Vegas In Space: The Party by Ginger Quest

The April 3rd, 1982 party at 422 Oak Street that inspired the Sluts A Go-Go to make Vegas in Space

In my opinion, one of the greatest film credits in cinema history is “Based on the party by GINGER QUEST” and everyone who has seen the movie thinks, “Wow, that must’ve been some party.”

Doris Fish Forever is proud to present for the first time, party photos from Ginger Quest herself, Greg Foss. In it, we can see the origins of the film’s concept and characters, most notably with party hostess Ginger’s green empress look closely matching the movie’s.

Greg had been a regular in the Blonde Sin audience, a devoted fan who befriended the starving drag queens and took them home to feed them in his home at 422 Oak Street. He allowed Doris to use the apartment for turning tricks, and the gorgeous Victorian house became the new headquarters of the Sluts A Go-Go when Doris decamped from the apartment dubbed Slut Central (X and Tippi remained at the Market and Sanchez apartment). Soon recruited into drag, he took his name from the Gilligan’s Island character and the Jonny Quest animated series and joined in as a performer in the Fish for Xmas show and was in the cast for Naked Brunch and the Happy Hour variety shows.

 

 

The queens had a Las Vegas showgirl party earlier that was dubbed “Vegas in a Toilet”. Ginger’s interest in UFOs inspired the follow-up Vegas party with science fiction themes. Doris designed a hasty flyer using Barbarella poster art, a photo of herself bald and fierce, and a logotype design for the title. Barbarella was a huge movie for Doris. In her collection of over 100 Betamax videotapes there are only two store-bought tapes: Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane, and Barbarella.

Doris Fish describes the party:

Party letter

Who knows what happened in San Francisco in March?

We left town. I, Doris Fish, went to New York, Miss went to LA., and Miss Leading was practically kidnapped to Reno by a notorious local male vocalist (not Tim Spence).

Freida Lay spent the month in Oakland, visiting many of her incarcerated husbands: she’s singlehandedly competing with Bread and Roses in her attempt to entertain every male prisoner in the state.

Stunning.

N.Y. was just creamy. Nowhere is shopping more exciting or life more tenuous. Canine suicide is a common occurence, transvestites are everywhere. I thought New Yorkers could cope with celebrities, but crowds would gather wherever I shopped. I couldn’t make a simple purchase of, say a pair of stockings or, say, some panties without being asked for my autograph and phone number.

I did manage to catch a gig and interview some band named 3 TEENS KILL 4. I can’t remember what they said, I didn’t bother to take notes. A lot of people like them and they may be big one day.

Remember, I saw them first.

I do, however, remember what I wore: pink stretched slacks, a big man’s black wool sweater (which I found, dear readers, under a piano at the mab) , my beautiful oversized solid plastic peace symbol pendant and my day-glo yellow poodle choker—not a choker for poodles but a choker of poodles—-and my hair just rinsed and tossed. My face, of course, was fabulous.

Meanwhile, Miss X, my oldest friend in show-art flew to LA to negotiate for our episode of LOVE BOAT.

MISS X: The terms were ridiculous! They wanted to pair Doris with Don Knotts but I knew she was holding out for

Warren Beatty. He was busy so we finally settled on John Phillip-Law®

Then I found out they wanted to pair Miss Leading with Gavin MeLeod! Knowing full well she’d never stand for those love scenes (She wanted Ron Ely), I let that sit for the moment and started working on my recom-pensation ($) and the shit really hit the fan. I was talking ocean cruise ($$) and they were talking bus fare(f)!! I cracked wise and split to S.F. Once here, we managed to get ourselves spliced into a Star Trek re-run which premiered at the VEGAS IN SPACE party,

held at the home of socialite/ photographer GINGER Quest

While Miss Leading was freezing her tail off and doing numbers in Reno, I was being attacked by two well tanned youths in one of our city’s more scenic alleys!!

