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Flawless Sabrina

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Flawless Sabrina
Photograph by Diane Arbus
Born
Jack Doroshow

(1939-09-10)September 10, 1939
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedNovember 18, 2017(2017-11-18) (aged 78)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Other namesMother Flawless Sabrina
Occupation(s)Activist, actress, drag queen

Flawless Sabrina (September 10, 1939 – November 18, 2017), also known as Mother Flawless Sabrina, was an American LGBT activist, drag queen, performer, and actress, based in New York City.[1][2] Flawless Sabrina was a pioneer for transgender people and drag queens not only in the mainstream, heterosexual society, but within the gay society as well, where transgender people remained heavily stigmatized.[3] Sabrina lived in New York near Central Park from the 1960s until her death.

Early life

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Born Jack Doroshow in South Philadelphia,[2][4] in a family of mixed Jewish and Italian heritage,[5] Sabrina was a pioneer in the transgender and gay communities in the 1960s in New York.[6]

In the 1960s, New York drag queens were very stigmatised, not only by the mainstream, heterosexual society, but even within the gay community as well. Sabrina was one of the first widely known drag queens in the United States. She became widely known partially for organizing various drag queen pageants all over the U.S. such as The Nationals, Miss Philadelphia or the Miss Nationals, which was sponsored by Sabrina Enterprises.[3]

Career

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The documentary The Queen captures the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest in New York City; Sabrina served as emcee to the competition.[7] The film was selected to screen during International Critics' Week at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, which was curtailed before any awards could be given out, due to ongoing civil unrest in France.[3] Sabrina was subsequently arrested three times in 1968 promoting The Queen in Times Square.

While filming the documentary Sabrina took on the moniker of "Mother" to assure other participants in the pageant that she was not part of the competition. Very soon, what was a joke became a very personal title, and she became a mentor to numerous other transgender people living in New York City at the time.

The success of The Queen resulted in Sabrina accepting numerous invitations to speak on talk shows and make television appearances in drag. These broadcasts caused discomfort not only with the heterosexual and conservative public, but the gay public as well.[3] A poster of Sabrina in The Queen has a brief cameo in Pink Flamingos (1972), a film by John Waters. [1]

Despite Sabrina's confidence with herself in drag on television and other engagements, she remained somewhat mysterious within the gay community, as recounted by Thom Nickels, author of Gay and Lesbian in Philadelphia. Though she was not a huge part of the Center City night life, she hosted several decadent and grandiose mansion parties.[8]

In 2008 Flawless Sabrina appeared in the theatrical production Notorious Beauty in New York City.[9] Sabrina played a drug-induced vision of a thin, ghostly, violin player in Dorian, a 2009 four-channel video installation by Michelle Handelman.[10] Sabrina was also featured in Handelman's 2014 multichannel video installation Irma Vep, The Last Breath, influenced by Musidora, known for playing Irma Vep in the 1915 film Les Vampires.[11][12]

Death and legacy

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Sabrina died on November 18, 2017, at the age of 78.[13]

Sabrina was also a mentor for Ceyenne Doroshow, now an author, public speaker and advocate for homeless youth.[1] They met at a midtown Manhattan club called Bentley's, and Sabrina helped her get control of her life, while she was a homeless teenager.[1]

In 2014, a Kickstarter crowdfunding fundraiser raised $20,000.00 to create an archive of her work for easy access and study, called the "Flawless Sabrina Archive".[14] The fundraiser was founded by Zackary Drucker and Diana Tourjee, two of Sabrina's mentees.[14] The archive was created as a thank-you to Sabrina for being inspirational to queer youth, as well as a way of raising money to protect her when she was almost evicted from her New York City apartment. The owner of the building had died, and once the ownership was returned to the bank they wished to increase the rent, or evict her. The archive money now funds a storage space where Tourjee archives Sabrina's possessions as they move them in.[1] Sabrina's mentees also state, as part of their reason for the creation of the Flawless Sabrina Archives, that Sabrina has been and continues to be an influential part of the transgender community.[1]

In 2021, PBS television series American Masters published a 6-minute documentary short, Flawless Sabrina: Queer Icon and Star of "The Queen', narrated by Peppermint.[15]

Filmography

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Film and video art Role Year
Gazelle: The Love Issue Actor/Himself 2015 [16]
Irma Vep, The Last Breath (video installation) Actress 2014 [11]
Saint Bernard Actor 2013 [17]
She Gone Rogue Actress 2014 [18]
At least you know: you exist (short film by Zackary Drucker) Actress 2011 [19]
Dorian (video installation) Dorian's Dead Self 2009
The Anderson Tapes Eric, decorator tenant 1971 [20]
The Queen Self/Narrator 1968 [20]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Ryan, Hugh (2015-03-07). "Queen Sabrina, Flawless Mother". VICE. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  2. ^ a b Steinhauer, Jillian (2014-12-05). "Preserving the Lifework of a Cross-Dressing Queer Legend". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
  3. ^ a b c d Balzer, Carsten (2005-01-01). "The Great Drag Queen Hype: Thoughts on Cultural Globalisation and Autochthony". Paideuma. 51: 111–131. JSTOR 40341889.
  4. ^ Musto, Michael (2016-04-19). "Glory in a Transitional Drag Moment With Jack Doroshow, a/k/a Flawless Sabrina". Village Voice. Village Voice, LLC. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  5. ^ ""Whatever You Do Is Perfect": Remembering the Queer Mentorship of Flawless Sabrina". Slate.com. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  6. ^ "Why Drag Icon Mother Flawless Sabrina Is a Hero". Out Magazine. 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  7. ^ Anderson, Melissa (2013-01-09). "Film Forum's NYC Celebration Contains Multitudes". Village Voice. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  8. ^ Nickels, Thom (2002). Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738510009. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  9. ^ Ashman, Angela (2008-07-02). "Gender-Bender". Village Voice. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  10. ^ Johnson, Ken (2009-05-22). "Art in Review". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
  11. ^ a b "Irma Vep, the last breath". Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. Archived from the original on 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  12. ^ "Michelle Handelman's Irma Vep, The Last Breath Adds Gender Subversion and Class Critique to a 100-Year-Old Anagram". The Stranger. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  13. ^ "Flawless Sabrina (1939–2017)". Artforum. November 19, 2017. ISSN 0004-3532. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
  14. ^ a b "Flawless Sabrina Archive". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  15. ^ Polk, David (2021-08-21). "Flawless Sabrina: Queer icon and star of 'The Queen'". American Masters. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  16. ^ "See an excerpt from 'Gazelle: The Love Issue', which is at the Festival MixBrasil". Globo.com (in Portuguese). Globo Comunicação e Participações S.A. 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
  17. ^ "First Look at Gabe Bartalos' Latest Film Saint Bernard". ComingSoon.net. 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  18. ^ "Interview: Flawless Sabrina, Zackary Drucker, and Elizabeth Sherman". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  19. ^ "Zackary Drucker & Her Friends: Films & Conversation - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. 23 August 2012. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  20. ^ a b "Jack Doroshow". AFI. 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
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