I am the same person when I wear a suit and go to work. When I do drag, I'm just me in drag, I'm just Sophie, a man in a dress. 'No, it wasn't from Sophie Tucker, that persona belongs to Tillie, the Dirty Old Lady, and is one of her acts. I asked him, 'How did you get the name we all know you by, Sophie? From Sophie Tucker?' Even today at birthday parties, I like to wear a T-shirt my friends gave me that says, 'Butch from Nellie, Ohio.'' And my father called me 'Butch.' That's my story. 'Look, I was born in a town called Nellie, Ohio. It's something he has always been, always enjoyed, and always been comfortable with. We used to play around with each other, and I just thought this was normal sex for boys.'īeing gay has never really been a problem in Larry's life. In high school, I was equipment manager for sports teams. A preacher's two sons, Floyd and Lloyd, brought me out. It was kind of funny, because when I went back to Columbus, I discovered that I had always already been going to gay places even there, but didn't know it.
'In those early days, at the bars in Chicago, I finally figured out my story: I was gay. 4, 1962, one owner joshed with me at the door, 'Now, kid, you're legal. I used my real Ohio IDs, which showed I was 17. You had to be 19 to get into bars and be able to drink liquor.
Gramma Chris, the Haig's star bartender, took the young kid from Ohio under her care and gave him a full education. A perverse play on gender roles, The Volleyball was a bar 'for girls,' and The Scarlet Ribbon 'for boys.' He also found a couple of all-purpose gay bars, King's Ransom at 20 E.
Near the Y at night he discovered a few gay hot spots, one called The Volleyball, and the other The Scarlet Ribbon. and threatened 'he would bury us.' They put electric wires to the back of my head and an electric eye scanned the copy. 'They gave us the speech of Nikita Khrushchev, when he pounded his shoe on the table at the U.N.
He had already won national fame for being The North American Typing Champion. His company had sent him to be a secretary in their new office opening in the Loop. Thirty-three years ago, a young kid named Larry Graham, just out of high school, came to Chicago from Columbus, Ohio, and stayed at the YMCA on Division. On the 7th anniversary of Chicago columnist Jon-Henri Damski's death, his friend Lori Cannon submitted this archival column from Windy City Times, June 25, 1992.