Angie Stardust Explained

Mel "Angie Stardust" Michaels (1939 – October 21, 2007) was an American singer, actress, and drag artist of the 1950s and 1960s and the first black star of New York's Club 82.[1] [2] She was also the manager of Hamburg, Germany's first all-male strip club, Crazy Boys,[3] and was the founder and proprietor of Angie's Nightclub in Schmidts Tivoli Theatre.[4] [5]

Early life

Stardust was born in Norfolk, Virginia[3] and raised in Harlem, New York.[6] [3] She began performing at age 14[2] and was a transgender woman.[7]

Career

Stardust performed at the Jewel Box Revue and Club 82, both in New York City.[6] [8] She was one of the first drag stars to take female hormones, an act she was scorned for at the time,[6] and either quit over or was fired for.[9] [2]

In 1974, Stardust moved to Europe, settling in Hamburg, Germany.[3] There, she became manager of the city's first all-male strip club, Crazy Boys.

In 1983, Stardust performed in the Rosa von Praunheim's City of Lost Souls, a film that helped influence Hedwig and the Angry Itch,[2] in which she played the proprietor of a restaurant called the Hamburger Queen and a boarding house called Pension Stardust.[10] Two of her co-stars were Jayne County and Tara O'Hara.[2] [7] The film was first screened as part of a punk rock roadshow.[2] Shortly after the film was finished, Stardust completed her gender affirmation with surgery to complement the hormones she had been taking for years.[8]

Stardust founded her own club, Angie's Nightclub, in Schmidts Tivoli Theatre in Hamburg, Germany in 1990.[11] [12] [13] By 1994, the venue was regarded as "one of the best places to hear free-form jazz."[13] Stardust performed nightly until 1999[14] and came to be known as the Big Mama of Soul, as she was known for singing soul, jazz, pop, and musical theater standards. Annually since 2008, Angie's Nightclub has been one of the participating venues for Hamburg's Reeperbahn Festival.[15] Acts have included Skinny Lister, Mo Kenney, Ezra Furman, Kristoffer Ragnstam, Andreas Moe, Leyya, Louis Berry, George Cosby, Vita Bergen, Joel Culpepper, Conner Youngblood, Inna Modja, Bess Atwell, and others.[16]

In 2017, Angie's Nightclub was still "one of the most popular clubs of Sankt Pauli’s night scene," according to the travel blog At 30,000 Feet.[11] As of 2020, Stardust's club is still extant and operates under the same name.[17]

Discography

YearAlbum typeTitle
1994CDInside Me[18]
1993Single/EPDo It Yourself[19]
1992Backing vocals for Joy PetersJoy Peters's Different Colours[20]
1990SingleLady Madame

Filmography

DateFilm
2016Welcome All Sexes: 30 Jahre Teddy Awards
1987Crazy Boys: A Handful of Fun[21]
1983City of Lost Souls[22]
1981Die Alptraumfrau
1970Hard Women

Notes and References

  1. Web site: August 1, 2019. 82 Club: The Naughty Story of a Legendary New York Drag Institution. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210815233527/https://behindthescenes.nyhistory.org/82-club-legendary-new-york-drag-institution/. 2021-08-15.
  2. Web site: Huston. Johnny Ray. June 20, 2019. Burger Queens in Berlin. live. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20210918000934/https://48hills.org/2019/06/city-lost-souls-frameline/. 2021-09-18. 48 Hills. 2020-02-01.
  3. Web site: Public Performance, Public Lives. February 22, 2017.
  4. Web site: Floy. Floy.
  5. Book: Brüdgam, Nele-Marie. Kulturverführer Hamburg. November 1, 2005. Helmut Metz Verlag. 9783937742106. Google Books.
  6. Book: Senelick, Laurence. The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre. September 11, 2002. Routledge. 9781134722013. Google Books.
  7. News: A fantastic leap – trans cinema's breakthrough moment . Jacques . Juliet . February 2, 2018. The Guardian . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20210918000943/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/02/juliet-jacques-hollywood-transgender-fantastic-woman . 2021-09-18.
  8. Book: Guilbert, Georges-Claude. Gay Icons: The (Mostly) Female Entertainers Gay Men Love. May 25, 2018. McFarland. 9781476674339. Google Books.
  9. Book: Hilderbrand, Lucas. Paris Is Burning: A Queer Film Classic. November 25, 2013. arsenal pulp press. 9781551525204. Google Books.
  10. Web site: Jayne County - Man Enough To Be A Woman. www.jaynecounty.com.
  11. Web site: Sankt Pauli A Highly Tempting Quarter . Rodriguez . Oriol . March 16, 2017 . Vueling . June 14, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210815233538/https://blog.vueling.com/en/inspiration/sankt-pauli-a-highly-tempting-quarter/ . August 15, 2021.
  12. Web site: Hamburg Nightlife - A Red-Light District, Heavy Metal And Cocktails . My German City . June 14, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200201012831/https://www.mygermancity.com/hamburg-nightlife . February 1, 2020.
  13. Web site: Hamburg's a haven for numerous genres . Billboard . April 9, 1994 . June 14, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210815233600/https://books.google.com/books?id=QQgEAAAAMBAJ&q=angie+stardust,+hamburg&pg=RA1-PA44#v=snippet&q=angie%20stardust%2C%20hamburg&f=false . August 15, 2021.
  14. Web site: Angie Stardust: Travesty & Soul. Welkom. 2020-02-01. 2020-02-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20200201014334/http://www.femaletroubleproductions.nl/412907355/3045242/posting/. dead.
  15. Web site: Angie's Nightclub, Hamburg, Germany Concert Setlists | setlist.fm. www.setlist.fm.
  16. Web site: Angie's Nightclub, Hamburg, Germany Concert Setlists | setlist.fm. www.setlist.fm.
  17. Web site: Angie's | Nachtclub im Schmidts Tivoli | Livemusik Tanzen Cocktails. tivoli.de.
  18. Web site: Inside Me. March 8, 2010. Amazon.
  19. Web site: Angie Stardust. Discogs.
  20. Web site: David de Alba Interviews Criselda Crescini. February 15, 2016. Transgender Forum.
  21. Web site: Crazy Boys - A Handful of Fun. Filmgalerie 451. 2020-02-01. 2019-07-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20190711184845/https://www.filmgalerie451.de/filme/crazy-boys-eine-handvoll-vergnuegen/. dead.
  22. Web site: Arthouse Movie Listings February 8-14, 2012. February 8, 2012. SF Weekly.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Angie Stardust".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.