Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette (Paperback)

by Pam Tent (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 2002, David Weissman's and Bill Weber's documentary The Cockettes brought the eponymous 1970s San Francisco glitter-rock drag theatrical troupe back into the spotlight. In this colorful account, Tent, one of the ensemble's few "real women," relives the glory days. Fleeing Detroit for San Francisco in 1969, Tent found some kindred souls, most of them drug-addled drag queens and all of them young and ambitious. The Cockettes were born soon after and performed in midnight musical extravaganzas at the Palace, a seedy Chinatown movie theater. Tent locates the Cockettes' origins in show biz and the avant-garde; one pioneering Cockette, Hibiscus (né George Harris Jr.), came from a family with deep roots in New York theater; another, Link Martin, had been a protégé of poet Helen Adam and the lover of Samuel R. Delany. In the background lurk the East Coast shadows of Andy Warhol's Factory and Charles Ludlam's Theater of the Ridiculous. In their prime, the Cockettes brought a masculinist energy to drag theater (they speckled their beards with glitter) and produced two dozen vaudeville pageants and several films, but drugs, internal rivalry and a New York performance debacle ended the Cockettes' reign in the fall of 1972. With earthy humor, Tent deftly juggles a huge cast of characters while providing a nostalgic trip through San Francisco's gender-bending heyday.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Although the Cockettes gave their last public performance in 1972, interest in the zany theatrical troupe was reawakened following the appearance of David Weissman and Bill Weber's documentary film The Cockettes (2002).Back in the day, an appreciative column by Rex Reed led to the San Francisco-based gender-bending and LSD-fueled act's playing New York, where many in an audience studded by the likes of John Lennon, Anthony Perkins, and Angela Lansbury walked out in disgust or frustration. Lansbury leaving an avant-garde performance was no kiss of death, of course, but productions like Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma were not instantly accessible, let alone entertaining, to audiences beyond the Cockettes' zany Bay-area home turf. Though the company lasted little more than two years, its outrageous performances and perspectives provide a book's worth of entertaining reminiscence for founding member Tent. Valuable as a cultural artifact, Tent's lighthearted chronicle also reminds us of what radical sixties-era theater was really like before big-budget behemoths like Hair and Oh! Calcutta adulterated revolutionary brio into bankable BO. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books; 1st edition (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155583874X
• ISBN-13: 978-1555838744
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,091,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cockettes - A MUST for expirimental theater enthusiasts, January 4, 2005

By	Daniel Nicoletta (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This important seminal era of avante garde theater and queer history circa 1968-74 was almost lost to posterity due to the AIDS deaths of so many of its' important voices. Thank Goddess it has been lovingly and meticulously posited in history/herstory in a tangible way in this book by one of the Cockettes best suited for the calling - Sweet Pam. Her tone IS sweet, but hardly naive. The author deftly weaves the significance of this cultural watershed throughout her priceless juicy gossipy gutter level dish. For those of us who were too young to be in SF then and who want to know more, the book provides a detailed chronological survey of the evolution of the Cockettes. The book serves as the perfect step child to the great documentary film about the Cockettes that came out a couple of years ago.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Wonderful, January 5, 2005

By	Michael Wertz "Wertzie" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is worth a read for the outfit descriptions alone. This book made me want to invest in gallons of glitter. Fascinating: these folks depended and thrived on a system of families and communes rather than a "straight" lifestyle of jobs and paychecks. Not only did they thrive, but they created a troupe of performers whose antics I wish I had been around to experience. The Cockettes lived their art, which seems like a rarity in these icky conservative times.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Share the Excitement of a Culturally Important Era, December 20, 2004

By	Robert Burnside (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Pam Tent's voice in her writing of this unusual and culturally important story is much more clear, incisive and organized than the subject she is dealing with. Her letters home provided the basis for a period that many of us, because of the indulgences of the time, have forgotten. It's so interesting to relive it (or see it for the first time) through her eyes. She's such a good story teller and was right in the middle of the whole thing. We are lucky she is still around to tell it-many others have died. I'm sure you'll enjoy "Midnight at the Palace" and will recommend it to anyone interested in the late 60s/early 70s and how that brief cultural explosion affects us today.
Robert Burnside, founder of the "no science fiction, thanks" book club