Hibiscus (born George Edgerly Harris III; September 6, 1949 – May 6, 1982) was an American actor and performance artist. Starting his career in New York City, he moved to

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 17t ...

, where in the early 1970s he founded the

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science o ...

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...

theater collective known as

the Cockettes The Cockettes were an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III) in the fall of 1969. The troupe was formed out of a group of hippie artists, men and women, who were living in Kaliflower, one of ...

. He was widely seen in ''

Flower Power Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsbe ...

'' (1967), a photograph taken during a major anti-Vietnam War protest in Washington, DC. He was photographed putting flowers into the gun barrels of the MPs.

Early life

Harris was born in

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the Administ ...

in 1949 to George Harris II and Ann M. Harris. The family moved to

Clearwater Beach Clearwater Beach includes a resort area and a residential area on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas County on the west-central coast of Florida. Located just west over the Intracoastal Waterway by way of the Clearwater Memorial ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. 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 returned to New York. Harris appeared in commercials, and started acting in television. In 1966 he performed in an

Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

play titled ''Peace Creeps'' by John Wolfson, with

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

and

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

. In 1967, George Harris III and his father appeared in New York in the

Off-Off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the pro ...

play ''Gorilla Queen'' by

Ronald Tavel Ronald Tavel (May 17, 1936 – March 23, 2009) was an American screenwriter, director, novelist, poet and actor, best known for his work with Andy Warhol and The Factory. Early life and career Born in Brooklyn, New York, Tavel graduated fro ...

War protest

On October 21, 1967, Hibiscus (then George Harris) joined the March on the Pentagon, an

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to p ...

march intended to "

levitate Levitation (from Latin ''levitas'' "lightness") is the process by which an object is held aloft in a stable position, without mechanical support via any physical contact. Levitation is accomplished by providing an upward force that counteracts ...

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

. He appears in

Bernie Boston Bernie Boston (May 18, 1933 – January 22, 2008) was an American photographer most noted for his iconic '' Flower Power'' image. Life and career Boston was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in McLean, Virginia. During his time in high ...

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

-nominated photograph, ''

''; he was the

turtleneck A polo neck, roll-neck (United Kingdom, South Africa), turtleneck (United States, Canada), or skivvy (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is a garment—usually a sweater—with a close-fitting collar that folds over and covers the n ...

sweater-wearing

protester A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

photographed putting flowers into the gun barrels of a soldier of the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne). Boston recalled the moment in a 2005 interview in ''Curio'' magazine: 1960's counter-culture member

Paul Krassner Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American author, journalist, and comedian. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key ...

, in a blog entry he did not post until a week after Bernie Boston died in 2008 (and three years after Boston was quoted in ''Curio''), states that the young man in the photo was Joel Tornabene, a leader of the

Youth International Party The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded o ...

; in addition to Boston, both Harris/Hibiscus and Tornabene were dead before Krassner posted this statement.

The Cockettes

Hibiscus, whose full

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

, vintage dresses, make-up and

costume jewelry Costume or fashion jewelry includes a range of decorative items worn for personal adornment that are manufactured as less expensive ornamentation to complement a particular fashionable outfit or garmentBaker, Lillian. Fifty Years of Collectabl ...

created a defiant look, even by later 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 In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a se ...

, and became

The Cockettes The Cockettes were an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III) in the fall of 1969. The troupe was formed out of a group of hippie artists, men and women, who were living in Kaliflower, one of ...

. The

Cockettes The Cockettes were an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III) in the fall of 1969. The troupe was formed out of a group of hippie artists, men and women, who were living in Kaliflower, one of ...

decked themselves out in drag outfits and glitter for a series of legendary midnight musicals at the Palace Theater in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

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 Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...

", "Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma" and "Gone with the Showboat to Oklahoma". Two notable Cockettes were the

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...

diva darling

Sylvester Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented ...

and the "queen of B-movie filth"

Divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.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 City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. 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 birth 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", supported by musicians Ray Ploutz on bass, Bill Davis on guitar and Michael Pedulla on drums. Hibiscus died of Kaposi's sarcoma due to complications from

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

on May 6, 1982, at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. He was an early AIDS casualty; at the time of his death the new illness was still referred to as

GRID Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hibiscus 1949 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American male actors AIDS-related deaths in New York (state) American anti–Vietnam War activists American drag queens American gay actors LGBT people from California LGBT people from New York (state) People from the San Francisco Bay Area Radical Faeries members 20th-century LGBT people