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Hibiscus as Madame Butterfly at

Sonoma State College in 1970.

Hibiscus (then George Harris) is

 believed to be the subject of the

iconic photograph Flower Power ,

snapped by Bernie Boston on

October 21, 1967, at the National

Mall.

Hibiscus (entertainer)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hibiscus (born George Edgerly Harris III; September 6, 1949 – 

May 6, 1982) was one of the leaders of the psychedelic gay liberation

theater collective known as the Cockettes in early 1970s San

Francisco; in today’s theatrical parlance he would be considered to bea "Creative Director".

Contents

1 Early life

2 War protest

3 The Cockettes

4 References

5 External links

Early life

Harris was born in Bronxville, New York in 1949 to George Harris II and Ann M. Harris. The family moved

to Clearwater Beach, Florida. The Harris parents became interested in theater and began performing with a

local community theater called "The Little Theater". George and his siblings started a children’s theater 

troupe, the El Dorado Players. In 1964, the family moved to New York, and Harris appeared in commercials,

television, and in 1966 in an Off Broadway play titled Peace Creeps by John Wolfson with Al Pacino and

James Earl Jones.[1]

In 1967, George Harris III and his father George Harris II appeared in New York in the Off-Off-Broadway

 play Gorilla Queen by Ronald Tavel.[2]

War protest

Hibiscus (then George Harris) joined the October 21, 1967 anti-war 

march on the Pentagon (in order to "levitate" it) and appears in the

historic photograph of that event, Flower Power ; he was the turtleneck sweater-wearing protester photographed putting flowers into the gun

 barrels of the MPs.[3] His editors, not imagining the significance, buried

it deep inside the A section.

What became of the young demonstrator? By most accounts, he was

George Harris, about 18 years old, a young actor from New York. A

close review of the photographer Bernie Boston who took the photo for 

the Washington Star full contact sheet reveals that in fact it was not

George Harris . Ann Harris, mother of George insists it was . Ms, Harris

was not at the demonstration in DC when the photo was taken

The Cockettes

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Hibiscus (whose full beard, vintage dresses, make-up and costume jewelry created a defiant look, even by

today’s standards) embraced drag and drugs as paths to spiritual liberation, and attracted a group of 

like-minded hippies who loved show-tunes, dressing up, showing off and dropping acid, and became The

Cockettes.

The Cockettes decked themselves out in drag outfits and glitter for a series of legendary midnight musicals at

the Palace Theater in San Francisco’s California North Beach neighborhood. They quickly became a

"must-see" for San Francisco’s gay community, with their outlandishly decadent productions like "Journey to

the Center of Uranus," "Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma" and "Gone with the Showboat to Oklahoma."[4] Two

notable Cockettes were the disco diva darling Sylvester and the "queen of B-movie filth" Divine, who sang

"If there’s a crab on Uranus you know you’ve been loved" while dressed as a psychedelic crab queen.

When the Cockettes wanted to start charging for their shows, Hibiscus left, believing all shows should be

free, and formed the Angels of Light  in San Francisco, which gave many free theatrical performances in the

early 1970s in San Francisco and New York.[5] After moving back to New York, he put together a number of 

off-off Broadway revues, of which Sky High ran the longest. He also appeared in a daytime soap opera under 

his real name. In the early 1980s, he and his sisters Jayne Anne, Eloise and Mary Lou and brother Fred,

formed the glitter rock group "Hibiscus and the Screaming Violets".

Hibiscus died of Kaposi’s sarcoma due to complications from AIDS on May 6, 1982 at St. Vincent’s Hospital

in New York City. [6] He was a very early AIDS casualty: at the time of his death the new illness was still

referred to as GRID.[7]

References

Silva, Horacio (2003-08-17). "Karma Chameleon". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-14.1.

Poland, Albert (1972). The off, off Broadway book: the plays, people, theatre. Bobbs-Merrill. p. 199.2.

 Flowers, Guns and an Iconic Snapshot , The Washington Post, retrieved 22 Nov, 2007

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701300.html)

3.

www.cockettes.com History, retrieved 22 Nov 2007 (http://www.cockettes.com/history1.html)4.

Waxman, D.J. (1981-06-01), "New Waves or Perennial Blossoms: D.J. Waxman Meets Hibiscus", New York 

 Native

5.

"Cockettes founder Hibiscus dies in New York; 300 other cases reported; Kaposi research hurt by cutbacks". Body

 Politic (85) (Toronto). July–August 1982. p. 16.

6.

"Founder of Cockettes, Hibiscus, Dead of GRID", Advocate (345), June 1982: 127.

External links

IMDB profile (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382538/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hibiscus_(entertainer)&oldid=681002152"

Categories: 1949 births 1982 deaths American male actors AIDS-related deaths in New York 

People from the San Francisco Bay Area 20th-century American male actors American drag queens

LGBT musicians from the United States Gay actors

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