Drag: A Magazine About Transvestites

New York: Queens Publications, 1970. Vol. 1, No. 1. Saddle-stapled in illustrated wraps. 39 pp. Photo-mechnanical duplication. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and illustrations throughout. Light discoloration to wraps and slight loss at spine; otherwise, very good, with binding tight and contents clean. Item #10456

The rare premiere issue of Drag Magazine, published by Lee Brewster and illustrated throughout with drag performances and drag activism.

Lee Brewster was one of the central figures in New York’s drag scene of the 1960s and ‘70s. Fired from a job as a file clerk at the FBI for sexuality, Brewster moved to New York in the early 1960s. Brewster was the owner of Lee’s Mardi Gras, the most well-known and celebrated boutique for drag queens in the 1960s and ‘70s, and throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, was the publisher of Drag magazine. Brewster, along with Inez Bunny Eisenhower was also a founding member of the Queens Liberation Front, an important trans activist organization founded in 1969 to fight the relegation of drag queens to the back of pride march and frequent collaborators with the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Eisenhower, known also as Barbara Lamere, performed in Ridiculous Theatrical Company performances, some of the fliers of which can be found later in this catalog, including: When Queens Collide, Jack Smith’s film Big Hotel, Whores of Babylon and Turds in Hell. According to at least one source, Eisenhower may have also used the stage name Lola Pashalinski which was also used by the cis actress Regina Hirsch who also performed in the RTC. Both Brewster and Eisenhower remain remarkably understudied.

 This first issue of the magazine, produced in a cheap Xerox format, contains a feature on the first Christopher Street Liberation Day march in 1970 and the trans contingent at that march, illsutrated with photos from the march. Drag balls across the country are also reported on, with trans icons such as Charles Pierce and Barb Rella and Mel Michaels depicted in this issue.

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