QueerStreet - Lee Paris, The End of an Earring

The end of an earring

Music (with capable browser) is Sweet Caroline, one of Lee's mainstays...

Lee Paris the Sunday afternoon drag queen at the Black cap in Camden is leaving after a very, very long time, this is the woman who is widely believed to have been waiting for the raising of the Mary-Rose in order to get her birth certificate back and the discovery of the Titanic for her jewels!

When asked why so decided to leave the Cap, Lee says she’s resigned in the hope of being able to take over from Bet at the Rovers Return, a bit slow off the mark but never mind, one thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to miss this party for the world!

On entering the Black Cap the air was filled with a buzz to which I was unaccustomed. A brief perusal of the clientele and my friend became obvious (so often the way), we settled down to wait for the woman we always waited for on a Sunday afternoon, no ordinary woman, hauntingly attractive, the goddess in gold lamé that is, or at least used to be, Lee Paris.

Lee's been "doing" the Black Cap for years, thirteen in fact, when she started my friend and I were just ten years old, how different life might have been for us both if we has been subjected to her act every Sunday afternoon at that tender age instead of Space 1999 which did us enough damage and to which I attribute my own homosexuality, well that and Shoppers Paradise.

All good things must come to an end, we were waiting for Lee to perform her swan song at the Cap. The newspaper advertisements had promised a "spectacular leaving party" with "free food for all", in the event we had to put up with a few balloons and a couple of things on sticks.

The lights went up, the sound system crackled into life, the people sitting on the side of the stage shot away like ping-pong balls out of that woman in Priscilla, on strode Scott Tyler, the warm up. We tried not to show our disappointment and applauded politely when he’d finished, then the moment we’d all been waiting for arrived; the most glam high camp creation this side of Joan Collins took to the stage in a new frock(!), Age Concern were obviously having a sale!

Lee’s choice of numbers has remained fairly constant over the time I’ve been enjoying her unique interpretation of entertainment, and today as ever she was backed by her faithful band, the C-90s. Her first number "Hello Mary Sue" resulted in loud cheers and blowing of whistles from the audience. Lee sat on the table that supported her band, lent back and gracefully delivered the words, "You’re just taking the piss now! ", the audience howled. Lee ignored them as she so often does and continued with her act, aided by Scott "the eternal teenager" Tyler, bitched at by the unconventionally attractive Jimmy Trollette and interrupted by a rampaging Regina Fong in an Imperially bad temper due to the insanitary condition in which Lee had left the dressing room.

Jimmy, Lee & Regina
Left to right... Jimmy Trollette, Lee Paris, Regina Fong....

Naturally by the time the backing cassettes had run out, all were friends again. Lee was presented with a framed photograph of herself looking fabulous (obviously taken some years ago) and though the bunch of flowers had to be forcibly retrieved from the ever ungracious Regina, at least the thought was there. In short, not since the departure of Meg from Crossroads has a farewell been executed with such a mix of high camp, emotion and poor production values.. no drag queen in the world could have asked for more. Good luck Lee, we think you’re fab!

John Roulston-Bates, age 23½

This article was written in November 1995, Lee Paris is still touring the London Scene with her partner in crime Jimmy Trollete. It is disappointing to notice that Lee has not yet joined the hall of fame in the Black Cap, though the walls are already heaving under the weight of dq photos it would seem such a little gesture to add Lee to them, or after having named the new roof garden after Regina perhaps a room inside could bear a plaque, the downstairs toilet perhaps, Lee was often heard to say "Mention my name, you’ll get a good seat".

It is with great sadness that I have to report that Lee Paris died of a stroke and was cremated in the late summer 1997.