In his new book Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy, Charles Busch, shares stories from his childhood and life as a writer, playwright, director, drag actor, and cabaret performer. And there are so many stories to tell, from growing up in Hartsdale New York with a family experiencing many emotional upheavals to creating his iconic plays, Lesbian Vampires of Sodom, and The Allergist’s Wife – this is not your garden variety memoir.
Charles Busch will be live at the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington, Long Island this Friday at 7:30 PM.
TRANSCRIPT:
Ann Lopez: The book has a unique structure. The chapters are a series of individual vignettes. You begin with Joan Rivers. You tell how you're waiting in front of the Richard Rogers Theater on 46th Street in New York City for Joan Rivers, to see a performance of Romeo and Juliet featuring Orlando Bloom. And that's just the first story you share. It sets the momentum for the rest of the book, one riveting anecdote after another. Reading this book feels as if I was sitting across the table from you, and you're sharing stories as they come to you. Why did you decide to write a memoir and not an autobiography?
Charles Busch: Well, I tried various things, I started this book, I blush to say, 14 years ago. I stopped occasionally, you know, and wrote about six plays in between. But, ya know, it's been a long project. And I didn't really know what I was going to do other than I thought I had an interesting story to tell. And storytelling is kind of my, my addiction. Everything I do is about telling the story. When I write a play, it's a linear thing. When I sing a song, it's telling a story. A big challenge, of course, with this book was to take all these these stories that I've told so many times over the years, and kind of boil them down to one-liners. And so I had to really try to get back into this mindset of memory, or what was I really feeling at these moments, a little more insight into the other people that I was dealing with. Particularly certain sections of the book, like, how I got my big break doing this play in the East Village, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. I had told that story just to death. I’d even written a novel in the mid-90s, very much based on that experience. So that was hard to go back and really tell the story. But yeah, the structure. Well, I get a little antsy when I read autobiographies. And you have to go through, oh, you know, they're talking about their grandparents lives and their parents lives and long childhood until you get to the sexy stuff. You know, I'd kind of like to shake it up a bit. But there is a sort of deceptive, chronological order to it. I think a good example is, when I'm talking about how, you know, I was raised by my aunt in New York City. And she started taking me to Broadway shows when I was, I guess, nine years old. And among the first shows we saw was Hello Dolly with Carol Channing. And then that leads me off on a tangent about when I shared a dressing room with Carol Channing in the in the 90s. But then I go back to where I left off.
WSHU: And one of the sad stories that you tell us about how you lost your mom, when you were about seven years old, very suddenly, from a heart attack. You write how that loss shaped your life to this day, and how you respond to tragedies, but also to the successes in your life where you say, Okay, what's next?
CB: Yeah, yeah, well, you know, I've talked over the years to numerous people who've lost a parent during their childhood. And it really does seem to be a universal thing. That is really one of the central episodes of your life and, and it does shape so much that comes afterwards. It's really a primal thing. And I'm certainly not alone in feeling that way. And I guess I was searching, like seeing myself get such crushes on these certain very intelligent, bigger-than-life women. You know, “Mistress, I will never betray you.” It really, it makes you very vulnerable. Any woman who, you know, whispers in my ear, you know, “I adore you”. “Yes, Mistress. Who do you want murdered?”
WSHU: So you're always looking for that, that strong mother figure.
CB: I sniff around all these older actresses up and they'll be the one you know, I was lucky with Joan Rivers. She fit the bill fair and was so kind to me.
WSHU: One of the things that I really like is the series of photos that you have included in the book, which was fantastic. There were so much fun to peruse. And one of those photos shows you with three iconic actresses. You tell the story behind that photo in the chapter called The MGM girls. Could you share that with us? Can you read it? Or do you just want to tell us?
CB: I’ll just tell it. Yeah. For someone who. you know, my career is so much based on plays that evoke you know, movies from from the Golden Age, I've been fortunate to to met a lot of these these women. And, oh, this is I guess in the early 90s, or something like that. A friend of mine worked for Turner Home Video. There was a big video convention in Las Vegas. And so he was able to somehow bring me out there and be a fly on the wall. And the first night we were there in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn, there was a cocktail party for these great stars who were being very nice and helping promote their old movies being released on home video. So it was Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Allison and Esther Williams. And each one of them got in front of the podium and Ann Miller and Jean Allison and Debbie Reynolds were all “MGM was our family and we just love supporting them”. And then Esther Williams got up there and very kind of tough. And she said, Course I don't see a penny out of any of this. But I guess if you can't kill Ted Turner, you might as well join him.” Oh boy was that embarrassing! So we were all supposed to go to one of the restaurants for dinner. I was at the elevator with Debbie and Annie as they called her Annie and Junie. And I said, “Oh, where's Esther? Shouldn't we wait for Esther?” And all three ladies just gave me this glare. When we got to the restaurant they explained. “You know, we just loved our years at MGM and they took such great care of us. And Esther just she's so bitter and sour.” Anyways, we're at dinner, and it was really interesting seeing how each of these ladies really was kind of like their screen persona. And they were old time friends. They adored each other. Miller was kind of like a big Texas waitress and she has taken all of our orders - “What are you going to have? Okay, and you're going to have the turkey and the open face sandwich.” And you Juen Allison was all sort of vague and dizzy and yet she knew exactly what she was omitting with dates she conveniently forgot. And then Debbie Reynolds oh, she was several women in one. She was such a consummate performer. Suddenly, she put the napkin over her arm and she'd be the French waiter. And then she'd be ZaZa Gabor or she'd be Marlon Brando. But then she dropped all that and she was very smart, sharp showbiz lady. And so she had a lot of advice for all the ladies they all had memoirs coming out. And so she was explaining you know, “June what you gotta do is you gotta go to senior groups and nursing homes,” and “Annie you you need to be there when the truck drivers when they first arrive you got to be at the bookstore and make sure that you get your book.” Oh, she she knew all the angles. It was fascinating. Then of course who walks in but Esther…
There’s more to that story. You can hear it on The Full Storyor you can see Charles Busch live at the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington, Long Island this Friday at 7:30 PM. For information on how to get tickets clickhere.
