In a past life, as a fresh, 21-year old Texas transplant I worked as a designer in the Vogue (& later, Vanity Fair) art departments..

I was also a young club bunny on the scene in Downtown NYC meeting lots of new people. Everyone I knew went out all of the time. It was the 80s in NYC and every night of the week there as SOMETHING someone you know was doing at a club or gallery.

Places like Mudd Club, Danceteria, Pyramid, Area, MK, Limelight, Rock Lounge, Save the Robots or one of some 200 galleries in the East Village alone, like Gracie Mansion or Fun Gallery which showed Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat early on, not to mention ones in SoHo and Uptown.

On occasion, I’d bring along my Polaroid camera, often taking two and giving the other away to the subject.

The Pyramid was close to my apt on Avenue B and in the early days I was a regular there and met all the drag stars of the day; Ethyl Eichelberger, Tabboo!, Hapi Phace, Linda Simpson, Sister Dimension, Alexis deLago, Madame Ekathrina Sobechenskaya, RuPaul, Lady Bunny…

At Pyramid, I hosted a Sunday night event called Straight to Hell. My friend Victor Weaver had taken over as editor of STH: The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts which were true homoerotic stories (sort of Grindr hook-ups in print.) And so we had a party/performance every Sunday for the magazine.

I did this while holding down a full-time job at Vanity Fair, essentially just inviting guest to do whatever they wanted on stage. Legendary performers and personalities, as well as Downtown superstars…

Names like John Waters, Quentin Crisp, Fran Leibowitz, Taylor Mead, Cookie Mueller, Jackie Curtis, John Kelly, John Sex, Tanya Ransom and Kenneth Anger, the filmmaker responsible for the underground classics “Scorpio Rising” and “Lucifer Rising” and the author of “Hollywood Baylon I & 2”. (No Polaroid of him, sadly.)

I also just shot portaits of my friends. (And selfies.) Many are happily still around, some long gone, others I don’t speak to anymore. That’s life.

One thing everyone pictured here has in common: creativity. I can say confidently, this a supremely talented bunch of people.

The late Warhol Superstar Jackie Curtis is well-known, but this new exhibition in New York the cultural and historical impact of both Curtis (1947-1985) and the lesser-know, but phenomenally talented, Ethyl Eichelberger (1945-1990) are reconsidered. They were two of the most influential figures from the 70s and 80s in the East Village’s heyday. Oddly, even thought the title suggests otherwise, the press release says “they are not believed to have known each other.” So odd. I knew them both from my Pyramid days. A little background first. From the press release,

Jackie Curtis was born John Curtis Holder, Jr. on the Lower East Side, and mostly raised by his maternal grandmother, known as Slugger Ann, whose eponymous bar on 2nd Avenue was a well-known refuge for social misfits. A member of Andy Warhol’s original network of Superstars –along with Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn –, Curtis’ stage debut was at age 17 in Tom Eyen’s Miss Nefertiti Regrets, followed by roles in the Paul Morrissey films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971). Aside from possessing a mesmerizing screen presence, Curtis’ greatest artistic influence was as playwright and songwriter for the productions Glamour, Glory and Gold; Vain Victory; and Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit, all of which featured transsexual characters. The Jackie Curtis signature ‘look’ –glitter and lipstick combined with ripped stockings and/or housedresses – was widely adopted in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 2004 the documentary Superstar in a Housedress brought the Curtis legend to a new generation.

Ethyl Eichelberger was born James Roy Eichelberger in rural Illinois, and spent much of his first thirty years studying acting and working in regional repertory theater, eventually becoming an expert wigmaker and member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. In 1975 he legally changed his first name to Ethyl and introduced a flamboyant stage presence, singing while playing piano and accordion, and radically re-conceiving classic characters like King Lear and Medea as drag cabaret. Although Eichelberger appeared in films, Broadway theater productions, and an HBO series for kid, and was a successful commercial actor, his main impact was as a performer in intimate East Village venues like P.S. 122, Pyramid Lounge, 8BC, and s.n.a.f.u.. In the course of more than thirty original and adapted plays, his was nearly always the title role, often with multiple male and female characters switching parts, and occasional acrobatic or circus stunts thrown in for equal measure.

Ethyl onstage with contestants for STH's cover boy contest. Photos, Trey Speegle

Ethyl featured on posters designed by Trey Speegle, along with Cookie Mueller, Keith Haring and Quentin Crisp

Ethyl was a wonderful person and an amazing performer. (Watch the clip below) I was lucky enough to share the stage with a couple of times, MCing with her for my show, Straight to Hell, at the Pyramid. Our schtick was that neither knew what we were supposed to be doing and without any script or rehearsal, it wan’t a stretch. Ethyl was quick on her feet and judged a contest to be on the cover of STH magazine, left. Later for the STH reboot, Bad Boy at Danceteria, my DJs for the monthly party were none other than WOW’s Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato, which featured strippers from the infamous Gaiety Male Burlesque, plus various side shows, like the Porno Swap Meet and Wet Underwear Contest. The photo below is of Ethyl flat onstage with the judges one night, all old pals of mine, Keith Haring, Cookie Mueller and John Sex. Years later when I saw this photo it summed up the fun and also the sadness of that era. Keith, Cookie and John all died from AIDS-related causes and Ethyl was HIV-positive and committed suicide in 1990.

Jackie backstage holding an issue of STH with Trey on the cover. Photo, Trey Speegle

Jackie I knew less, but we shared one memorable night when she spoke at a Straight To Hell night at the Pyramid. (That’s me on the cover of the magazine at just 19.) I recently donated a print of the picture, left, which I took in ’85, for auctioned to benefit the AIDS charity, Friends In Deed, which is sadly now defunct. Happily, the photo is now in mega-collector Beth Rudin DeWoody‘s hand. Jackie died just a few months later in ’85, so that was one of her last appearances.

Keith Haring, Cookie Mueller, John Sex and Ethyl Eichelberger at Trey Speegle’s Bad Boy night at Danceteria, circa ’86

This new exhibit will feature videos by the late, great Nelson Sullivan and others, and images of Eichelberger and Curtis by photographers Peter Hujar, Dona McAdams, Jack Mitchell, Billy Sullivan, Ande Whyland, and Kirila Faeh and many more. When Jackie Met Ethyl, curated by Dan Cameron is at Howl Arts. It opens, Thursday, May 5 and runs through June 1, 2016. For more info you can go here.

**In a past life, as a fresh, 21-year old Texas transplant I worked as a designer in the Vogue (& later, Vanity Fair) art departments..**

There are more where these came from, but we’ll see how long volume two takes me...

–Trey Speegle