Sybil Bruncheon's "My Merry Memoirs"... the Palladium at Easter time...

April 19th, 1987:

It was Easter Sunday at The Palladium at 126 East 14th Street in Greenwich Village (just down from the original 19th century Luchow's Restaurant which was still standing!). "Jeffrey Sanker invites you to join the newly crowned Empress of New York, Sybil Bruncheon, for her first annual Easter Bonnet Parade. Wear your favorite bonnet and Win $500 First Prize." Look at that! ...a $500.00 first prize! Can you imagine? That was more than two month's rent for lots of folks back then. My panel of celebrity judges included John Lewis, Joan Baker, Michael Kenney, and Evelyn Blair. (...and our invitation photo was by Jack D. Pedota / AVANTOGRAPHY. Thanks to Susan Suka Taylor for styling too!!!)

There was a special guest performance, and Scott Blackwell was our DJ... and the whole thing started at 12:30 AM (which meant Steve Rubell would hold us till 1:00... or later!! Jeeeesh!) But we were paid in cash!... and whenever I did a show for Steve, he’d come up to me and say, "I loved it, kid!", and press an envelope into my hand with twice as much as he’d originally offered.. I pointed it out to him the first night of working for him, thinking he'd made a mistake, and he said, "What!?! Don't ya think ya deserve it, kid??"... and laughed! Back then, I worked for all the great party promoters, and Jeffrey Sanker was one of the best! Eventually he moved to Florida and built a huge career down there! Steve died in 1989…. And the Palladium, originally built in1927, is long gone now thanks to NY University which tore it all down in 1998 (as they're tearing down so much of Greenwich Village still). They replaced it with a giant dorm... which they named "The Palladium"… nice… that’s a great consolation. Whatever.

(Sybil photo by Jack D. Pedota. Styled by Susan Suka Taylor)

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From Sybil Bruncheon's "MY MERRY MEMOIRS"... The Rudey Awards!...

February 15th, 1987... thirty-???? (long!) years ago at the fabulous Palladium on East 14th Street in glittering Manhattan! Yes! The great Palladium built back in 1927 and host to major stars, big band acts, Vaudeville, and major movies and rock concerts... Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager bought the entire structure, reimagined and renovated much of it, and kept the most atmospheric wreck and ruin inside and celebrated it... almost as if Stephen Sondheim’s FOLLIES had come true!

It was glamorous, naughty, edgy, sexy, and magical... And I was lucky enough to be hired by the great club promoters at the time to create and emcee major events including Holiday shows. And this invitation was for a satire I created on Awards Ceremonies called the Rudey Awards... I had invented it all, and the trophies were "silver-plated" WWI hand grenades mounted on plexi-glass star-shaped stands. The Rudey Awards were for outstanding breaches of etiquette and good taste... and, being an Aquarius (known for their foresight and prescience!!) I had already selected Rudolph Giuliani, Leona Helmsley, and yes, Donald Trump among others for particular awards in specific categories. Of course, none of them showed up, but their awards were "accepted" by various performers who came up and made hysterical speeches interspersed with musical productions by guest stars and raffle drawings for tremendous prizes! How interesting that Mummie has been nailing these Page 6 thugs and skanks far longer than MSNBC and the major networks... but, like poor Cassandra in the Fall of Troy, I have never been believed or even respected... Oh well... maybe a girl can't have big muscles and a brain too… right?

(photos by Francesco Scavullo)

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