Welcome to The Pink Green Room - the chaise longue of historical camp gossip!

-
'The Green Room at Drury Lane Theatre', by George and Robert Cruickshank

It's October. It's cold. It's wet. It's boring. Four things that I have been saying to myself incessantly and we're only five days into the month! With the virus still prevailing over our social lives, and much else besides, I have been persuaded, by popular demand, to transpose the junk shop of historical camp gossip and theatrical tit-bits, that I have been boring my friends and family with for years, onto the web. What follows on this blog are random, and probably sporadic, jottings to keep me occupied and out of everyone's hair. The posts are likely to delve into the arts and culture, both high and low (and not forgetting the lowest of the low) of the LGBT community in the last one-hundred years or so. Sound any good? Well frankly, whether you enjoy reading this or not is something that neither concerns nor interests me particularly - as the late, great Kenneth Williams once said 'I am too old, too tired and too talented to care'. Personally, I think that I have been cajoled into writing this by my partner to stop me rambling on about this sort of thing but if you learn anything or are entertained by anything that I write, then I suppose my haphazard accumulation of theatrical anecdotes and literary trivia have been somewhat worthwhile. When all is said and done, a dash of greasepaint and the swish of a red velvet curtain can bring a bit of vim and vigour to us all - goodness knows we need it after the year we've had! 

So come on in to The Pink Green Room - sit back on your chaise longue, throne, pouffe, or other highly-camp seating arrangement, pour your self a large G&T...or two (because I certainly am) and enjoy!

Varda you later!

The Old Gay Gossipmonger  

5th October 2020


Location: London, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Tis a blushing shame faced spirit: Gielgud's cottaging catastrophe!

-
Image
 Sir John Gielgud was, without a doubt, one of the finest actors of his generation. With his silky smooth tones and polished delivery, he was the archetypal classical actor of the last century with a cerebral quality to his performances which contrasted with the physicality of his contemporaries (such as the much revered Larry Olivier). Despite his own international acclaim, this much admired knight of the realm was in fact arrested for cottaging whilst he was at the pinnacle of his acting career. Naughty, naughty Johnny G! Tut, tut, tut. Whist there was indeed much scandal at the time, this incident failed to blight his career, his reputation or his legacy which lives on - in fact the whole debacle has more or less been confined to the annals of forgotten theatrical history. So, what actually happened? How did dear Sir John comeback from it?   Let me set the scene. It's 1953. It's the 21st of October. Chelsea. Midnight. After a long days rehearsal and a few drinks afterwards,
Read more

Forgotten Queens: The Legendary Mrs Shufflewick

-
Image
Apologies for my absence during this last week or so, not that you've missed me. I've been away for a much deserved break in the country - the Cotswolds to be precise. I know what you're going to say but all this cogitation can be very tiring for an old soak like me, that's not to mention all the heavy lifting I do during the day - those bottles of Gordon's don't get shifted from the Co-op on their own you know, and sometimes I have to make two or three...or four trips a week. Then there's all of the public speaking I do. If you didn't know, I give talks all over the place, imparting my wisdom to whoever is stupid enough to listen. I've had the pleasure of performing before the likes of Duke of Edinburgh...the Prince of Wales... the Duchess of Bedford... and quite a few other well known London pubs. (I can only apologise for that gag - full credit should go to Mr Jameson for all of it's awfulness - but more about him in a mo).  Anyway, there I wa
Read more

Legends of Drag: H.I.H The Grand Duchess Regina Fong

-
Image
Last night, I watched the much admired Drag Race UK for the first time. I had heard some good things about it and thought it might be worth a shot seeing as there was bugger all else on the television. So, I fired up my 'laptop' - if you can call it that. I was given it in the early 2000s by a nephew - I call it the paving slab as it's just as thick and probably just as heavy (although I can't say I have much experience of heavy lifting, dear). Anyway, I dusted the wretched thing off and turned it on for the first time in donkey's years. After navigating the web to the IPlayer, I cracked open a babycham, chewed on a salted peanut and settled into watching it. Whilst the style of drag has seemingly changed over the years, and I can't say I am RuPaul's biggest fan, I was struck by how wonderful it is to have such a popular, entertaining and flamboyant  show on our screens when in my day it would have been unimaginable. This got me looking back, once again,  on
Read more