ABSTRACT
It was billed as "The Night of a Thousand Gowns," a $250-a-head fundraising event for selected gay organizations. But what made this party more fabulous than most was that the guests were invited to come in drag, and they paraded those gowns in the grand ballrooms of the Waldorf Astoria. Crowds gathered outside the Waldorf's Park Avenue entrance to cheer the arriving queens as they stepped out of stretch limos and luxury automobiles. Couples arrived from Calgary, Ontario, San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta, and Brooklyn. Nicole said that this event was an important chapter in our gay history as we recognize and pay tribute to the true pioneers of our movement – drag queens and female impersonators. After the crowning of the new empress Sybil Bruncheon the festivities returned to fundraising for the evening's beneficiaries–the March on Washington Committee, National Gay Task Force, AIDS Action Council, Human Rights Campaign Fund, and the New York Lesbian and Gay Community Center.
