an exclusive
QUEER SERIAL
interview SERIES
Special Guest
Author Lisa E. Davis
I chat with my pal Lisa about the history in her two books, and her own experiences in New York City.
Original release date: April 19, 2023
Lisa Davis is a retired teacher and author of two queer history books. Undercover Girl follows the true story of Angela Calomiris, a lesbian photographer in the Village who was undercover in the Communist Party, secretly working as an informant for the FBI. Under the Mink tells the story of drag kings & queens who worked in the mafia’s Village nightclubs in the 1940s, who Lisa got to know personally. In today’s Mattachine Meeting, we’ll talk about how she discovered these stories.
Lisa has essays published all over the place—including one titled "The Butch as Drag Artiste: Greenwich Village in the Roaring Forties" in Joan Nestle's book The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader. Lisa was also a teacher in New York at what she calls "SUNY CUNY LUNY."
As discussed in the episode, check out Julie Enszer's lesbian journal "Sinister Wisdom" here. Explore the Lesbian Herstory Archives here. Learn more about the LGBT Community Center's National History Archive here. Learn more about my work with Randy Wicker here. Also discussed, click here to see "Out in Evansville: An LGBTQ+ History of River City" by Kelley Coures and "The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams" by Jonathan Ned Katz.
Click here to learn more about the legendary Charles "Babe" Baker and the Ha Ha Club's "female impersonator shows," which Ron DeSantis has fascinatingly brought to national attention by citing the 1947 state Supreme Court case that shut the club down in a 2022 complaint against Miami's R House for their drag performances. In a classic move we heard a zillion times on Queer Serial, DeSantis threatened to revoke the restaurant's liquor license. Lisa talks about some interesting connections from today’s gay panic in Florida to another in the 1940s.
She also tells us about legendary drag kings Blackie Dennis and Buddy Bubbles Kent. We talk about all this and more! Join us!
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Check out these free bonus pieces from season 3 & beyond:
Devlyn interviews Transparent creator Joey Soloway
March 4, 2022
SAY GAY 🍊
Anita Bryant & Ron DeSantis
March 14, 2022
Interview with Indiana LGBTQ+ historian Kelley Coures
January 18, 2023
Randy Wicker
& Marsha P. Johnson Papers
currently processing
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APRIL 18, 2023
Tomorrow!! Listen on Patreon OR NOW YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO BONUS EPISODES FOR $2.99/MONTH ON APPLE PODCASTS YAY!!!!
Lisa is the fucking coolest. She’s written two books about lesbians and trans masc folks who lived in the Village. Join us!!
APRIL 19, 2023
Lisa is the fucking coolest. She’s written two books about lesbians and trans masc folks who lived in the Village. Join us!!
Listen on Patreon OR NOW YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO BONUS EPISODES FOR $2.99/MONTH ON APPLE PODCASTS YAY!!!!
📸 Blackie Dennis, a crooner in the Moroccan Village, signed autograph for Dotty, a singer at the club. c. 1940s
Right: Buddy Bubbles Kent, an “exotic dancer” of the same era.
📸 “Her testimony made spectators howl.” Images related to Angela Calomiris, subject of Lisa’s book “Undercover Girl.”
📸 Clockwise: Buddy Kent with top hat at the Moroccan Village in the 1940s; Kent with friends, including Jacquie Howe and Kicky Hall, having a drink at the Page 3; Kent as a chorus boy at the Club 181 with someone noted as “some hooker”; a mafia-run drag show.