Jesse Monteagudo: Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and gay book maven who lives with his domestic partner in South Florida. He can be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com online. This article was originally published in Gay Today (Vol. VI, Issue 195). It is reprinted with permission from www.gaytoday.badpuppy.com online.
Charles Pierce (1926-1999) was one of the truly great female impersonators. Pierce hated such a limiting description, almost as much as he hated being called a drag queen. (“I am not a drag queen! I'm a Male Actress!”) Even so, Pierce is best remembered and best-loved for his impressions of the all-time great movie queens: Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn, Jeanette McDonald, Mae West and, above all, Bette Davis.
In or out of costume, Pierce sang, danced, told jokes, kibitzed with the audience and even ran a marionette show (“The Moppettes”). Together with his accompanist Rio Dante and a cast of supporting characters, Pierce made the Gilded Cage the place to be in 1960's San Francisco. Everybody - even stars like Bea Arthur, Angela Lansbury and Rudolf Nureyev - made a point to stop at the Gilded Cage when they visited the “City by the Bay”.
One of Charles Pierce's most faithful followers was his long-time friend, author John Wallraff. Wallraff met Pierce in 1948, when they were students at the famous Pasadena Playhouse acting school. Wallraff helped Pierce when he was down and out, helped write some of his material (which Pierce later took complete credit for), and followed Pierce through four decades of ups and downs. Wallraff even enjoyed a few minutes of fame himself when, as one of the “Beverly Hill Nellies”, he won a talent contest at the Gilded Cage. But, on the whole, Wallraff was content to bask in Pierce's shadow.
“From Drags To Riches: The Untold Story of Charles Pierce,” is John Wallraff's affectionate though critical biography of his long-time friend: “Charles Pierce told me more than once that if I ever wrote his biography, it should be “warts-and-all.” I have not emphasized those “warts,” but you'll find them here, not to denigrate a great performer, but to paint a complete portrait of what the man was truly like beneath the makeup, false eyelashes, girdle, and gowns. A real human being not unlike the rest of us, with all the passions, emotions, triumphs, failings, and foibles that, in the final analysis, make up a human being.” Pierce, to put it mildly, was a bitch. He was also a slut, a control freak, and a megalomaniac who would not tolerate competitors. (Pierce loathed Michael Greer, especially after Greer “stole” some of the parts that Pierce thought should have gone to him.) These are faults that Wallraff is all too eager to remind us of.
Is John Wallraff, who never made it as an entertainer, envious of Pierce's fame? But Wallraff is also the first to recognize Pierce's better qualities, not to mention his “remarkable talent”. Like Sir Noel Coward, Wallraff writes, Pierce had “a talent to amuse.” Above all, Charles Pierce “completely captivated his audiences, for when he had fun, they had fun. When he was onstage, he owned it, and it could be intimating to share that stage with him.” That is a great compliment indeed.
From Drags To Riches benefits from years of reminiscences by the immortal Charles Pierce, and from an incomplete, unpublished autobiography that Pierce worked on before his untimely death from prostate cancer. The 14 pages of black and white photos are a disappointment: Pierce deserves better photos, and in full color, no less. Wallraff's writing is uneven, ranging from tedious to voyeuristic - as in his detailed recollections of Pierce's overactive sex life. Do we really need to know all that? All in all, however, From Drags To Riches achieves its purpose, which is to remind us of a great entertainer and of his even more amazing life.
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