Another treat from the Ginger Quest collection: There is something so special and precious about a Polaroid. They are magic objects—Doris probably handled this exact photograph after it was taken. This is Greg Foss (Ginger Quest) and Doris Fish (There’s that sixties hippie drag again) out and about in the early 80s.
It always strikes me how often you see Doris surrounded by fairly regular people like this. She went out like this all the time and there just weren’t many other people like her. Flamboyant Drag Queens weren’t popular in those days, but she kept putting in their face until they learned to love her. She knew she was fabulous and pretty soon everyone else did too.
I have to tell you the story Greg told me about the first time he met Doris Fish. If they ever do a movie about her this scene will be in it.
Greg is 20 years old, walking down Castro street in 1979 when the crowd of Castro clones suddenly parts and Doris comes careening towards him on roller skates in full drag, her wig flying wildly in the wind.
She’s handing out flyers for the first Sluts Show…!
Greg couldn’t afford the $2.99 to go but he made up for it later by becoming a regular at the Hotel Utah shows until they made him one of their own…
That’s an only in San Francisco story.
