It’s a bit of a head trip to see the souvenir photos, which look like they could’ve been snapped in a wholesome Midwestern supper club, instead of a risqué New York City drag show – remember, cross dressing was still technically illegal. That way, your drink never left your hand. The branding at 82 was also top-notch, with keepsake postcards and photos available for today’s equivalent of about $10, and little wooden “drumsticks” given out to guests the idea was that you could tap on your tabletop in lieu of clapping. In the span of about a decade, the club churned out dozens upon dozens of well seasoned drag performers…
They payed homage to the Ziegfeld Follies and travelling circuses they danced the Charleston, spun around in leather chaps, and sang songs harkening back to the Roaring ’20s. “Let’s go collegiate,” read the programme, “ a college minus books and study erected just for fun”… Take the “Vacation in Color” revue from 1956, with its cheeky take on Americans’ famously undying devotion to ra-ra school spirit. We get the spins just looking at the fantastic programmes past, which offered a non-stop parade of charisma, high kicks, and plenty of double-entrendres. The shows were directed and produced by Kitt Russel, who came from a lot of Broadway experience and was a killer actor himself.Īnd in drag, serving us a blend of Mae West and Rita Hayworth energy… The ladies were decked out in glamorous costumes by designer John Wong. Highly choreographed performances ran like clockwork three times a night – 11:30pm, 12:30am, and 2:30am – to the sweeping tunes of orchestra leader Johnny Wilson. When queens performed, it was under a more euphemistic, hetero-accessible label like “female mimic” or “gender impersonator.” These were the years of Leave It To Beaver, and the myth of the Nuclear Family. When 82 opened its doors in 1953, declaring yourself a drag queen – let alone a gay, gender queer, or non-binary – was a dangerous move in NYC nightlife and cabaret culture. Ah, to have been a fly on the wall (or on the lip of a martini glass)… It wasn’t uncommon to run into Salvador Dalí mingling with drag queens and local politicians. “Once you made it there, you’d descend the steep stairs into an elegant, transporting nightclub decked out in the height of mid-century kitsch,” writes the New York City Historical Society, “mirrored columns, plastic palm fronds, elaborate banquettes, and white tablecloths” abounded. So how did these queens pull it off in the era of Doris Day? The “ladies” of club 82 At once underground and well-known amongst a certain elite clientele, it was a hot spot for stars like Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor to observe a glittering drag revue that was way ahead of its time. Tucked inside a nondescript door at 82 East 4th Street in Manhattan, “82” declared itself the “gayest rendez-vous”on the town in every sense of the word, falling somewhere between the Copacabana and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Bedazzled drag queens, mobsters, and Errol Flynn playing a piano with his errr … manhood? It was just another Saturday night at NYC’s “82 Club,” c.