This might be the best Humans of New York post ever

"My mom threw me out of the house at seventeen for getting pregnant, then had me arrested when I tried to get my clothes. Then she fucked the head of parole to try to keep me in jail. She was some prime pussy back then. But the warden did some tests on me and found out I was smart, so I got a scholarship to go anywhere in New York. I chose the Fashion Institute of Technology, which I hated. But by that time I was already getting work making costumes for the strippers and porn stars in Times Square. All my friends were gay people, because they never judged me. All I did was gay bars: drag queen contests, Crisco Disco, I loved the whole scene. And I couldn’t get enough of the costumes. My friend Paris used to sit at the bar and sell stolen clothes from Bergdorf and Lord and Taylors, back before they had sensor tags. So I had the best wardrobe: mink coats, 5 inch heels, stockings with seams up the back. I looked like a drag queen, honey. One night a Hasidic rabbi tried to pick me up because he thought I was a tranny. I had to tell him: ‘Baby, this is real fish!”

"Prime pussy"

LOL!

Find this woman an agent!

That coat must have been FAAAAABULOUS, about 100 years ago.

Real, but not so fresh.

The post could be a movie all by itself

Just when the homogenized NYC gets to be too much, this woman comes along and saves the day!

There's a second part!

“My stripper name was Tanqueray. Back in the seventies I was the only black girl making white girl money. I danced in so many mob clubs that I learned Italian. Black girls weren’t even allowed in some of these places. Nothing but guidos with their pinky rings and the one long fingernail they used for cocaine. I even did a full twenty minutes in the place they filmed Saturday Night Fever. But I made my real money on the road. Three grand on some trips. Every time Fort Dix had their pay day, they’d bring me in as a feature and call me ‘Ms. Black Universe’ or some shit like that. I had this magic trick where I’d put baby bottle tops on my nipples and squirt real milk, then I’d pull a cherry out of my G-string and feed it to the guy in the front row. But I never used dildos on stage or any shit like that. Never fucked the booking agents. Never fucked the clients. In fact, one night after a show, I caught another dancer sneaking off to the Tate Hotel with our biggest tipper. Not allowed. So the next night we put a little itching powder in her G-string. Boy did she put on a show that night. Didn’t see her again until ‘The Longest Yard’ with Burt Reynolds. So I guess she finally fucked the right one.”

I LOVE THAT Humans of NY POST!! Hilarious but real!

This needs to be a movie, or a miniseries.

People are trying to figure out who the woman she's speaking about at R8's post was since there weren't that many women in The Longest Yard.

It's obviously not Bernadette Peters. One other option is Anitra Ford, who played "Melissa" in the movie and also starred in The Big Bird Cage with Pam Grier and Invasion of the Bee Girls.

Someone on Twitter posted that they want Jenifer Lewis to play her in the movie!

Like all drifters she is a sociopath. A real nasty person I'm sure.

[quote] People are trying to figure out who the woman she's speaking about

It may have been an extra

"Like all drifters she is a sociopath. A real nasty person I'm sure."

And here is r13 asking for the playground manager to remove the black people who are walking in a public park.

Someone needs to make a series about this woman's life for sure.

r13, she's hardly a drifter, having lived in NY her whole life (not that all drifters are sociopaths, anyway).

Did they talk about what she is up to now? (the former Tanqueray)

I doubt that woman is a drifter, not wearing a coat that was once quite fabulous.

HONY is giving me LIFE!

God I miss the old NYC. The hustlers, strippers, con artists - making a buck however you can to pay your $100 rent. So many true characters. Now everyone wants to work for Google or Goldman. People were the treasure of NYC - more than buildings, clubs, train stations.

"Baby, this is real fish" would be the ultimate Real Housewives tagline.

Oprah will finally win that Oscar playing her.

...and become the spokeswoman for Mrs. Paul's, R22

I'm surprised no one has called this post transphobic yet.

That's because it isn't transphobic, dumbass.

She hasn't finished

One of the worst HONY. Did it change hands? This is just cray cray.

So who's the ex-POTUS she referenced?

R28 Good question. I'd assume Clinton but it depends on the year she's talking about. You really can't rule any of them out except for Carter. LOL

She is fabulous. What a great life and attitude. Or at least no regret. Truly a relic of old NY.

R29, Can't find her Instagram but supposedly someone figured out who she refers to on that board. Time frame apparently was the 70's.

[quote] "But I never turned tricks. Well, except for one time"

Tanqueray belongs in the Datalounge Hall of Fame.

Nixon

[quote] That's because it isn't transphobic, dumbass.

Really? Here I was thinking that calling your pussy REAL literally to oppose a tranny's (her own words) would grant any woman the title of a transphobe , but I guess she's a POC so cancel culture will overlook it.

