I am behind in everything these days; blame The Boyfriend if you must, just don't harm him. Last Friday Twist hosted the party honoring Henrietta's fifty years in drag on Miami Beach. It was to honor the surreal Icon of South Beach, Henrietta, a wonderful, caring, gentle soul who decided half a century ago to put on a dress and be himself. To my knowledge (vast, let me assure you) there is not one person on this island who does not idolize this great image of all the South Beach is. When Carl Fisher invented this little sand bar to be a point of pleasure, surely he envisioned Henrietta; we know that from her stories about basement drag clubs in the sixties existing for those "in the know". As the papers reported: "...and her jewels are all real" to the way she can make a room Kowtow like Mrs. Stuyvesant-Fish, Henrietta is a gem. The town took off its hat to her that night.

Lately, there have been a couple of people who contacted me about Henrietta; they want to interview her and I can only say "Amen". Someone has to chronicle the life of this person. My favorite story is of her Mafia-connected uncle who took her in in the fifties; he owned a very popular Italian restaurant in Mid Beach named, Marios; Henrietta learned to cook there while perfecting her penchant for drag. Her uncle didn't care, "As long as I came home by eleven." The Beach wasn't very tolerant then. Blacks could not be on The Beach unless they had a card saying where they worked and couldn't even sleep here; Sammie Davis Jr. had to leave the island after performing with the Rat Pack at The Fountainbleau and take a room in Overtown. The fate of a drag queen was even more dire, except for the fact that Henrietta lived on the same block as Meyer Lansky in Mid Beach and cleaned his house. "Every cop was paid off then, and with Meyer as my client not one would touch me."

Ah, sweeter stories are not even made up. And those sweet stories, I believe, are about to be recorded.

An older shot of Henritetta with Riley; I'll never forget the Sunday afternoon of the birthday party I threw for her. Henrietta demanded to cater the event--a talent she is well-known for in town--and I got a call saying "We are pulling up; come take the food." I summoned a crew of nubile busboys and ran out to the alley to see Riley in his Mini-Cooper with Henrietta's magnificent bouffant scrapping the ceiling of his car. It doesn't get better than that.