Talking to Rick Karlin, pt. 2
Working for Gay Chicago ...
"I tried to help them expand from just being a bar guide to being more involved with the community, so a lot of my gossip column was press releases about events. I would just rework them and make them sound as if they were gossip. Everybody got the press release but the other papers would just put it in the calender. I would say, 'Now here's the new dish on the benefit for Howard Brown,' but really it was public knowledge. I also made up some characters and I would write bitchy things about them, but they were really non-existant people. People would say, 'Oh he's so nasty.' Helen Highwater was one of those people."
Night of 100 Drag Queens ...
"That started as my birthday party, and Paula Sinclaire and Vikki Spykke were doing a number, then the She-Devils did a number, and it just kind of built. There used to be this thing called 'A Night of 100 Stars,' and it was basically Ann Miller walking across the stage in a Galliano gown. So I thought, 'Why not have A Night of 100 Drag Queens.' So I approached Sidetrack about it, because I had always had my birthday party at Sidetrack, and they were very interested in it, because they don't usually do drag or shows at the bar. It's really thanks to them that it's grown into a nice benefit. It's benefited the Gay Parents Group, Horizons, and now it's a benefit for Equality Illinois.
"When this all started, I had just bought a house and I really didn't need another candle or record album as a present. What I needed was sheetrock and drywall. So I said, 'Don't buy me anything, don't even buy me a card. Anything you would spend, even 59c for a card, we're going to have a jar and put the money in there and it will go to the charity.' The first one raised about $250. I cooked some food and I had an open bar for invitation only for an hour. Then after the bar opened, whatever food was left was for whoever was there. Once I did mom's home cooking, so it was things like mac and cheese and tuna noodle casserole. Then another time it was junk food, that was the trailer trash party."
The perils of pick-ups ...
"I remember the first time I went home with somebody from a bar. They had picked me up at the 21 Club and we stopped at the Club 618, and we were sitting on these platforms that were covered in red shag carpeting, or it might have been red at one time but it was pretty filthy. We were sitting there talking and a rat ran over my foot and I insisted that this person take me out. He took me back to his home in Oak Park. He was giving me a blowjob and I was running my fingers through his hair and it came off in my hand. I didn't know the protocol, do you put it back, do you set it aside, do you put it on ... ?"
Eddie Dugan's Bistro ...
"I used to love going to the Bistro, and I remember Tommy Noble used to do voguing, and that was the first time I ever saw that, and that had to be '76. He did it in high fashion drag, looking like an advertising exec on Michigan Avenue. There was a group of us that used to go from Horizons, and we called ourselves Debutantes Incorporated To Save Humanity ( DISH ) . We would have a cotillion in Lincoln Park, kind of Radical Faerie stuff now you look at it. ... Miss Peaches was one. He was my roommate, he's actually my son's unofficial godmother ... we were roommates for eight years and he's still one of my best friends. So a group of us used to run around, and I was actually the oldest, but we all came out about the same time."
His 'n' Hers ...
"We used to go to His 'n' Hers on Addison, it had been on Clark, but I'd never been to that one. We used to go there for brunch and I used to bring my son, who was four or five, because it was more of a restaurant on Sunday mornings, and he would terrorize the place.
"I used to see Trish and Lori there, and for a very short time there was a gay and lesbian gospel group and they performed there once in a while. The group was mixed, and I think it was primarily white folks, but it was men and women, and all colors of the rainbow."
Memory check: 1993 was the first year that Rick Karlin's Birthday Benefit Bash at Sidetrack was called "Night of 100 Drag Queens." Performers that night were Vikki Spykke, Paula Sinclaire, Samantha Sinclair, Carlotta Nerve, Daisy Mae, Freda Laye, Memory Lane, Honey West, Charlene Ungar, Gina Taye, Tina Tech, Jaye LeBow, the She-Devils, and many more. The event began at 3 p.m.
Stage 618 ( 618 N. Clark St. ) , according to Richard Pfeiffer's column ( Chicago GayLife Friday, April 16, 1976 ) was owned by Chuck Renslow, using staff from his recently burned down disco Zolar ( 936 W. Diversey ) . However, the Stage 618 opened on Jan. 2, 1976, before the Zolar fire. Renslow says that although he helped start the 618, it was run by Ira Jones.
