Sybil Bruncheon’s “My Merry Memoirs”… Easter 1986.

The New York Native, a weekly paper published in New York City. And there I was as their Easter season model for gifts and treats!! .....(um, yes, I got carried away when they pulled out the chocolates! But they hadn't fed any of the crew lunch!!...... bastards!)

(Photos and article by William Cullum) (Sybil’s gown by Cliff Boone and Morrie Breyer of A.Q.U.A.)

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Sybil Bruncheon's BE MY GUEST from the Gay Cable Network... "Josephine Baker" (part I)

Sybil's panel of fascinating misfits competes to guess the identity of this week's famous mystery guest... "Josephine Baker", played by Joan Baker! (1989)

(This game show’s recording is from the carefully preserved Cincinnati archives of producer Mark Bailey to whom we are eternally grateful)

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Sybil Bruncheon's BE MY GUEST from the Gay Cable Network... "Josephine Baker" (part II)

Sybil's panel of fascinating misfits competes to guess the identity of this week's famous mystery guest... "Josephine Baker", played by Joan Baker! (1989)

(This game show’s recording is from the carefully preserved Cincinnati archives of producer Mark Bailey to whom we are eternally grateful)

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Sybil Bruncheon's "My Merry Memoirs"... the Palladium at Easter time...

April 19th, 1987:

It was Easter Sunday at The Palladium at 126 East 14th Street in Greenwich Village (just down from the original 19th century Luchow's Restaurant which was still standing!). "Jeffrey Sanker invites you to join the newly crowned Empress of New York, Sybil Bruncheon, for her first annual Easter Bonnet Parade. Wear your favorite bonnet and Win $500 First Prize." Look at that! ...a $500.00 first prize! Can you imagine? That was more than two month's rent for lots of folks back then. My panel of celebrity judges included John Lewis, Joan Baker, Michael Kenney, and Evelyn Blair. (...and our invitation photo was by Jack D. Pedota / AVANTOGRAPHY. Thanks to Susan Suka Taylor for styling too!!!)

There was a special guest performance, and Scott Blackwell was our DJ... and the whole thing started at 12:30 AM (which meant Steve Rubell would hold us till 1:00... or later!! Jeeeesh!) But we were paid in cash!... and whenever I did a show for Steve, he’d come up to me and say, "I loved it, kid!", and press an envelope into my hand with twice as much as he’d originally offered.. I pointed it out to him the first night of working for him, thinking he'd made a mistake, and he said, "What!?! Don't ya think ya deserve it, kid??"... and laughed! Back then, I worked for all the great party promoters, and Jeffrey Sanker was one of the best! Eventually he moved to Florida and built a huge career down there! Steve died in 1989…. And the Palladium, originally built in1927, is long gone now thanks to NY University which tore it all down in 1998 (as they're tearing down so much of Greenwich Village still). They replaced it with a giant dorm... which they named "The Palladium"… nice… that’s a great consolation. Whatever.

(Sybil photo by Jack D. Pedota. Styled by Susan Suka Taylor)

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Sybil Bruncheon's Merry Memoirs.. : Remembering BRADSHAW SMITH (April 14th, 1954- January 16th, 2012)

Bradshaw was one of my first friends in the cabaret community, which like other branches of the entertainment world has its mix of the warmhearted, the suspicious, the envious, the deceivers, the grand! Although I had emceed several one-night-only shows at major dance clubs in NYC, I had never done a regular (running!) cabaret show before 1988, and I was met with tons of skepticism and sideways glances by the "upperclassmen" when I first came onto the scene. The venue was 88s, a two-story cabaret house with a full restaurant and sing-along piano lounge on the main floor, and the sweetest, loveliest cabaret performance house upstairs. 88’s was one of the great “downtown” cabaret clubs in Greenwich Village which had a reputation for being artsy, quirky, unique, and loaded with original and off-beat talent. At the time I had decided to do a cabaret show, most of them were musical tributes or compilations; one pianist, maybe a small combo, and one singer… twelve songs, some patter, done and done. My proposal was a complete a "book" musical/improv with an actual cast, multiple costumes and changes, scenery, props, programs, and even changing guest stars from other shows who would "drop" in to do specialty numbers each week. I was producing, writing, directing, and acting in it… and even managing to put together the programs that were set up on the tables like standing “menus” as if the Café were a real restaurant… in the Art Deco tower of the Chrysler Building!

Bradshaw, from the first minute I met him and he saw what I was up to, encouraged me, introduced me to friends, and gave me ideas, support, and inspiration. That show, CAFÉ BERLIN ran for 3 years. And when, after years of playing it "safe" in the fickle corporate world, I was laid off, and had to reinvent myself, it was Bradshaw on a sunny April morning on Fire Island who talked to me about my plans for Sybil Bruncheon, and what I could now do with her with the whole new world of technology available....There we were bundling up in our sweaters having coffee in the chilly sunshine of the retreating Winter of 2011, sharing what it means to move on, to embrace new adventures in the face of loss, heartbreak, and adversity. Bradshaw's love for his life-partner John was inspiring to any who knew them and a ferocious rebuke to all those who think that a same-sex couple could never have a meaningful and long lasting relationship.

Over the years, Bradshaw had moved in and out of my life as our careers and fortunes changed and evolved....now we decided that we would start interviewing all the old-timers (a vanishing breed!) out in Cherry Grove and capture their wonderful stories, mischiefs, scandals, gossip, and memories of the Island back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s before all of it was lost....a wonderful project for the coming Summer and Fall. And it was just that last week or so of 2011 that I went to his home and picked up the newly reworked and digitized DVDs of CAFE BERLIN. We talked at length about the coming Spring and the Archiving both of his library and the exciting pursuit of the Fire Island project....We both joked that if the Mayans are right and this IS the end of the World, we would rather throw caution to the wind and have a Ball doing our shows and projects, like children playing for all they're worth, and Fate be damned!!! We both agreed to use 2012 for fun, adventure, and new hope!..

I'm sure that Bradshaw is having some of John's brilliant (and I mean BRILLIANT!) apricot cobbler right now while they sit together at end of day looking at the first stars coming out on a Fire Island evening that will always be balmy and perfect....the ocean is rolling softly in the background... I'm sure Bradshaw's making all the lighting and sound arrangements for a perfect paradise to come for the two of them...

I'll stay here, and continue to play in the sand of our Earthbound world... being even more appreciative and grateful for the year, the month, the week, the sunset, the moment that is given....loaned, I should say, and is taken back finally. And that lesson will be one more gift that Bradshaw left behind without even knowing it... you see, he was accidentally generous. 

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