M.J. “Joe” Arcangelini
William Stewart as Marlene Dietrich at the 1995-96 Billy Club New Year’s Gathering Talent-or-No-Talent Show, Humboldt County, CA – Saturday, December 30, 1995.
photo by MJA
Joe and William met in the early 90's at a Billy Club gathering.
At the 1995-96 Billy Club New Year’s gathering at Heartwood Institute near Island Mountain in southern Humboldt County, at the Little-or-No-Talent Show, the first act after intermission had been billed as a special appearance by an extra special guest in an attempt to build mystery and anticipation. It worked, we were all wondering what they were up to. After a florid but still mysterious introduction the special guest performer walked out from behind a curtain constructed of colorful parachutes, and it was… Marlene Dietrich; we recognized her immediately. Of course, it wasn’t the real Dietrich; she was long dead by this time. It was a drag performer in a floor length gold lamé gown, elbow length white gloves, blond wig and attitude to spare. She proceeded to sing “Falling in Love Again” and the audience went wild, especially me. She brought tears to my eyes as I remembered watching the legend herself in concert 20 years earlier. Whoever this was, and though I knew nearly everyone there, I could not figure it out, she had the right movements, the proper phrasing and the husky sound down pat, re-awakening for this short time on stage the thrill of being in the presence of Dietrich. Drag performers don’t always get the respect they truly deserve. When it is done right, there is real magic in what they do. This Dietrich was done right. Once the short set was over and she had gone backstage, I raced back there to find out who it was. There I found Dietrich, shaking a little, still nervous, still in makeup and blond wig being congratulated on a fine performance. It turned out to be my friend, William Stewart. I thanked him for the wonderful performance but I had trouble believing it was really him until the makeup started to come off, so fully had he inhabited the role; he even sacrificed the beard and mustache I had never before seen him without. When I wrote to ask his permission to use the photo of him which accompanies this story, William wrote back: “I caught [Dietrich] in NYC in 1967 and again in 1968 (I just dug out the old playbills to check the dates), when she was still in perfect control of the public persona. I was one of the ‘prancing young men in tight trousers, not yet born when she made her classic films, that tossed flowers and mobbed the stage door after the show’ (I remember the phrase from some review or other)–what a memory!” Yes. What memories, indeed!
— MJA
