Loved the performance! Campy and artsy. The projection at the end is very avant-garde 😎

    XoXo

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    1. And this was YEARS before the wonderful Sasha Velour and her projection magic.

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  2. This made me happy and sad at the same time.

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    1. The Mistress's closing line and then that clip got me too. Do you need a tissue dear?

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    2. Thank you, Ms Agnes, but no. My sleeve was sufficient. I have to do the wash anyway. *Sniff*

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  3. That name along had me laughing, I have no idea why.Really beautiful post and tribute. Thank you SO MUCH for posting.

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  4. She's one I'd never heard of, and I, too, loved the performance and the lewks!

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  5. I remember her from when I first moved to town and I even remember seeing the almost-terrible-but-not-really cable show. A friend of ours knew her and wrote a profile of her for the local gay paper and I think was the first one to include that line about "I'd paint my eyeballs if I could."

    Once again, you have to wonder what the world would have been like without AIDS cutting these geniuses down in their prime.

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  6. Doris Fish was the best drag performer of my lifetime, at least while I lived in CA. I had the pleasure of meeting her on several occasions and she was always a dear, one of my role models too Long Live Doris Fish! 

    And thank you for remembering her. I hadn't heard her name in years from anyone.Just a fantastic entertainer. We have really no one like this today..its camp on top of camp..people and other queens don't get that.

    I hope you blog is still around years after were gone. It is like a huge archives dear of topics and entertainers. Just think when a queen from the future stumbles upon it.

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  7. We lost a lot of good folks during that time.

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  8. A great heartfelt post. I loved the clip.

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  9. Love the name! Interesting post.

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  10. Love her mock dramatics. She certainly looks healthy there. The disease must have come on pretty fast.

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Go ahead darling, tell me something fabulous!