Loading ...- Category:
- Entertainment
- Author:
- Ani Lamont
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 25 March 2009
The Empress of Sydney, Ms Kandy (Ken) Johnson -” pioneering drag queen and founder of Ken’s Karate Klub -” has launched his long-awaited autobiography Kandy: What a Drag, a telling exploration of Sydney’s gay and lesbian past as seen from the front lines of the entertainment world.
Johnson never stood on the steps of Town Hall to demand decriminalisation but his role in galvanising and drawing the gay and lesbian community together was of no less importance.
As one of the original cast at the Purple Onion -” Sydney’s first openly gay and lesbian venue -” Johnson worked to produce a new show every six weeks to attract crowds and bolster spirits.
The Purple Onion established itself as the first gay nightclub and people started to come there as a venue where they could be totally among their own people, and it established a social life for the gay people which had not been there before, he recalled of the eight years he spent with the club during the sixties.
It was an exciting time and as it turns out, it was sort of historical but at the time when you’re doing those things you don’t think of it as being historical.
The ‘78 march was, of course, historical right from the start because it was a milestone but as far as the drag clubs were concerned, they were just there to provide entertainment and pull the people together under a banner where they felt safe.
Making a further contribution to the array of gay-friendly venues, Johnson opened the now-legendary Ken’s Karate Klub, one of Australia’s first sex-on-premises steam baths.
I’d been around the world and I noticed the steam baths and thought, they’re pretty good for the gay world. It’ll get people off the beats and put them in the steam rooms where they are comparatively safe having sex.
It was very difficult to open anything like that because the police had the kybosh on and bribery was so endemic in those days, so unless you approached the police you just didn’t get a license.
It was a predicament Johnson was able to get around by buying a pre-existing gym in Randwick before taking advantage of a vacant lease and some contacts at the old Purple Onion site on Anzac Parade.
The steam baths were probably the least stressful thing I ever did. They were a great joy to run, he told Sydney Star Observer. He spoke of the fun involved with starting the first -˜chicken night’ to get twinks in and patrons who used to turn up to the -˜karate club’ in full sparring outfits to evade suspicion.
It all went well until the advent of HIV.
Of course that absolutely knocked the steam bath sideways. Unfortunately I was still on an overdraft up to my earhole so I had to sell the steam bath to entrepreneurs and went back into the pub game -” which was a foolish thing to do, because no one was doing well during that time.
info: Kandy: What a Drag is available from the Bookshop, Darlinghurst.
Tags: Kandy Johnson, Kandy:What a Drag, Ken Johnson, Ken's Karate Klub, the Purple Onion
