WHET the cast of Paris is Burning

Most dead or in jail. FA LA LA LA LA...

I think one of them went on to be a backup dancer for Madonna (?)

I know when this one, Dorian Corey, died, they found a dead man in a trunk in her closet. He'd been there since the 1970s or something.

Dorian Corey was gangsta

Uh, yeah. DON'T TRY TO STEAL THAT ONE'S WIG!

The mummified body was found with a note attached: "This poor man broke into my apartment, so I had to shoot him."

It was a NEW YORK magazine cover story 05/02/94 - [italic] The Drag Queen Had a Mummy in Her Closet [/italic]

You can see it HERE, but it's difficult to read, as it's a little small.

(I don't buy the intruder story, as he was shot in the back of the head.)

Probably most murdered. All the trannies I knew back then thought no one could tell they were still men with parts. ALL of them seemed to chase after straight guys. All of them (from what they told me) lied on the first date about their gender. At least half of them were beaten up at least once when the guy found out. One of them got a marriage proposal from a guy who never figured it out AKA The Crying Game but it never went any further. They all lied because they all had it in their head if the guy would fall in love with them first, then maybe he would be ok with the gender thing. Most of the time, that didn't work out so well. No one wants to be tricked into sleeping with a gender you are not into.

I've read that a lot of them either died of AIDS complications or murder.

Bump

I'll try to find the article. Apparently EVERYONE is dead with the possible exception of the dude you see doing a bunch of sewing. Fucking tragic. God I love that film.

The "dude" you see doing a bunch of sewing, Kim Pendavis, was a transman, who I believe died of heart failure circa 1993. His buddy, Freddie Pendavis, who did all Kim's ironing and will walk when he's ready, I believe is still alive and going strong. He was a charmer.

Freddie circa 2007.

Thanks for the clarification r12 Really sad...all of those people gone.

What happened to the little trans escort, the one who talked about having to run for his life after his date found his little "thingy"?

Murdered, by any chance?

r15, Angie Xtravaganza talks about the murder of Venus Xtravaganza, the main daughter of her house, during the movie. How long has it been since you saw Paris Is Burning? Maybe you need to watch it again if you can't remember what happened to Venus.

R15: Murdered in the late 80's - early 90's.

Didn't one of the two street kids become a famous poet?

William Jackson, aka house mother Pepper Labeija, had diabetes and had both feet amputated. He eas bedridden for the last 10 years of his life, dying in 2003.

Many of them were heroin addicts - I used to see them nodding off at late night clubs in NYC and then one of them would be slapping them to keep them up.

And yes - they're all dead except one or two. Long dead - most died within 10 years of the film release.

Damn. Haven’t seen the film in years but fucking loved it.

One of the best documentaries. Jenny Livingston did it, I think, as her final project at Yale (undergrad? Masters?). Then Madonna stole it.

R15, yes R16 is right. Angie Xtravaganza says that Venus was found strangled to death under a bed. Apparently, she was there for a few days. Venus' family also refused to identify her body. I feel like Venus was one of the people who wasn't really meant for this earth. Too fragile, and a mess. Sad.

A mummy in my closet? Wow! Crazy stuff.

R15 can’t handle it he is an overgrown orangutan!

R24 Lol, I think he pronounced it, "orrang-gu-tang"!

r25 is right

Wow trans women used to be so cool and interesting. And now we have Caitlin and all those frumpy bitches

Somewhat OT:

I don't know why this always makes me laugh so much...it just does.

What about the two teens that were out after 2am? Or the guy who wanted to take his Ninja house to Japan?

My favorite was Octavia St. Laurent. She was beautiful but also very realistic about her gender identity: "I ain't no woman, don't wanna be no woman."

R29 Willi Ninja died of AIDS-related heart failure in 2006.

I think all men are dogs. Every man starts barking sooner or later.

So many great quotes

Were they even teens? I read on here that the talking one came out as Trans. They even linked to a club video of said person it was sad because the linked had haf bad work done. Beauty is a gift, it's a crying shame to waste in one's youth.

