Scrumbly was a founding member of the Cockettes, wrote all the original music and was the defacto
director/father figure of the Cockettes. He's still making music and performing all over San Francisco;
Scrumbly's personal showbiz website has a bio, lots of pics, and a few song samples.
As the psychedelic San Francisco of the '60's began evolving into the gay San Francisco of
the '70's, The Cockettes, a flamboyant ensemble of hippies (women, gay men, and babies)
decked themselves out in gender-bending drag and tons of glitter for a series of legendary
midnight musicals at the Palace Theater in North Beach. With titles like "Tinsel Tarts in a
Hot Coma" and "Pearls over Shanghai", these all singing, all dancing extravaganzas featured
elaborate costumes, rebellious sexuality, and exuberant chaos.
Joe Morgenstern, reviewing the documentary for the Wall Street Journal, wrote:
"Looks like Weimar decadence and feels like down-home friendship." Yes, the WSJ
now grooves on the Cockettes. It's official. The bourgeoisie have become unshockable.
For a few glittering years, they were the world's most celebrated gender-benders. In his forthcoming
film about the legendary performers, David Weissman tells one of the West's wildest stories.
May is Cockettes Month in San Francisco. Bill Weber and David Weissman’s film on the gender-bending
theatrical troupe is playing at the Castro Theater, with a companion exhibition at the Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts. North Beach photographer Jean Dierkes-Carlisle describes what it was like to
be there.
It's both incredibly cool and incredibly sobering to see how far ahead of the curve they all
were, living a hugely political life that was all about the revolutionary act of defining
self and identity while refusing to be boxed in by labels, or cast out anyone for being
too freakish. This is in distinction from faux progressives nowadays who claim to be bored
with (or simply beyond) identity labels or politics, but actually use that stance as a way
to shut down any real discussions around race or sexuality.