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History

Biography of Hunter , Legendary Drag Performer

Hunter , Drag Queen LegendHunter Half and Half
BornHunter Smith
March 14, 1968
Escondido , CA
DiedJuly 15, 2007 (aged 39)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of deathHead Injury complications
ResidenceLos Angeles, California, United States
EthnicityCaucasian
OccupationDrag performer
Years active1988 through 2007;

 

Hunter Smith (later changed legally to mono-name Hunter)  (born 18 March 1968) was a renowned drag performer/queen for over two decades in Southern California’s drag circuit, He performed at several night clubs including the now defunct “Peanuts” and “Horizon”. He was also one of the 3 original performers in the longest running drag show in Los Angeles called Dreamgirls Revue. Chad Michaels was the host of this show up until 2012 when it was taken over by Delta Work (Gabriel Villarreal).

Background

Early life

Born as Hunter Smith in Valley Center, where he grew up and graduated high school. He relocated to Los Angeles, California in approximately 1988.

Career

As Hunter he performed regularly with more current famous drag queens such as Morgan McMichaels, and Raja (Sutan Amrull) as well as Delta Work (Gabriel Villarreal) and Chad Michaels, the current and previous producers of the long standing Dreamgirls Revue show held in mostly West Hollywood, CA. for nearly 35 years.  He performed at Dillons(now Richs) in San Diego which is the home and start of the Dreamgirls Revue.  It then moved to the Brass Rail in San Diego which is where Chad joined the show and met Hunter. For a two year period, he moved to NYC approximately 1997-99 and did clubs and shows in drag all over Manhattan.  He also did a short time in Buloxi Mississippi working at a Casino in a show called La Cage.  About 2000 until 2003, along with Miss Kiwi, he traveled to Lake Tahoe at Horizon Casino (run by Dan Gore) and was a regular cast member in “Carnival Cabaret”.  He then returned to Dreamgirls in West Hollywood and in others venues around all of Southern California. Everyone wanted to book him and he was working almost full time.  According to Chad it was several times per week as he was in great demand for his talent.  He is drag mother to Chad Michaels and grandmother to Morgan McMichaels.  The staff of Dreamgirls always was teasing him about his secret of not telling his real age.  According to Chad, they never actually learned the real year except once when someone was able to grab his driver’s license.  So the age above is an estimate and not verified.  He was very into his craft and loved being very creative. His comedy was mostly influenced by people like Carol Burnett …simple yet not crude humor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBIJSWY10cI

 

Personal Life

It is my understanding that his personal life was not a lot outside of the drag persona.  Similar to another local queen called Tammie Brown, even though they identify as gay men, they rarely are outside of character.  I need to find out if there is more that I am missing when I speak to Chad again.  Oh and the history of both of them using real names:  some clubs forced a performer to use real names versus a drag name.  And like with Chad Michaels, this just stuck and everyone knew him simply as Hunter.

Death

Hunter had a tragic accident during a rehearsal and sustained a very bad head injury.  He went through about a two year period of attempts at rehabilitation and surgery to help keep him functional.  After a long struggle and what was shall say was terrible conditions for anyone that is very ill, he ended at a hospice called Wealth House in Long Beach which was gay owned and well operated.  Due to all of the wounds being just too complex to overcome, Hunter was lost due to the complications of the original head injury.  He was dear to many local people in Southern California and we miss him more than a biography can express.

Miss Kiwi Biography

Miss Kiwi – Legendary Drag Performer
Mickys Dream Girls 03-21-05  028Mickys Dream Girls 03-21-05  004
BornTony Rice
October 18, 1963
Saint LouisMissouri
DiedJuly 22, 2007 (aged 43)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of deathRespiratory Failure complications
ResidenceLos Angeles, California, United States
EthnicityAfrican-American
OccupationDrag performer
Years active1987 through 2007;

 

Miss Kiwi (born 18 October 1963) was the female persona of drag performer Tony Rice. A local fixture in Southern California’s drag circuit, Rice performed at several night clubs including the now defunct “Peanuts” , “Catch One” , and “Horizon”. She was also one of the 3 original performers in the longest running drag show in Los Angeles called Dreamgirls Revue. Chad Michaels was the host of this show up until 2012 when it was taken over by Delta Work (Gabriel Villarreal).

