Lady Barbara

This was the first photo I took of Lady Barbara; she was emerging from The Vault, a fetish club in the meat-packing district. It was October 29, 1990, and we were all going for some fetish action: girls with young, naked boys on dog chains walking on all fours, rabbis being whipped; you know, the typical night out in New York back then. In order not to be charged $50 admission all guys had to wear wigs and make-up, but who wouldn't deny that this made things even more fun?

I, of course, eventually became friends with Lady
Barbara; I always said that if EVER I were to throw myself "at the mercy of The Court", it would be hers. She owned one of the last 1840's brick townhouses south of Canal Street and threw fabulous parties there. It was sort of like Auntie Mame meets Fetish New York, finds happiness. Only two types of characters were invited to Lady Barbara's parties: drag queens and transexuals, and the men who liked them. Every conceivable type could be found there: lawyers, truckdrivers, bankers, and silly boys like me who coddled all the girls with lots of flattering photos. I was always in a type of drag nirvana at her parties. Later down the road, she would grace me by attending the Susanne Bartsch parties on my arm. She always had a limosine handy and that was a big, shallow thing then; as I said, it was like heaven. My boyfriend at the time, Chris, and my "daughter" Lincolnia, and I would buzz around her like bees. She liked attention, and could dance up a storm with a martini glass in her hand (a trick I quickly learned; "knowledge is power".

Lady Barbara was so very generous to all around her. All she ever wanted from anyone else was to be regarded as the "Lady" she was, and we did that. Another one I miss.