Local Legend and Pioneering Transgendered Performer Vicki Marlane Dies at 76
http://sfist.com/2011/07/05/local_legend_vicki_marlane_die.php (http://sfist.com/2011/07/05/local_legend_vicki_marlane_die.php)
Beloved local legend Vicki Marlane died this morning at 7 a.m. of an undisclosed illness. She was 76. Nicknamed "The Lady With the Liquid Spine" for her trademark, sultry flexibility while lip syncing, Marlane was profiled in the New York Times two years ago, and was thought to be the oldest, continuously performing, transgender performer in the country. Until recently, she performed twice weekly at Aunt Charlie's Lounge often doing three or four numbers (and costume changes) each night.
The show, the Hot Boxxx Girls, was Marlane's baby, and she produced it over the last decade, hiring and firing drag queens both young and old, polished and unpolished, to do some of the most unironic, old-school female impersonation in the land. Marlane was a fan of Celine Dion numbers, occasionally stripping down to a shiny two-piece get-up in the middle of a song, age be damned. She brought a great deal of pathos and passion to the show, earning her thousands of fans over the years. SF Weekly also awarded her Best Drag Queen in 2009, some six decades into her drag career.
RIP, she was a trooper, a complement I rarely hand out.