A century before RuPaul, a drag queen was one of the top-paid entertainers in America

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A century before RuPaul, a drag queen was one of the top-paid entertainers in America
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Born of vaudeville, drag has come a long way, baby.

It was in the 1980s and ‘90s that the art form really transformed from female impersonation and parody to something with more bite.

“Modern drag really began with Wigstock and the East Village scene,” says DeCaro. “It’s the aesthetic oftoday. They’re not really trying to be a beauty queen. It's Varla Jean Merman saying, ‘I can sing opera, but I do it while I eat spray cheese from a can,'” New York in the 1980s was home to Limelight and the Pyramid Club. To Charles Busch, Lypsinka, Lady Bunny and, of course, RuPaul. Their in-your-face approach mirrored the strides being made in LGBT equality, says DeCaro, and the growing comfort queer people felt in living authentically. “Once you have a drag show in Tompkins Square Park—in the middle of the day—you kind of rip the hinges off the closet,” he says.

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