Never mind what I was doing there in the first place… (let’s just call it a secret financial mission); one of them asked me for the time (a common ploy) and before I knew it I was held, hit and frisked! I managed to break free and get in a few good licks of my own before they could wrest my wallet from me, but I had foolishly left my gun at home and so had to let loose a piercing scream.

I watched in amusement as they ran, holding their one an so a tin bleeding ears, whimpering like puppies. I reached my destination breathless and shaken but in full possession of my wallet and relatively unscathed. Now, back to you, DORIS..•

Thank you, Miss X.

Luckily we all returned in time for the party of the year, GINGER QUEST’s Vegas in Space. The passenger list included some of the worst people in the galaxy, some of whom travelled on their own gas. Many had thought outer space meant spaced out. There were at least two creatures (one from the planet Mexico) who were vying for the title of worst queen on earth (the title recently vacated by Coco Vega) and formidable candidates they were, too. And you know who you are.

Our glamourous hostess GINGER QUEST, just back from Hawail, looked really out of this world in a floor-length “hostess” gown in undersea green with magenta sequins and mylar meteor necklace. Her matching cape boasted a huge reflective mylar disc topped by a pointed hairpiece. Her radiant face was day-glo lime.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence lived up to their name in my makeup!! As soon as they arrived they found my exclusive day-glo Poisson eye shadows and doused themselves and the entire house with color.

Ginger quest, sweetheart that she is, warned me not to drink the punch; lethal body fluid in it! I, in a fun mood, served some tuna casserole pellets which turned out to be “Fish Ahoy” cat food. Who knows what the quiche pellets were!! Jennifer Blowdryer looked gorgeous as a financial district secretary, but then of course she has a new… part-time straight job: choosing “Transvestite of the Month” for EGO magazine. Our own editor, GINGER COYOTE arrived with artist LOU RUDOLPH and a video-cam crew.

And speaking of film, moviemaker PHIL FORD and his star, MATT??

were on board. They have just completed “Roller Coaster to Hell” (I play a cameo role as myself in ten years time. Artist BARRY NELSON loved the decor: lots or day-glo fun fur, black plastic and silver mirror mylar.

Barry did the fabulous mobiles at the Stud. Did they really throw them away as chanteuse SARA BIKINI claims? Sara was really “spaced out” (Ginger hadn’t warned her about the punch). Many thanks to Delta employee DAVID SWISHEE (David Swisher) for the L101l and the space cadet badges. Not to worry, David, we won’t tell a soul.

There was a bevy of beauties of all sexes: MISS LEADING, FRIEDA LAY, husband-stealer CHERYL TUDMAN, FRANCINE ZAMMUT (still O.ko after all those marriages), the very spooky VAL DU VAL{see photo of me being spooked), TAMMY SPENCE-S.Fo’s newest sex change, SHEENA WESTON- the most stunning tech crew a star ever had, CARMEL STRELEIN arrived at last with an interesting attitude elevating device, GEORGE EPILEPTIC and groups of space cadets having sex in every corners” They’re turning my home into the

1808 Club!”exclaimed the worldly Miss Quest,

“How can this gorgeous cadet keep his erection with a heirless green drag queen hovering around?”

The only flat note in this symphony of alien allure was the tragic theft of Miss X’s $65.00 red boa and bag containing many irreplacable items. “What next?”was her only comment. Star-dust bunny Freida Lay proceeded through an intergalactic fit and Lilye fell off the top of the upright piano as she passed through a meteor shower. toof the upright piano as she passed through a meteor shower. Tammy Spence suddenly became the worst person in space and was asked to bail out, Reentering the earth’s atmosphere seemed to make everyone cranky, but it passed as soon as we touched down, and disembarkation was completed successfully without incident. All in all, memorable time was had by all. Thank God we won’t have to do it again’til next year.

DORIS FISH and MISS X (godesses)

These photos from Ginger Quest’s personal collection have never been published until now. Photo credit: Greg Foss ©Doris Fish Forever 2025