Available in both black-and-white and color editions. Meet Jim
Flint, known to many as Felicia-a truly remarkable man who has done
some truly remarkable things. Raised in Peoria, Illinois, Flint was
a precocious kid who "shined shoes" for older gentlemen at age 8
and joined the Navy at 17. He was a serviceman with a distinguished
record who dreamed of becoming a missionary brother, yet only
months later became one of the most popular gay bartenders in
Chicago. Before long, he was stopping traffic on Clark Street as a
roller-skating, baton-twirling drag queen, eager to garner
attention for his now-legendary female impersonation bar, the Baton
Show Lounge. Running a gay bar in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s
meant placating corrupt police and city inspectors eager for
bribes, as well as shadowy, silk-suited Mafiosi. In addition to the
Baton, in a few scant years Flint was also running a down-and-dirty
leather bar and heading a gay motorcycle club. In the process he
became a community leader, eventually even running for the Cook
County Board as one of Chicago's first openly gay candidates for
public office. Flint also found the time to lay the foundations for
a gay sports league. Flint's story includes dozens of unforgettable
characters such as Baton stars Chilli Pepper, Ginger Grant and Mimi
Marks, transgender entertainment legends Alexandra Billings and
Candis Cayne, and many others who inhabit the spotlights, the
dressing rooms, and the evolving world of female impersonation.
Flint is also the founder of the celebrated Continental Pageant
System. As a witness to and a pioneer in the formation of the
modern LGBT community, Flint has attracted memorable people from
all walks of life. Meet Richie, the Baton doorman who hurled
insults at the customers, Tillie the Dirty Old Lady, a parade of
madcap patrons, battling bartender boyfriends, handsome S&M
bikers and club kids, sports stars, celebrities, political bigwigs,
and gay-rights activists of all descriptions. Unfortunately,
domestic violence, serial killers, and drug addictions were some of
the dangers in Flint's circle, and of course the AIDS epidemic
ushered in its own storm of drama and deep tragedy. In the midst of
all this is Flint himself: energetic, warmhearted and generous, yet
quick-tempered and opinionated, always respectful of his
flamboyant, ultraglamorous, often emotionally fragile bevy of
supertalented performers. Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria is the
colorful story of an amazing man and the LGBT community he helped
to shape, as he championed an out-of-the-closet, be-who-you-are
lifestyle. Authors Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen unravel the many
mysteries of Chicago gay community icon Jim Flint in this
provocative new biography.
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