Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette

Unlike the conservative, homogenized culture of contemporary American life, the entire political and cultural landscape of the country in the '60s and early 70's was unsettled and prone to violent tremblers. Ideological wars raged on all fronts as our society twisted with the growing pains of social evolution. Within this dynamic context, the Cockettes took their place center stage as part of the pageantry of the new wave of self-discovery and self-expression. The Cockettes' theatrical edginess, raw energy, cheeky humor, and irrepressible sexuality combined to create an irresistible allure. Lavishly adorned with Hollywood glamour, our anarchic antics were a living expression of the idealism of the '60s flower children....What was initially just an excuse to party soon became a series of elaborately stages extravaganzas. As hippie ingenues, we constructed wildly spontaneous shows that lampooned mainstream culture through racy parodies, vintage songs, and sassy dialogue.... In our chemically enriched performances, the Cockettes blithely mocked sexual stereotypes in clever numbers that features outrageously androgynous costumes stitched together from thrift-store scraps and Dumpster castaways. We attracted a huge underground following and blazed a trail for the glitter rock era to come. --- excerpts from book's Introduction