Glamour Kids

In talking about all the Glamour Girls I knew back in New York, it would be unfair not to give credit to the Glamour Boys, too. More correctly
described, they were Glamour Kids and started the revival of New York nightlife in the last half of the 80's. There are better historians on Club Kids than me, but I give the credit of the amazing rise from the ashes of nightlife to James St. James. He was the sentry to The World, a dilapidated, old dancehall on the Lower East Side where birth was given to Club Kids. It was a nursery of freaks and James was head of the ward. You would never have wanted one of these kids suckling at your breast, but they were certainly fun to play with. The It Twins, for instance, had magical toys that made it a joy to be in the nursery. Rats and party animals scurried around The World, and you never really knew if a piece of the ceiling--or maybe even the whole balconey--was going to fall on you.

As I have said before, James was the Edith Wharton of his time and world; as crazy as he was, nothing ever got by his sharp mind. He and Michael Alig were co-rulers of the Club Kid empire. I stayed almost exclusively in the drag queen circles, but always kept an eye on The Kids; they were bad, bad children. James' book, "Disco Bloodbath" quite nicely describes the whole period; he, too, managed to survive the whole thing. I would have a hard time counting the number who did not.