Photograph courtesy of Charlie Brown/Fred Wise
Mr. Charlie Brown, the reigning queen of Atlanta drag queens, has taken her final bow. The performer died Thursday night at Piedmont Hospital from complications following heart valve replacement surgery. He was 74. For 50 years, the self-proclaimed “Bitch of the South” entertained Atlantans with his bawdy brand of comedy, withering audience monologues, and risqué musical numbers on stage at Lips Atlanta, the Atlanta Eagle, Underground Atlanta, Illusions, and dozens of other nightlight spots. But Brown is perhaps best known as the namesake emcee and female impersonator at Charlie Brown’s Cabaret, the rooftop drag stage he oversaw from 1990 to 2004 high atop Backstreet Atlanta, the city’s massive 24-hour gay disco.
As news spread Thursday of his worsening condition, his 6th floor room at Piedmont’s ICU unit became a who’s who of Atlanta drag royalty as Shawnna Brooks, Nicole Paige Brooks, Mona Lott, Heather Daniels, and others arrived to say goodbye. Fittingly, the performer’s chosen family tearfully exchanged hugs in a sun dappled sixth floor waiting area underwritten by Dr. and Mrs. Charles L. Brown, III. (No relation to the performer.)
“Today the words ‘legendary’ and ‘icon’ are thrown around with no weight attached but when I think of those words, Charlie Brown fills my mind and heart,” says Atlanta drag performer Phoenix, who shot to international fame after appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2011 (As Brian Trapp, a closeted teenager in Forsyth County, the future drag star first saw Brown perform in 1999 at Atlanta Pride in Piedmont Park). “Charlie was a queen ahead of her time. Drag may be mainstream now, but it wasn’t always this way. Throughout so much of her career, being gay was looked down on, imagine what people thought of drag . . . but I can hear Charlie now [saying] ‘f*** ‘em!’ Charlie was truly something special, and to watch her at work was…
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