Exciting news from the Australian Queer Archives, we thank them for sharing these digital images with us!
“AQuA recently received a very significant donation of artworks, objects and archival material relating to Doris Fish from Johnny Allen, Ron Smith and the Danny Abood Estate (Johnny Allen). These works significantly extent our existing holdings relating to Doris, which includes photographs, video footage, flyers, writing and artwork, largely relating to their performance career in Australia and involvement with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Doris Fish (Philip Mills) was a drag queen, artist, actor, and writer, based in Sydney and San Francisco. Mills began performing using the stage name Doris Fish in Sydney in 1972 in the radical drag group Sylvia and the Synthetics (1972–1974). In 1975 Mills visited San Francisco for the first time on holiday, before moving there permanently the following year. However, Doris regularly returned to Sydney, Australia in the late 1970s, performing with Cabaret Conspiracy, Gay Theatre Group, and the Doreens, and was also the West-Coast of the USA Correspondent for Sydney-based Campaign Magazine. With the establishment of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras Workshop in 1983, Doris returned annual to volunteer in the Workship and work on community and personal parade floats.
In San Francisco, Mills became one of the most prominent drag queens in the city, forming the drag troupe Sluts-A-Go-Go with Tippi and Miss X in 1979. Performing at venues like Club 181 with shows such as Marc Huestis’ Naked Brunch series and the Phillip R. Ford Happy Hour series culminating in Nightclub of the Living Dead. Beyond the clubs, Doris appeared on a weekly cable news show on the gay community in 1986 and in a popular series of cards from West Graphics throughout the 1980s. Mills’ major legacy is the cult camp classic film Vegas in Space, which he co-wrote and starred in with Phillip Ford. Mills died from complications from AIDS in San Francisco in 1991.
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