Middle Aged Drag, In HD, In San Francisco’s Tenderloin

San Francisco’s Tenderloin trannies, and in particular the busted queens who do the weekend shows at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, are near and dear to a lot of SF gays.

The place is a serious blast from the past, or from somewhere where they still traipse up the aisle collecting dollars (at least twice) during every number, and where, as OUT once put it, “The production is ramshackle: CDs skip, wigs tilt, falsies ride up out of cleavage, and yet there are nights when the show is almost transcendent.” This is old-school drag at its gritty finest, and documentaries like this one have tried to capture the sublime tragedy of it all so the young gays don’t forget.

Now there’s a new documentary short by James Hosking called “Beautiful at Night” that follows three of these current Aunt Charlie’s performers, Olivia Hart, Collette LeGrande, and Donna Personna, and let’s them tell their personal stories.

The thing is 28 minutes long, so if you hate drag or this bores you, by all means skip it. But it’s kind of amazing.

Beautiful By Night from James Hosking on Vimeo.

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6 thoughts on “Middle Aged Drag, In HD, In San Francisco’s Tenderloin”

  1. Although I’m not a Drag Queen performer, this was a very introspective look into an older Drag performers life on so many levels. The subjects were complex and very telling, but also not telling of their lives in so many ways. I wish it were longer to get a more well rounded look of them all. My hope is that every Drag performer would, not only watch this, but also pay homage and respect to those that came before them. These are some of the people who made it all possible, for this no respect having generation to prance around on stage!

    1. “These are some of the people who made it all possible, for this no respect having generation to prance around on stage!”

      Moaning about younger generations is soooooooooooo tired.

  2. A few years back I got one of ‘those’ letters from the IRS. They thought I owed an extra $46,000 from the previous year. My stomach went ill, I had sweats but the first thing I really freaked about as a newly broke fella was “how am I going to tip the ladezz at Aunt Charlie’s”. Truely. This place is such magic that in a state of becoming destitute, all I cared about was them. The performers of Aunt Charlie’s -especially Collette LeGrande are amongst my favorite people on earth. Go see this place. Soak it in. Better than sex by a longshot.

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