Tanqueray is a national treasure.

I have a fur coat that matches her hat and cuffs.

[quote]Really? Here I was thinking that calling your pussy REAL literally to oppose a tranny's (her own words) would grant any woman the title of a transphobe , but I guess she's a POC so cancel culture will overlook it.

And that's pretty much why a lot of us who used to defend transpeople cannot stand them anymore. REAL Women get fake tits and people call them out as fake tits, so why are trans a-holes so special? Why should you be treated differently? You get a fake pussy and expect people to pretend it's real? Ain't happening. It's fake, just like the fake tits both real women and transwomen get. It's not a real pussy no matter how many times you wish to the blue fairy to make it real.

Finally a role for Julia Roberts to really sink her teeth into. And Young Tanqueray can be played by Jennifer Lawrence.

I love you, R38

I enjoyed her story about her life, and it did remind me of NYC/the Northeastern USA cities before gentrification; but I wonder how much of what she claims about her life is true? Her claim about being put into jail for being pregnant as a teen and then getting tested and then having someone just pay for her to go to a fasion/design college/university is suspicious. I hope she is able to afford her rent and to live in/near NYC, and that she stopped being a stripper/hooker and has happiness in her life. I hope she did not have a hard life, no pun, and enjoys the rest of her life since she deserves it. She reminds me of the hookers in the NYC Hunts point documentary below.

I remember hearing from eldergay and elderbi friends who traveled to, or lived in NYC in the 1970s and very early-mid 1980s about those discos she names, and all about the stripper/hooker sex club and porn store scene in Times square NYC, and how bars and clubs for bisexual and gay men were mostly all owned by the Italian mafias. I was told or learned about that mafiosi guy she mentions from Italian/Italian-American friends and relatives; but it was common knowledge that the porn stores/adult bookstores-back when pulp fiction was written/published sold in adult bookstores-porn theaters, strip clubs, etc. in/around NYC and the other states close to NY all went to the Italian mafiosi.

The president she did not name-if it actually even happened with her hooker friend, could have been Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, or even Reagan. But if it was a VP I'm guessing it was Nelson Rockereller when he was still alive and not fucking the hooker he called his "aide" named Megan Marshack.

True R37, you also have Trans people who get the full sex change surgery, who will go on about how trans women who do not get the fake tits, or fake vagina, or take hormones, or transmen who do not cut their tits off or get a fake cock, are not really trans because they did not get the dangerous and basically permanent surgery done or do not want to take hormones by their own choice.

Humans Of New York is creepy. The guy will totally give our pictures to the CIA.

R41 I went to their tumblr blog and instagram page earlier and they were interviewing a lot of people in Hong Kong, and I understand that they are protesting for hopefully their independence from PRC but it has nothing to do with NYC, and these people do not have family in NYC/Chinatown, etc.

[quote]I hope that she stopped being a stripper/hooker and has happiness in her life.

Yes, I hope so too at her age. Who would hire her?

Am more interested in the guy behind "Humans of New York" series, Brandon Stanton.

Tanqueray's ratty wig, and shabby (but not dirty or totally rags) tells me she is like many other "survivors" of old NYC.

She's probably living in some sort of public or subsidized housing if not a shelter. That is unless she saved her pennies along with paying into SS at the time, got a rent controlled or stabilized apartment that she can afford now thanks to Social Security checks and some other funds (including rent subsidy).

Sadly the NYC these people knew from 1960's through 1980's is largely gone. You can still find the odd street sex workers in parts of Bronx, Queens or maybe Brooklyn, but real money has moved indoors (for women, gays and trans) via internet or apps.

The cheap fleabag/SRO hotels that many found apartments are largely gone as well. Ones that are left mostly are filled with homeless either just out of prison or with various mental issues.

Theme song for many of these people would be "Hier Encore" (translated into English as "Yesterday When I Was Young"). They spent so much of their youth being fabulous and whatever they just didn't or couldn't see time and youth will some day run out. While everyone else was getting educations, building stable careers and laying foundations to carry themselves into a comfortable middle and old age, these people had better things to do.

Not that it was bad, but like that fable about the grasshopper and ant; you know what is going to happen, and it usually does.

Nowadays most of the gays are just as square and narrow-minded as the straights.

r42 - how great that this guy is fucking documenting Hong Kong protesters. Beijing must love him.

She is REAL.

R43 the one hooker in the documentary I linked still is in the life apparently. I have no idea who would pay for her but her adult children have basically cut her out of their lives.

Also if you look up topics here on DL or Lipstick alley about where the women from hookers at the point are now, you will learn that this one hooker who is older is still working and sees tricks/clients.

Most prostitutes-both women, men, trans or whatever have moved online, but the ones who are on the streets from what a hetero friend who has paid for the services of a hooker occasionally tells me, are addicted to hard drugs, into unsafe high risk sex, and that most of the ones online are as well.

