In 1987, New Orleans entertainer Marcy Marcell’s career was in a slump. Her career had begun nineteen years earlier and by the mid-1980s, Marcell had established herself as a drag performer, having performed in gay bars throughout the French Quarter since the early 1970s.
Although she grew up in New Orleans, her first job as a performer was at an underground club in Chicago in 1968 as a dancer. It was there she first experimented with what was then called female impersonation. She didn’t stay in Chicago long and returned to New Orleans in 1969.
In 1970, she began working on Sunday evenings at a new gay bar in the French Quarter—the UpStairs Lounge. She was scheduled to perform at the Lounge the night an arsonist set fire to it, killing thirty-two people. Marcell, however, was running late that night because she was watching a Bette Davis movie, Watch on the Rhine, on television. Saving Marcell’s life was one of the many blessings Davis bestowed upon her gay following.
Marcell would go on to achieve legendary status as a New Orleans icon before her death in 2011, but by 1987, she had burned a few bridges and her career was waning, and she needed a comeback. She and three friends—Barry Marino, Johnny St. James, and Jan Morgan—came up with the idea for a comeback show.
Marino and St. James both worked at the Hilton at the time. Morgan was a drag king who performed at the Blue Odyssey in Metairie. Marino and Marcell had met years earlier on January 1, 1979, at Travis’ Bar (currently GrandPre’s). Marino, on a day drinking excursion through the Quarter, walked into Travis’ and saw Marcell behind the bar. He sighed, “Oh, no, not another drag queen!” Marcell grabbed him by the collar and replied, “Let me tell you something, muthafucka, a drag queen runs this place and if you don’t like it, you can get the fuck out!” Marino, 21 years old at the time, apologized and Marcell responded, “Oh, honey, sit down and I’ll buy you a drink.”
The four friends brainstormed and incorporated Marcell/St. James Productions. Their first production would be called There’s No Place Like Home, the name being inspired by the theme song to a popular television sit-com at the time called 227. The show would take place in the summer at a bar called The Other Side in the 600 block of Elysian Fields. St. James put up the seed money to produce the show, Marino handled the tech side, and Marcell and Morgan were performers. As they were planning the show, Marcell suggested they should honor a few people during the show. Among those honored were Ginger Snapp, Leslie Ross, Lady Card, and Charlene Schneider.
The show was a success and led to a pageant called Miss Gay Illusions, in which local performers impersonated popular celebrities. Held in November at The Other Side, the pageant featured Leslie Ross as Dionne Warwick, Teryl Lynn Foxx as Diana Ross, Tenisha Thompson as Donna Summer, Deanna as Madonna, Marino as Elton John, and Marcell as Patsy Cline. Foxx won the pageant. Miss Gay Illusions would last a few more years, ending in 1990, but Marcell’s comeback show would morph into what we now call the Gay Appreciation Awards.
In 1988, the GAAs were held at The Soiled Dove on N. Rampart Street. Among the honorees that year were Sue Martinez, Buzzy Fanning, Miss Do, and Leslie Ross. The annual award show became a hit and for the next few years was held at Baker’s Hall on Burgundy Street in the Marigny (now the Ruby Slipper).
For several years after that, the GAAs were held at the building across from The Friendly Bar (now a recording studio) before moving to Cowpokes (now The AllWays Lounge) and, later, Oz New Orleans.
By 1990, St. James, Marino, and Morgan had sold their shares in the company to Marcy Marcell and Connie Marcell., who renamed it M & M Productions. In 1995 or 1996, M & M Productions was sold to Rip and Marsha Naquin-Delain, the owners of Ambush Magazine. According to Marino, Marcy Marcell included a clause in the sale which stipulated that she be acknowledged as the sole founder of the GAAs, a stipulation to which Rip and Marsha agreed. Ambush has produced the GAAs since then.
Marino and Marcell would eventually have a falling out and Marino would go on to achieve some success in the theater world with Donnie Jay and the Slut Puppies and other productions. St. James eventually moved to New York. Morgan …
Marcell is often credited with starting the GAAs, and she did, but she didn’t do it alone. Barry Marino, the sole survivor of the four founders, notes, “Marcy was not the only founder of the Gay Appreciation Awards. It was a group effort.”
The 2024 GAAs will be held on August 24 at Oz New Orleans.
