 | An editor has performed a search and found that sufficient sources exist to establish the subject's notability.(June 2020) |
Tony Midnite | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tony Murdoch September 20, 1926 |
| Occupation(s) | Female impersonator, costume designer, activist, and book reviewer |
Tony Midnite (Sept. 20, 1926 - Aug. 31, 2009) was a female impersonator, costume designer, activist, and book reviewer. [1]
Midnite was born Tony Murdoch on Sept. 20, 1926 in Texas. [2] He worked in the defense industry at Hunter's Point Navy Yard near San Francisco during World War II. After seeing a female impersonation show at the legendary Finocchio's in San Francisco around 1948, he became a performer himself, starting in Galveston, Texas, transitioning to Hollywood, California, then making his way to Chicago.
Midnite had begun performing with the traveling Jewel Box Revue, America's first racially-inclusive traveling revue of female impersonators. [3] [4] He took a hiatus, however, in 1951 to move to Chicago. [5] His mentor, Stanley Rogers, was the costume designer for the Jewel Box; when Rogers retired, Midnite took over the post. [5] He also opened his own costume design studio in Chicago in 1953 [6] in the basement of the Lorraine Hotel at 411 South Wabash Ave. in the city's Rush Street nightclub area. [5] Though he was having throat troubles in the mid-1950s which caused him to step back from performing for a time, [5] he was nevertheless photographed in full glamour drag regalia in 1955 [7] and 1956 [8] by celebrity and theatrical photographer Maurice Seymour, [9] who stars sought "because of his ability to portray them as they appeared to the audience 100 feet away. He could retouch the photos, enhance their appearance...keep the illusion going." [10]
Midnite eventually performed and designed costumes for four years at Club 82 in New York City. [11] [5] In this time, he created original designs for fellow performers such as Lavern Cummings [12] and Tillie the Dirty Old Lady. [13] As the drag scene boomed not only in Chicago proper but Calumet City and Cicero, with approximately 50 strip clubs abounding, Midnite designed for "all manner of exotic stage performers." [5] In addition, he designed for road shows of Gypsy and Carnival and for the Jewel Box's Broadway production, which debuted at Loew's State Theatre in Times Square. He designed for Club Chesterfield performers as well [14] and worked under the supervision of David Merrick on various productions for the Metropolitan Opera.
He started booking shows for the Jewel Box Revue, inevitably shaping the drag scene at the time with an 8-month-long booking on the South Side of Chicago called 25 Men and a Girl which signaled a drag boom in the region in the 1960s. [1]
Throughout his performance career, he appeared in shows such as Club 82's Fun-Fair for '57 and Club 82 Revue [15] [16] and the Jewel Box's Show Sensation of the Nation, [16] among numerous others. His final performances were in a recurring show called The Fantasy Revue which played at the Granada Lounge and Blue Dahlia Show Lounge in Chicago. [17]
Later in life, Midnite worked as a book reviewer, reviewing for GayLife and other publications. [18]
In 1996, Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago inducted Midnite into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. [18]
Midnite died in Las Vegas, Nevada on Aug. 31, 2009 at the age of 82. [2]
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and have been a part of gay culture.
Drag kings have historically been mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. As documented in the 2003 Journal of Homosexuality, in more recent years the world of drag kings has broadened to include performers of all gender expressions. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, either live or lip-synching to pre-recorded tracks. Drag kings often perform as exaggeratedly macho male characters, portray characters such as construction workers and rappers, or impersonate male celebrities like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Tim McGraw. Drag kings may also perform as personas that do not clearly align with the gender binary. Drag personas that combine both stereotypically masculine and feminine traits are common in modern drag king shows.
Drag is a performance of exaggerated femininity, masculinity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. Drag usually involves cross-dressing. A drag queen is someone who performs femininely and a drag king is someone who performs masculinely. Performances often involve comedy, social satire, and at times political commentary. The term may be used as a noun as in the expression in drag or as an adjective as in drag show.
A drag show is a form of entertainment performed by drag artists impersonating men or women, typically in a bar or nightclub. Shows can range from burlesque-style, adult themed nightclub acts to all-ages events with sing-alongs and story times.
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St. Sukie de la Croix is a writer and photographer. He is most widely known for his 2012 book Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall. His works have explored the underground cultures and aspects of Chicago's LGBT community dating back to the 1670s. He has had several columns in Chicago publications, both in print and online: Outlines, Nightspots, Chicago Now, and Chicago Free Press.
Finocchio'sClub was a former nightclub and bar in operation from 1936 to 1999 in North Beach, San Francisco, California. The club started as a speakeasy called the 201 Club in 1929 located at 406 Stockton Street. In 1933, with the repeal of prohibition, the club moved upstairs and started to offer female impersonation acts; after police raids in 1936 the club relocated to the larger 506 Broadway location. Finocchio's night club opened June 15, 1936 and was located in San Francisco, California, above Enrico's Cafe at 506 Broadway Street in North Beach.
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Lee Greer Brewster was an American drag queen, transgender activist, and retailer. He was a founding member of the pre-Stonewall activist group, Queens Liberation Front. In the 1970s and 1980s, he published Drag magazine. Brewster helped to raise funds for the very first U.S. celebration of Pride, Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970. He continued to help raise funds and organize Christopher Street Liberation Day for several years. Lee Brewster was active in the homophile and gay liberation movements, working with the Mattachine Society of New York as well as the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
Charles "Chuck" Renslow was an American businessman, known for pioneering homoerotic male photography in the mid-20th-century US, and establishing many landmarks of late-20th-century gay culture and leather culture, especially in the Chicago area. His accomplishments included the cofounding with Tony DeBlase of the Leather Archives and Museum, the co-founding with Dom Orejudos of the Gold Coast bar, Man's Country bathhouse, and the International Mr. Leather competition, and the founding by himself alone of Chicago's August White Party, and the magazines Triumph, Rawhide, and Mars. He was a romantic partner of Dom Orejudos as well as Chuck Arnett, Samuel Steward, David Grooms, and Ron Ehemann.
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