Dorian Corey (1937-1993) was one of the matriarchs of the New York drag ballroom scene.
Dorian Corey (1937-1993) was one of the matriarchs of the New York drag ballroom scene.
While motherhood can take many forms, to mother is to usher forth new generations through care, work and imagination. For the entire month of December, we’re celebrating mothers — including those who raised children who went on to lead the civil rights movement and school desegregation efforts, such as Alberta King and Louise Little, as well as mothers of movements like Lorena Borjas who started the Latinx trans movement. All of the women featured this month were dedicated to the survival of children in their work and to imagining better futures for the next generation.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I'm Anna Malaika Tubbs, the author of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr., Malcom X and James Baldwin Shaped A Nation. My work focuses on motherhood, through the lens of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity, and I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about mothers: women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work, and imagination.
Today we’re talking about one of the matriarchs of the New York drag ballroom scene. She shepherded young queens and popularized terms and concepts that are now part of mainstream popular culture.
Please welcome Dorian Corey!
Dorian Corey was born in Buffalo, New York, on June 6, 1937. She was assigned male at birth but realized early on that she was a girl. From a young age, Dorian also learned what it meant to be a mother. When Dorian was 8 years old, Dorian’s mother had another baby… but she struggled to care for her alone. Dorian had no choice but to develop her maternal instincts.
In the 1950s, Dorian moved to Manhattan to study art at Parsons School of Design. Shortly after she graduated, she toured the U.S. with a cabaret drag act called the Pearl Box Revue. Dorian’s role in the ensemble was a snake dancer.
Dorian took pride and pleasure in making others look beautiful. She used her Parsons degree to become a highly regarded seamstress and costumer. She created fresh, fun, and dramatic looks for drag ball halls as well as for her clothing line, Corey Design. She also invested in her own appearance: she found a doctor who did silicone breast injections and went to Yonkers to get the procedure done.
More than anything, Dorian was a drag queen. She was a legend at drag balls. Her notable outfits included imitating Marie Antoinette – complete with a guillotine and giant wig – and a 30 by 40-foot feathered cape that could transform into a tent that enveloped the audience. Dorian was hard to look away from. At six feet tall with another couple of inches of wig added and a face of makeup beat by the gods, Dorian was a spectacle. And she knew it. When she performed, she put on an inspiring and captivating show.
Over the course of her life, Dorian won more than 50 grand prizes from voguing balls. She was pivotal in the immortalization of voguing in ballroom culture. Dorian was one of the five reigning ballroom house mothers known as the “terrible five.” This group consisted of Dorian, Pepper LaBeija, Avis Pendavis, Paris Dupree, and Angie Xtravaganza, who was once one of Dorian’s children, and has been featured on Womanica in the past.
In drag culture, houses are the family that you choose. For many young Black, brown and queer kids, living as their most authentic selves can be isolating and lonely. So, many members of the community form their own families, which are led by house “mothers” and “fathers.” These houses are places of guidance, support, and acceptance – and sometimes tough love. House mothers like Dorian take people under their wing and treat them as their own children.
Dorian created the House of Corey for her drag family. She mentored and guided many young queens as they discovered themselves and navigated the world of drag. Dorian created a safe space for a lot of people. Her friend Tracy would later tell a reporter, “Dorian, she just helped you laugh, forget your problems. She was everybody’s, like…angel”.
In 1990, Dorian was featured in the culturally iconic documentary “Paris is Burning.” The film was an exposé of ballroom culture during the height of New York City’s drag balls. It followed several famous drag queens and explored questions of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America during the late 1980s. In the film, Dorian’s personality is on full display. She’s her witty, wry, unflinching self. Through her performances and sharp one-liners, Dorian defined terms like voguing, shade, and “reading” also known as “the real artform of insult.” All of these terms are now popular in queer and mainstream culture.
Just a few years after the film’s premiere, Dorian Corey died of AIDs-related complications at age 56 on August 29, 1993.
However, Dorian was always larger than life. And just because she wasn’t around physically didn’t mean the world stopped talking about her. In fact, the world may have talked about her more, thanks to the mystery she left behind.
Two months after Dorian’s death, her friend Lois Taylor was selling her belongings. Lois and a couple of friends were browsing through Dorian’s closet for costumes, and among the lavish pieces was a musty green plaid garment bag. It seemed so out of place. So, out of curiosity Lois and her friends decided to open it. If green plaid was a drab and unpleasant sight to a drag queen… what they found inside was even more horrifying.. Inside was the partially mummified body of Robert “Bobby” Worley. Inside was a partially mummified body. The police later identified the body as a man named Robert “Bobby” Worley.
It’s unclear how long the body had been there but the police said that he must have died at least 20 years prior. Among other mysteries were: who killed him, and who was Bobby Worley to Dorian Corey? Some rumors say that Dorian left a note on the body that claimed Bobby had tried to rob her and she acted in self-defense. Others say that Bobby and Dorian were lovers and Dorian shot Bobby when things got heated. We may never know the full story. And, Dorian was certainly a trove of mysteries. But she also left behind a legacy so much bigger – one of care and mothering to those who needed it most.
Dorian’s parting words at the end of “Paris is Burning” embody how she lived. She said:
"I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you’ve made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you’ve left a mark. You don’t have to bend the whole world. I think it’s better just to enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you."
All month, we’re talking about mothers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!