Photos from The Real Lady Stretch Archive

Text The Real Lady Stretch

On June 22nd 1996 Killer Plastic O, the iconic and groundbreaking club I worked at for more than a decade in Milano, hosted a party celebrating the end of the ‘Festival di Cinema Gay e Lesbico di Milano’ and the release of two seminal queer movies: Wigstock, The Movie, and Bruce LaBruce’s Hustler White, with special guests, beside the queercore director, actor and drag queen extraordinaire Alexis Arquette, as Eva Destruction and Glenn Belverio ( as Glennda Orgasm). Alexis used Eva Destruction as her drag name at the time but she was credited as Alexis on the flyer, as an actor Alexis was already quite well known for his incredible performance in Last Exit To Brooklyn and roles in Pulp Fiction, Frisk etc, so we were all big fans and quite excited ( I was also super excited that BLB would be there but being a shy bitch I don’t think we interacted too much). I vaguely recall an early dinner before the event (I always say that if you remember the 90s you weren’t there). I remember Alexis told us about his misadventures with the customs guys at the airport, apparently they were looking rather perplexedly at his stretch mini-dresses and hooker shoes, and when he tried to explain by saying ‘That’s my Drag!’ they thought he said ‘drugs’ and he almost got arrested. Alexis isn’t with us anymore, unfortunately, and parties of any kind aren’t even on the horizon for the time being, so when I found the negatives from that crazy, eventful night ( I won’t go into detail but, amongst other things, my habit of being on stage with a drink got the floor slippery and Alexis was NOT happy about that, no hunty, she was not) , I had to get them developed and scanned, and share them with somebody. This is a snapshot of a time between Supermodel and Drag Race, when being a drag queen could get you straight trade but not a gay boyfriend, when contouring wasn’t even a word, queens had to use theater make-up because that was the only full coverage option, and both stars and local eccentrics had to change in a dirty basement on a Saturday night. Enjoy.

The Real Lady, Leatheretta Stretch.

PS: You can read an entertaining excerpt from Glennda Orgasm’s diaries pertaining ( amongst other things to this legendary night) here: Glennda Orgasm on caviar and baby potatoes with Debbie Harry

AND you can see a VHS video from that night on YouTube Here: Hustler White Party