Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis by Craig B. Highberger Read Free Book Online

perhaps Neptune would indeed intervene,
    and only in MY CASE …
    which as I heard it was the NEXT CASE!) …
    And like the myths of this particular spirit,
    likened earlier to that of Neptune (et al)
    conceiving of some silly Shanghai-honeymoon at sea,
    mind you, in a bunk bed while the world raged on within the confines of war(II),
    and don’t tell me it was not confined …
    on Land, in the Air, and at Sea along with such nautical appliances as:
    Submarines, Periscopes (UP? did you say?)
    Sailors at hand on Deck
    while down below they are dealing the deadly torpedoes
    along with the MayDays of the Day …
    the Newlyweds (My incipient parents)
    having to do severely WITHOUT our sweet, pristine world
    where the wedding bells have been known to break out the news
    from a way atop (and on high!)
    that the New World’s Man
    (So you should now and forever know that I do not harbor fantasies
    that my Pa is from another galaxy) and wife (this non-fantasy includes My Ma!)
    serene in sumptuous Navy Splendor …
    not a dream or whimsical make believe
    (don’t you think I’d like to say to someone some day, SMILE! I WAS BORN IN A HOSPITAL TOO!!)
    Even though (and here’s the juicy part people)
    my Pa (Oh, my Pa Pa!) took a powder when I was two.
    It is time for the throngs of relatives to be wishing them
    (this goes for the Ma Ma ! remember, as well … and may she always be so!)
    well,
    wishing well for them upon the r-r-r-road
    they had so long ago embarked upon
    beginning anew.
    Alone
    with the rest of their lives to make it all come true,
    all right,
    in loveland.
    Jackie Curtis – the product of this love
    —Jackie Curtis © 1985 The Estate of Jackie Curtis
    Jackie on Sexual Identity:
    My parents were divorced when I was a child. I was a Tennessee Baptist six months of the year and a New York Roman Catholic the rest of the year. And to go into what that would do to a child’s mind, I’m still trying to figure it out. It was very hard to find myself as a boy. When I was an adolescent and went to the movies, I realized that I identified with the female characters. And then the lights would come up and I was attracted to people of the same sex. I don’t think of myself as gay, although I do sleep exclusively with men. But sex is not my main goal, either. Sexual relations don’t play the largest part in my makeup. My makeup doesn’t play the largest part, either. Most drag queens stuff their brassieres, and pad their buns – I don’t think I need that. My body is proportioned just the way it is supposed to be. Anything else would make me feel off balance. And already I’m disconnected enough.

Chapter 2 – Drag

    Jackie as Nola Noonan and Andrew Amic-Angelo as Johnny Apollo in the 1974 revival of Glamour, Glory and Gold on stage at the Fortune Theater, New York.
Photo © Craig Highberger
    Penny Arcade
    Curtis was one of the most magical people I’ve ever known, and I have known a lot of magical people. Curtis was like the Little Prince. That’s who Jackie always reminded me of because he had this incredible idealism, bravura, childish self-centeredness, and make-believe. Very few people maintain that spontaneity, that magic, that joy, that is every person’s birthright. Very few people maintain that past the age of four and Curtis was one of them. When you were in his presence you were in the presence of magic, and you knew it and Jackie brought out your magic. But I think that was ultimately Jackie’s downfall, because Jackie created this charmed world that he couldn’t really come out of. He couldn’t translate to the real world. He somehow was like a fish out of the ocean when he went into the real world.
    When I met Jackie I was heavily involved with the downtown drug scene, with the quintessential non-hippie, black, gay, criminal, junkie culture of downtown New York. I was shooting speed, I was shooting heroin, but I was mostly shooting speed. And I was wacked. I’m 51 now, so it’s very hard for me to