Background

Early life

Born as Tony Rice in Saint Louis, he was a cook on cruise ships in the south that allowed gambling. It is unknown if he had siblings and the parent information was not obtained. He relocated to Los Angeles, California in approximately 1987.

Career

As Miss Kiwi she performed regularly at drag shows in the following venues: “Peanuts” (7969 Santa Monica) now closed, “Catch 1” in south city of Los Angeles, also closed, and “Horizon” which was located in south city of Los Angeles as well. She performed regularly with more famous drag queens such as Morgan McMichaels, and Sutan Amrull as well as Delta Work (Gabriel Villarreal), the current producer of the long standing Dreamgirls Revue show held in West Hollywood, CA. She did private parties for celebrities such as Tori Spelling and others. She also went for a short time in the 90s to perform in Lake Tahoe. She was also often found at the Queen Mary (a drag club in Studio City that no longer exists) as well as the Boom Boom room which was located in Laguna Beach.  Also really big in the club kid LA Vogue scene.  She was a staple on the Los Angeles drag circuit for over two decades.  She was one of three original Dreamgirls Revue cast that started in San Diego at Dillons which is now called Rich’s.

Personal Life

Starting in about 1997 for several years Miss Kiwi began surgical procedures to transition to a female. She basically was just a leader in the first over-the-top transsexual performers.

Death

Miss Kiwi died July 22 2007 of complications from Respiratory Failure. She attended all of the previous shows as performer at “Dreamgirls Revue” before her death and actually the last show one week before her death.  She is interned in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

About the #LGBT state laws like #RFRA in Indiana

Guess what? The gays and lesbians have a lot of power in this country. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple (one of the richest companies in the world), is a fine example. He agrees with me in that these so-called “Religious Freedom” laws are destructive and harmful (for that matter so does the ACLU).  There are quite a few of us out there which nobody even realizes are CEOs of large profitable corporations (an example is the head of Burberry is out yet most do not know nor care about it). Together we will be able to get these dreadful state “religious freedom” laws removed from the books. Religion has no place in our government.  Our forefathers plainly said Church and State are to be SEPARATE! Sadly there are those decisions like the #HobbyLobby case in which precedent was set for states to keep and pass many of these laws in 19 other states.  Arkansas is poised now to be the 21st state and will suffer the same consequences of boycotting like Indiana in their state and businesses located there (Wal-Mart for example is a prime target if this were to happen in Arkansas).  This is all about timing.  A GOP moron named Mike Pence passed the Indiana law in 2015.  Instead of being intelligent enough to know to veto said law like the similar one in Arizona, which thankfully Jan Brewer did veto (even though she still is very right wing), Mr. Pence signed the paper making the law “Religious Freedom Restoration Act”. That kind of law should not be signed today.  For that matter it should not even be getting into these state legislatures. These laws are mere attempts to discriminate against us and if you are told otherwise, that is a flat out lie.  An example, I am a Satanist and my religion says I cannot serve you green eggs and ham (Satan wrote it in his recipe book).  See how absurd that previous sentence sounds!  As I have told family and right wing friends, it is not just about #GayMarriage it is about #Equality in how we are viewed and treated in society. The only difference between Selma fifty years ago and this fight today is that you cannot identify us by our skin color (only by our impeccable fashion sense). Too many conservatives view all of us as second-class citizens when in fact some of us have more money, taste, class, and education than these bigots that barely run our congress! I hope and pray that by 2016 the GOP destroys itself with all of its destructive hate speech and out-dated so-called morality that is exposed in the news via the Internet.  Most of those that profess to have such high morals are usually secretly practicing the morals of a common feral cat! The extreme right agenda that is mostly funded by the Koch Brothers must somehow be stopped before the next election.  If not, our country is doomed!  I am hopeful that when the Supreme Court hands down its decision in June, it will make our cause understood in ways that most republicans have no clue about today.  #NotSecondClass We had this discussion long ago.  You do not get to decide who sits at the lunch counter.  You do not get to decide that because Satan told you to believe LGBT persons are second-class they may not marry one another out of love.  You do not get to decide that because you object to two men expressing their love that your belief system prevents you from selling us flowers or cakes.  Because guess what, for each asshat that does not wish to sell one, there is someone else waiting to take our money.  That is all 🙂

george-hrc