Legends of Drag: H.I.H The Grand Duchess Regina Fong
Last night, I watched the much admired Drag Race UK for the first time. I had heard some good things about it and thought it might be worth a shot seeing as there was bugger all else on the television. So, I fired up my ‘laptop’ — if you can call it that. I was given it in the early 2000s by a nephew — I call it the paving slab as it’s just as thick and probably just as heavy (although I can’t say I have much experience of heavy lifting, dear). Anyway, I dusted the wretched thing off and turned it on for the first time in donkey’s years. After navigating the web to the IPlayer, I cracked open a babycham, chewed on a salted peanut and settled into watching it.
Whilst the style of drag has seemingly changed over the years, and I can’t say I am RuPaul’s biggest fan, I was struck by how wonderful it is to have such a popular, entertaining and flamboyant show on our screens when in my day it would have been unimaginable. This got me looking back, once again, on some of the drag greats of the last century, without the likes whom RuPaul’s Drag Race UK may not be as successful or popular around the world.
No reminiscence of legendary queens from the years gone by would be complete without Her Imperial Highness The Grand Duchess Regina Fong who reigned supreme over The Black Cap in Camden for so many wonderful years. Before I go on, I must hasten to add that Reg Bundy, the man inside Regina Fong (ooh matron), disapproved of the word ‘drag’ and prefered to be referred to as ‘a cabaret artiste’ so out of reverence to the Duchess I’ll defer to dear old Reg’s terminology.
A trained dancer, Reginald Sutherland Bundy, debuted his genius creation in 1985, influenced by the New York queen Lypsinka. Regina Fong was a flame haired empress of the Russian nobility who had fled to England after the Russian Revolution of the early 20th century. Whilst some Russian nobles ended up living in the grounds of Windsor castle, Her Imperial Highness ended up in the West End where she became an icon, a champion of gay rights and an indomitable charity host. Her act was, and still is, considered legendary. Once described as a eclectic mix of ‘Watch with Mother’, Cruella De Ville, naughty impersonations of Coronation Street characters and brilliant lip-synching to the music of Sandie Shaw, Reg became a much loved feature of the London gay scene. Many will remember his jingles, his acerbic wit and satirical ‘sending up’ of politics and pop culture, not forgetting his much loved ‘Typewriter’ set-piece where he had swathes of young men rapidly ‘air-typing’ to Leroy Anderson’s signature tune.(A clip of this exists and has been included below).
From the bars and clubs, Regina Fong went on to take the Edinburgh Festival and the Bloomsbury Theatre in London by storm in her one-woman show ‘The Last of the Romanoffs’ and was a regular host of both London’s Gay and Lesbian Pride and late-night television’s Club-X show. Clearly a popular and staple figure at the time, Reg, as himself, appeared in both stage and radio plays.
Before I finish up this brief reminiscence and go and mix myself a Bloody Mary on this beautiful Sunday Morning, I have one final thing to add. With the popularity of ‘It’s A Sin’ increasing AIDS/HIV awareness globally, I’d like to give a little nod to Regina Fong’s significance to gay men at the time she was gracing the London gay scene, at the height of the AIDs epidemic. ‘A pillar of hope’, is how I’ve heard the London drag scene described — in a time of great fear and loss, acts such Reg’s Regina Fong and Paul O’Grady’s Lily Savage displayed the great British stiff-upper-lip, sticking two fingers up at those who shunned the gay community and bringing a smile to the faces of those who lived in such frightening times. If Reg could paint on a brave face, so could his audience. Ultimately, he reminded his fans that they mattered as a community and that owning and accepting their own individuality was where their cultural strengths stood firm. This is a contribution that many queens of the 80s/90s made to the gay scene at the time and shouldn’t be forgotten. As LGBT History Month draws to a close, spare a thought for them and all of the men, young and old, who were tragically taken from us.
Reg Bundy died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 56 — taken far too early. Whilst little of his act survives on tape and with The Black Cap standing silently on Camden High Street (boarded up between Boots and the butchers’) his legacy remains in the hearts and minds of his audiences who spent many happy nights enjoying his act and the generation of queens who he has influenced to this day. Cheers Reg!
26th May 1941–15th April 2003
N.B — After trawling the internet, here is a clip of Regina Fong at the Black Cap from 1995, performing her famed Typewriter set-piece, to give you a flavour of the talent that was Reg Bundy:
One of the comments sums things up well — “the first time you went you didn’t have a clue what was going on when you’d seen it twice you were hooked! ……..”
(If you remember Her Imperial Highness I would love to hear from you in the comments section below! Any other thoughts and feedback on my blog are greatly appreciated!!)
COMING NEXT WEEK: Danny La Rue — The Comic in a Frock
