Tony Midnite (Sept. 20, 1926 - Aug. 31, 2009) was a female impersonator, costume designer, activist, and book reviewer.

Early life

Midnite was born Tony Murdoch on Sept. 20, 1926 in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. He worked in the defense industry at Hunter's Point Navy Yard near

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After seeing a female impersonation show at the legendary Finocchio's in San Francisco around 1948, he became a performer himself, starting in Galveston, Texas, transitioning to Hollywood, California, then making his way to Chicago.

Career

Midnite had begun performing with the traveling Jewel Box Revue, America's first racially-inclusive traveling revue of female impersonators. He took a hiatus, however, in 1951 to move to Chicago. His mentor, Stanley Rogers, was the costume designer for the Jewel Box; when Rogers retired, Midnite took over the post. He also opened his own costume design studio in Chicago in 1953 in the basement of the Lorraine Hotel at 411 South Wabash Ave. in the city's Rush Street nightclub area. Though he was having throat troubles in the mid-1950s which caused him to step back from performing for a time, he was nevertheless photographed in full glamour drag regalia in 1955 and 1956 by celebrity and theatrical photographer Maurice Seymour, who stars sought "because of his ability to portray them as they appeared to the audience 100 feet away. He could retouch the photos, enhance their appearance...keep the illusion going." Midnite eventually performed and designed costumes for four years at Club 82 in New York City. In this time, he created original designs for fellow performers such as Lavern Cummings and Tillie the Dirty Old Lady. As the drag scene boomed not only in Chicago proper but

Calumet City Calumet City ( ) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 36,033 at the 2020 census, a decline of 2.7% from 37,042 in 2010. The ZIP code is 60409. Etymology The word ''Calumet'' is the Miꞌkmaq and French word for a ...

and Cicero, with approximately 50 strip clubs abounding, Midnite designed for "all manner of exotic stage performers." In addition, he designed for road shows of ''

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

'' and '' Carnival'' and for the Jewel Box's Broadway production, which debuted at Loew's State Theatre in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

. He designed for Club Chesterfield performers as well and worked under the supervision of David Merrick on various productions for the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

. He started booking shows for the Jewel Box Revue, inevitably shaping the drag scene at the time with an 8-month-long booking on the South Side of Chicago called ''25 Men and a Girl'' which signaled a drag boom in the region in the 1960s. Throughout his performance career, he appeared in shows such as Club 82's ''Fun-Fair for '57'' and ''Club 82 Revue'' and the Jewel Box's ''Show Sensation of the Nation'', among numerous others. His final performances were in a recurring show called ''The Fantasy Revue'' which played at the Granada Lounge and Blue Dahlia Show Lounge in Chicago. Later in life, Midnite worked as a book reviewer, reviewing for ''GayLife'' and other publications. In 1996,

Mayor Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

of Chicago inducted Midnite into the

Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame (formerly Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame) is an institution founded in 1991 to honor persons and entities who have made significant contributions to the quality of life or well-being of the LGBT community in Chic ...

Awards

inductee (1996)

Death

Midnite died in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

on Aug. 31, 2009 at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Midnite, Tony American drag queens American costume designers American LGBT singers People from Texas 1926 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American LGBT people