Midnight At The Palace: My Life As A Fabulous Cockette

By Pam Tent

Book Overview

David Weissman and Bill Weber wowed audiences at the 2002 Sundance Festival with their documentary The Cockettes. Now a founding member of the legendary troupe takes us inside this flamboyant ensemble... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155583874X
• ISBN13: 9781555838744
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Alyson Pubns
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Spirit of the times

Pam Tent accurately captures the spirit and craziness of the Haight/Ashbury and of San Francisco during the Summer of Love. Her book is full of details and insights from one who lived the life to its fullest. It is an amazing story proving that you can be as "far-out" as you wish and survive to tell the tale.

Most Wonderful

This book is worth a read for the outfit descriptions alone. This book made me want to invest in gallons of glitter. Fascinating: these folks depended and thrived on a system of families and communes rather than a "straight" lifestyle of jobs and paychecks. Not only did they thrive, but they created a troupe of performers whose antics I wish I had been around to experience. The Cockettes lived their art, which seems like a rarity in these icky conservative times.

The Cockettes - A MUST for expirimental theater enthusiasts

This important seminal era of avante garde theater and queer history circa 1968-74 was almost lost to posterity due to the AIDS deaths of so many of its' important voices. Thank Goddess it has been lovingly and meticulously posited in history/herstory in a tangible way in this book by one of the Cockettes best suited for the calling - Sweet Pam. Her tone IS sweet, but hardly naive. The author deftly weaves the significance of this cultural watershed throughout her priceless juicy gossipy gutter level dish. For those of us who were too young to be in SF then and who want to know more, the book provides a detailed chronological survey of the evolution of the Cockettes. The book serves as the perfect step child to the great documentary film about the Cockettes that came out a couple of years ago.

Share the Excitement of a Culturally Important Era

Pam Tent's voice in her writing of this unusual and culturally important story is much more clear, incisive and organized than the subject she is dealing with. Her letters home provided the basis for a period that many of us, because of the indulgences of the time, have forgotten. It's so interesting to relive it (or see it for the first time) through her eyes. She's such a good story teller and was right in the middle of the whole thing. We are lucky she is still around to tell it-many others have died. I'm sure you'll enjoy "Midnight at the Palace" and will recommend it to anyone interested in the late 60s/early 70s and how that brief cultural explosion affects us today. Robert Burnside, founder of the "no science fiction, thanks" book club