Pudgy was a New York female impersonator most famous in the late 1960s.He also wrote two novels, Dormitory Mates, 1968 and Seafood, 1969, an how-to book, and edited a monthly magazine. ++He also wrote for Gay Power, 1969-70, and ran a business distributing flyers.
Avery Willard made a short film about him, and he was one of the first drag queens to do comic relief in a porno movie, The Sexualist, 1975.- Pudgy Roberts. Female impersonator's handbook
. Newark: Capri Publishers, 1967. Selections
- Gil Truman. "Girls Who Are And Can't: An Interview with Pudgy Roberts". Female Mimics, 1,12, Spring 1968. Online at: http://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/PUDGY.HTM.
- Avery Willard (dir). Camp Burlesgue. With Pudgy Roberts impersonating Bette David, Carol Channing, Tiny Tim, Marlene Dietrich, Lily Tomlin, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. US 6 mins 1969.
- Kemal Horulu (dir) The Sexualist: A Voyage to the World of Forbidden Love. With Pudgy Roberts as Papamabuto. US 73 mins 1973.
- Donald Greenhaus. “Without Abstract”. Society. Vol 11,1 November 1973. www.springerlink.com/content/h6870muw8m283033/fulltext.pdf?page=1.
- Pudgy Roberts (ed). The great female mimics. New York: Mark Lithographers. 1963-79. Monthly magazine. Sample
- Laurence Senelick. The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre
. Routledge xvi, 540 pp 2000: 384, 395, 403n15.
- Mark Singer. Mr. Personality: Profiles and Talk Pieces from The New Yorker. Mariner Books, 2005: 95-8.
I met Pudgy once, when we were both in Lee Brewster's boutique.
I met Pudgy Roberts in 1975 when he he came to Charlotte NC. to perform at Oleens Lounge, the top drag showbar in N.C.at the time. I was part of Oleens House show then and got to know Pudgy well during the two weeks he stayed in Charotte. He was such a talented preformer and my favorite was his impersonation of Bette Davis. Every thing was done live, not like the lip synking done today.
ReplyDeleteIn 1982 I almost moved in with Pudgy to be his boytoy. What an amazing person.
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