The movie came very close to never seeing the light of day. Jennie was castigated for appropriating a black gay culture rather than using her white privilege for good- documenting these souls for us to bear witness to a slice of thier lives for all of eternity. All the people involved signed off on profits as it was a documentary, Jennie’s uncle and the production and movie companies would’ve never agreed to push it through the system becuase there was NO proven audience to market it to back then. Jenny eventually went back and paid families and those involved that were still alive. It’s sad because this kind of push back (even up today) prevents future collaborations productions from ever being made. I’m waiting to see what kind of push back “Pose” will get despite Ryan Murphy's diligence about the ball communities’ involvement

[Quote]Lol, I think he pronounced it, "orrang-gu-tang"!

I pronounce it that way, too! So, that's incorrect?

What a sweet person Venus was in that clip

R8, I saw the same thing in the 90s. One tried to give my straight brother a BJ but I outed him first. My bro was stunned.

Tricking sex partners = nonconsensual = rape

I loved the movie, but felt sad for these men who wanted nothing more than to look like supermodels.

That’s like being in love with a straight dude. It’s just not going to happen & the best thing one can do is accept it & move on.

As a teenager from a broken home I was very much part of a “house” of gay men in Boston’s South End in the early 90’s.

They made the best of the world they had, found a community when they’re own families cast them out, and lots of sex, fun and risk together... also watching out and caring for each other- without smartphones!

I’d say they’re doing better than most teen youth nowadays

yum-00000000000

One of the walkers in Executive Realness became an analyst at Lazard Frères and did very well, retired to her chalet in Megève.

What happened to the emcee?

O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E!!! You own EVERYthing!

It's a really good movie. There are such great things in it--not just with the drag queens, but also with Eileen Ford explaining her philosophy of modeling, and Gwen Verdon being so vapid.

But they're almost all dead. Dorian Corey died in 1993; the very sweet Angie Xtravaganza did of AIDS related liver disease in 2003; Willi Ninja died of AIDS complications in 2006; Octavia St Laurent died in 2009; Paris Duprée ("That's right! I said it! Butch queen! Boy in the day, girl at night") died in 2011.

I think Brooke Xtravaganza is still alive, as well as Freddie Pendavis.

It is a known fact that a woman DO carry an evening bag at dinnahtoime!

I don't tell you you're ugly but I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly.

[quote]I think Brooke Xtravaganza is still alive, as well as Freddie Pendavis.

Carmen Xtravaganza is also alive and well.

A bunch of shady lowlifes. Sorry but while the film itself is entertaining, the cast was nothing but shady characters...thieves, scammers, whores and various human waste. I hate people who steal and lie and live in denial about how pathetic their lives are. I use to see kids like this at a dance bar in San Diego...it got old quick. When they weren't hogging the dance floor posing like they were in George Hurrell photos they were starting fights, stealing drinks and tips and basically being vile people.

r43, the emcee of O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E fame, Junior Labeija, was still going strong as of the Labeija 50th Anniversary Ball, January 2018.

This article is from March of 2017, but if you want to know where they are now.

Yeah, even when the film first came out, I found the cast and their goals beyond mundane, absolutely shallow. It was a time when people were still fighting for their lives and they were all about vogueing? Or playing dress-up? More silly examples of so-called Empowerment.

Didn't really like any of them as people either.

The subjects of "PiB" weren't meant to be examples of empowerment or admirability, they were people who'd gotten the short end of the stick in every possible way, and were struggling to stay alive and to maybe find something that might make life worth living. If few of them were working to really improve their lives it's because improvement seemed impossible, for most of them the only way up seemed to be getting a sex change and getting a dreary cubefrau job somewhere. Not exactly something to pursue with fervor.

So while they had no real hope of a better life, and not that much hope of seeing tomorrow, they managed to create a bit of happiness and beauty for themselves, which is more than most people can do when things are hopeless. Certainly that's beyond the capacity of the average bitter old Datalounger.