In the Netherlands/Benelux where prostitution is legal a Dutch friend tells me how there's lots of human trafficking/forced prostitution/sexual slavery and how in Amsterdam there's only one older hooker who is basically a dominatrix who sees a small number of older male clients who are around her age and she does this by choice but how the rest of the women in Amsterdam and all other cities have Muslim pimps.

R45 don't be surprised if a go fund me page shows up for her, if it has not already. I find it strange and funny that so many millennial people commenting on the HONY facebook, instagram, and tumblr pages don't know how times square and 42nd street had hookers/strippers, porn stores, and how open sex was and how it was before NYC was gentrified. I am a Gen X'er so I grew up with this and still remember it. I hope Tanqueray is not homeless but her story is not that unique for an old hooker from NYC she reminds me of Cookie Mueller in a way but without being bisexual or in John Waters' films.

She looks like Michelle Obama.

As with many drag queens, trannies, hoes, etc.... you have to take what Stevie Johnson/Tanqueray says with a grain of salt.

Anyone who has been around these people either socially or professionally knows their talent for truth stretching is legendary. Add varying amounts of narcissism along with self delusion what you get is often a very mangled and twisted version of anything.

Don't think "Tanqueray" is homeless, but likely living in some sort of NYC provided or subsidized housing for elderly, and yes receiving various forms of "welfare" assistance such as food stamps, etc... Fact she is able to show photographs of herself in younger days to me indicates she as some sort of stable housing were able to keep such things. Have seen plenty of bag ladies roaming NYC streets training their lives behind them, Tanqueray doesn't seem to fit that bill.

These things will cover some of the basics (roof over one's head, some food, etc...), but don't give much direct spending money. If still able to sew and has access to a machine, perhaps she's making pocket money that way.

It's sad how we try to make glamorous the mentally ill.

R43 Kirk Douglas. His dementia has worsened to the point that CZJ can't be alone in a room with him because he'll try to fondle her tits and pussy again.

[quote]Theme song for many of these people would be "Hier Encore" (translated into English as "Yesterday When I Was Young"). They spent so much of their youth being fabulous and whatever they just didn't or couldn't see time and youth will some day run out. While everyone else was getting educations, building stable careers and laying foundations to carry themselves into a comfortable middle and old age, these people had better things to do.

You sound like you are a blast at parties.

[quote][R43] Kirk Douglas. His dementia has worsened to the point that CZJ can't be alone in a room with him because he'll try to fondle her tits and pussy again.

If only he were still healthy and lucid so he could simply rape her like he wood[sic] with others.

[quote][R43] Kirk Douglas. His dementia has worsened to the point that CZJ can't be alone in a room with him because he'll try to fondle her tits and pussy again.

If only he were still healthy and lucid so he could simply rape her like he wood[sic] with others.

True R51 and R52 it is not surprising at all that lower class POC are revering this woman like her story is unique or that she's a queen, etc. and completely believe all of her BS and lies, when it's like you wrote if you have been around strippers, hookers, TS/TG people who have been hookers, drag queens, etc. they all love to lie and completely stretch the truth beyond what really happened.

I have no doubt that Steph Johnson/Tanqueray worked as a hooker, go-go/burlesque dancer, etc. but why would a President pick up some random street hooker from NYC/NJ just to lick her clit only, when any of them could have had a discreet hooker/call girl in/around DC and would want full sex? I would not be surprised if all Presidents from the USA have cheated on their wives.

She is getting a podcast which is not surprising. I'd imagine that if she had a book ghost written for her or a film made that the publisher or director, or Steph/Tanqueray would be sued for libel or slander.

I’m tellin y’all that is Michelle Obama and she is punkin us.

How can any datalounger be dismissive of this woman? She the real-life Dawn Davenport!

[quote] True [R51] and [R52] it is not surprising at all that lower class POC are revering this woman like her story is unique or that she's a queen, etc. and completely believe all of her BS and lies, when it's like you wrote if you have been around strippers, hookers, TS/TG people who have been hookers, drag queens, etc. they all love to lie and completely stretch the truth beyond what really happened.

Which of the posters here are "lower class POC"?

It would seem that any such peop!e would be least impressed with Tanqueray's tale. Tanqueray's likely appeal is to gays of all stripes and affluent straight people with no real perspective on what her life was truly like.

The president had to be Nixon, right? I don't think Bill Clinton did black girls.

It doesn’t matter if it’s all true or not, she’s a great story teller. My dad had a client who specialized in stealing expensive clothes from NYC department stores, and that would have been mid-sixties to mid-seventies. Apparently she was quite good at it, it not so good that she didn’t need a lawyer. So that part rings especially true to me.