Photograph by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Atlantans of a certain age can still remember the posters stapled everywhere on telephone poles across Midtown in the early 1980s: “RUPAUL IS EVERYTHING” and “RUPAUL IS RED HOT.” It was a guerilla grassroots marketing gimmick budding performer RuPaul Andre Charles had borrowed after seeing the nightlife promotional tool used effectively on a visit to New York City. It was classic “fake it ‘til you make it”—but the strategy worked. Sometimes, while dancing to Prince or Cyndi Lauper records on the balcony of his Charles Allen Drive apartment, people below would shout up to him, “RuPaul is red hot!” One night in the dressing room at Atlanta’s 688 Club, the performer even encountered a motivational piece of graffiti in response to his telephone pole marketing campaign: “In the blink of an eye, RuPaul will fade into obscurity.” Recalls Charles: “I took it as a compliment. You’re nobody until somebody hates you.”
Just like those faded (and now highly collectable) posters still cherished by local fans, the 12-time Emmy-winning global drag superstar fondly recalls his star-making days in Atlanta in the late 1970s and early 80s in his new memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings, released this week.
Photograph courtesy of the publisher
On Sunday, Ru will return to Atlanta, the city the San Diego native regards as his creative birthplace, for a live appearance and book release celebration at the Tabernacle downtown. The city of Atlanta has a starring role in over 100 pages of the 240-page memoir which ends shortly after the performer achieves global fame following the release of his 1993 album and instant MTV staple Supermodel of the World. After getting his show biz start here, RuPaul left Atlanta for the bright lights of New York, where he became a regular…
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