Angie Stardust

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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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

Year Album type Title
1994 CD Inside Me[18]
1993 Single/EP Do It Yourself[19]
1992 Backing vocals for Joy Peters Joy Peters's Different Colours[20]
1990 Single Lady Madame[19]

Filmography[edit]

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

References[edit]

  1. ^ "82 Club: The Naughty Story of a Legendary New York Drag Institution". August 1, 2019. Archived from the original on 2021-08-15.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Huston, Johnny Ray (June 20, 2019). "Burger Queens in Berlin". 48 Hills. Archived from the original on 2021-09-18. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  3. ^ a b c d "Public Performance, Public Lives". February 22, 2017.
  4. ^ "Floy". Floy.
  5. ^ Brüdgam, Nele-Marie (November 1, 2005). Kulturverführer Hamburg. Helmut Metz Verlag. ISBN 9783937742106 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ a b c Senelick, Laurence (September 11, 2002). The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre. Routledge. ISBN 9781134722013 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ a b Jacques, Juliet (February 2, 2018). "A fantastic leap – trans cinema's breakthrough moment". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-09-18. Retrieved 2020-02-01 – via www.theguardian.com.
  8. ^ a b Guilbert, Georges-Claude (May 25, 2018). Gay Icons: The (Mostly) Female Entertainers Gay Men Love. McFarland. ISBN 9781476674339 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Hilderbrand, Lucas (November 25, 2013). Paris Is Burning: A Queer Film Classic. arsenal pulp press. ISBN 9781551525204 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ "Jayne County - Man Enough To Be A Woman". www.jaynecounty.com.
  11. ^ a b "Sankt Pauli A Highly Tempting Quarter". blog.vueling.com.
  12. ^ "Hamburg Nightlife - A Red-Light District, Heavy Metal And Cocktails".
  13. ^ a b Inc, Nielsen Business Media (April 9, 1994). "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. – via Google Books. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  14. ^ "Angie Stardust: Travesty & Soul". Welkom. Archived from the original on 2020-02-01. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  15. ^ "Angie's Nightclub, Hamburg, Germany Concert Setlists | setlist.fm". www.setlist.fm.
  16. ^ "Angie's Nightclub, Hamburg, Germany Concert Setlists | setlist.fm". www.setlist.fm.
  17. ^ "Angie's | Nachtclub im Schmidts Tivoli | Livemusik Tanzen Cocktails". tivoli.de.
  18. ^ "Inside Me". March 8, 2010 – via Amazon.
  19. ^ a b "Angie Stardust". Discogs.
  20. ^ "David de Alba Interviews Criselda Crescini". Transgender Forum. February 15, 2016.
  21. ^ "Crazy Boys - A Handful of Fun". Filmgalerie 451. Archived from the original on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  22. ^ "Arthouse Movie Listings February 8-14, 2012". SF Weekly. February 8, 2012.
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