Ella Fitzgerald is the drag persona of Donnell Robinson (born ), an American

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

based in Washington, D.C. Known as "the doyenne of D.C.'s drag scene," she hosted a long-running show at the drag club

Ziegfeld's Ziegfeld's/Secrets was a dual-themed nightclub in Washington, D.C., with Ziegfeld's featuring drag queens, and Secrets featuring strippers. The entertainment venue first opened in 1980, was forced to close in 2006, then reopened in a new location i ...

and is a mainstay of the city's annual Capital Pride.

Early life

Donnell Robinson was born in the mid-1950s. He grew up on a farm in the area of

Warrenton, Virginia Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, Virginia, of which it is the seat of government. The population was 9,611 at the 2010 census, up from 6,670 at the 2000 census. The estimated population in 2019 was 10,027. It is at the junction of U.S. R ...

, where he was raised by his grandparents while his mother worked as a

domestic worker A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

. His first foray into drag, before he was even aware of drag's existence, was portraying the

Flip Wilson Clerow "Flip" Wilson Jr. (December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998) was an American comedian and actor best known for his television appearances during the late 1960s and 1970s. From 1970 to 1974, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series ''The F ...

character Geraldine Jones at an eighth-grade talent show. After struggling at

Fauquier High School Fauquier High School is a public high school in Warrenton, Virginia, United States. The school is part of Fauquier County Public Schools and is located at 705 Waterloo Road. History Fauquier opened in 1963 and is the oldest high school in Fauqui ...

while balancing schoolwork with farmwork and caring for his grandparents, he managed to graduate, though he was not able to attend college due to his family's financial situation. A friend took him to the Pier 9 nightclub, where he watched a drag performance for the first time. He would go on to win his first drag competition there.

Career

Robinson moved to Arlington and began performing drag in D.C. in 1975. After initially taking the stage under the name Sharyn O'Brien, someone suggested that "you need an African American name. At your size, you should be

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

," so Robinson began performing under that name. Ella Fitzgerald came to play a central role in the city's drag scene, described by the

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

magazine ''

Metro Weekly ''Metro Weekly'' is a free weekly magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Washington, D.C., United States. It was first published on May 5, 1994. ''Metro Weekly'' includes national and local news, interviews w ...

'' as "a local drag legend" and "the doyenne of D.C.’s drag scene," and by the ''Washington Post'' as "the doyenne of Washington drag queens." She was a key member of the Academy of Washington, a now-shuttered social club for drag performers, and won various awards from the organization before it closed in 2015. At the Academy, she led the "Drag Daughters"

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

. She performed at such clubs as the Rogue, the Plus One, and the Other Side before moving to

in 1980. There, she hosted the long-running ''Ladies of Illusion'' show on weekends until the nightclub's closure during the 2020

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Fitzgerald, who created the show, served as director, emcee, and performer, and became one of the club's best-known acts, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Ziegfeld's." She also performs periodically at other clubs, such as Freddie's Beach Bar in Virginia, and is a mainstay of Capital Pride, D.C.'s annual

LGBTQ pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sha ...

parade. Beginning in the 1980s, Fitzgerald hosted fundraisers in response to the

HIV/AIDs crisis AIDS is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Central and West Africa. While various sub-groups of the virus acquired human infectivity at different times, the present pandemic had its origins i ...

, a cause she continues to support.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Ella 1955 births People from Warrenton, Virginia American drag queens LGBT people from Virginia African-American LGBT people African-American drag queens Entertainers from Washington, D.C. Living people