Hiding My Candy: The Autobiography of the Grand Empress of Savannah Hardcover - 1996

From the publisher

The Lady Chablis, the outrageously charming drag queen made famous in John Berendt's bestselling Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, takes us on an unforgettable tour of Savannah in her amazing story-- a triumphant woman's life filled with passion, humor, flair, and resourcefulness beyond the imaginings of mere mortals. With the guts of a five-star general and an appetite for life that would make even Madonna blush, Chablis takes us for a whirlwind walk on the wild side, callin' it out and pourin' the T! (truth, as The Lady would say). Its was at a club in Tallahassee that she found her drag mother: Cliff Taylor, better known as Miss Tina Devore, who would set her on the path to stardom. Playing clubs in Atlanta, Chablis began taking hormones to grow breasts, and developed her stage routine-- but it was in Atlanta that she discovered how dangerous prejudice can be when she was arrested for falsification of identification. They took my purse and my gowns and they took The Doll to jail, honey... Chablis's fan club in Savannah had started up, and, after a detour with Miss Crystal Meth that turn The Doll bionic, she began headlining at the Friends Lounge, where she was crowned Grand Empress of the city. Chablis soon formed a club called the S.L.U.W.W., or the Savannah League of Uptown White Women, whose members met for dinner parties knows as P.T.A. meetings (Party, Talk, and Alcohol). At the Pickup, an S&M club (That's 'stand and model, ' girl), Chablis met her fiancee, a little blond thang who loves her incognegro (without her wigs and makeup). Miss Debbie has the qualities that you look for in most men and never find. The Doll's been busted, dusted, cheated out of men and money (I wasn't wearing my crown so I could be screwed royally!). She's lived as the Grand Empress of Scrapin' to Get By, she's beat up bad-mouthed bouncers, know love sweet and tender, mean and rough, legal and outlawed... and she's survived, honey, she's FLOURISHED! Hiding My Candy, spiced with her special recipes for such delicacies as Brenda's Kickin' Chicken and Smack Y'Mama's Ribs, also features The Doll's beauty tips and her Blue Book (a very social register). Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply touching, and just as entertaining as The Lady Chablis in person, Hiding My Candy is one dessert you'll find absolutely irrisistible