Episode 298 - The Jewel Box Revue and Club 82 - Drag takes Center Stage

This episode has so much.  We cover the Jewel Box Revue, the drag show that originated in the thirties and toured through the seventies creating a space for drag, female impersonators and gender bent comics in a show that advertised itself as 25 men and 1 girl.  We also cover anti-crossdressing laws, the police's informal three article rule and how newspapers at the time published the names  of those arrested for cross dressing, performing drag, or even just being openly gay.    We talk about how drag shows came up from French cabarets like the Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergere and morphed into something different and special in America.  We also discuss Club 82, the New York nightspot run by the Gallo crime family that made a safe place in New York for drag long before Pride Marches and rainbow flags.  We even discuss how movies like La Cage Au Folles, The Rocky Horror Picture Show,,The Birdcage, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar owe a lot of their DNA to these early expressions of queer joy and drag glamour.  These were some of the earliest safe spaces in America and we owe them a lot.  So come along on this celebration of LGBTQ history and found family!  It's fun and we guarantee you will learn something! And in case you aare curious, the person bringing us back from commercial is part of an old song by gender bent comedian Rae Bourbon.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices