When Miss Glenda hears her fans begin the “Cartwheel” chant, she takes full advantage of their anticipation to raise more money for a charitable cause. Surrounded by fluttering $5.00 bills, Miss Glenda makes her rounds to collect until she feels the crowd has been sufficiently generous toward the cause. “I think they just like to see this big body go around and actually land on its feet!” Miss Glenda surmises. Whatever the reason for the audience request, Miss Glenda enjoys every minute of teasing them with false starts.

If you’ve never experienced a “drag show,” it can be quite an entertaining experience. First of all, you may need to look twice (or more) to realize the performers aren’t really female. These female impersonators take their art very seriously. They spend hours and solicit lots of help to re-shape their bodies and apply the proper makeup to give them a realistic feminine appearance. In the case of Miss Glenda, she claims two hours, just for makeup, and the body-shaping requires a process of wrapping the mid-section in duct tape to push everything up and give her a pear-shaped figure.

The second perception during a drag show is usually the appearance of oceans of dollar bills waving in the air as the performer dances, lip syncs, and makes her rounds through the crowd. Tipping the performers is part of “drag show etiquette,” says Miss Glenda. “If you like what you see, you give a tip.” It may remind you of tipping exotic dancers and strippers, but, in reality, those tips are more than likely being collected to support a worthy charity.

Even if “like what you see” isn’t a comfortable term (say, you’re not into female impersonators), it’s more a matter of appreciating what the performer does in order to take the stage. This type of performance, in a pageant setting, is the “talent” portion of the contest. Lip sync — talent? You bet it is! You have to remember — it’s not as easy as learning the words to a song and dancing. These are men, stretching their bodies into the likeness of females — not to mention the concentration it takes to dance, lip sync, and collect all those tips!

Just to give you an idea of what those tips mean, during her past year as Miss Stallions, Miss Glenda has given 51 performances and raised, at last count, $13,000 in charitable donations. As Miss Stallions, Miss Glenda has been expected to plan and organize benefit shows at Stallions, as well as to appear as a guest performer at other bars and locations, as requested. For example, the “Babes in Toyland” benefit show last year was used to raise money for Christmas gifts for children in hospitals. In January, Miss Glenda performed two numbers every Saturday at midnight at Twin Peaks and raised $600 for breast cancer. In April, Miss Glenda’s birthday party raised $200, which was donated to the Bethesda Mission for Easter. The “High Heel Race” brought in $260 for the Memorial Garden in Riverfront Park. Another show this year was used to benefit the Children’s Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Lancaster. The list goes on and on!

For Miss Glenda, dressing in drag began as just some Halloween fun. In 1983, she auditioned for Lily White & Co., which is a prominent female illusionist group in Harrisburg, founded by Paul Foltz of Harrisburg Community Theater. Miss Glenda performed with Lily White for seven years and eventually formed her own company, Glenda & Friends Productions in 1991. In 1995, Miss Glenda won the title of Miss Neptune, when she helped raise money for SCAAN (South Central AIDS Assistant Network) and the Gay & Lesbian Switchboard, among many others. The next title for Miss Glenda was Miss Gay Pride in 1996, which included many benefits for Pride Day and helping to organize the event with the planning committee. That brings her to Miss Stallions 1998, where Chris — Chaim Valentin, Public Relations Coordinator, says, “We at Stallions are proud to have Glenda as Miss Stallions. Glenda has gone above and beyond expectations of any title holder we have ever known.”

In addition to Miss Glenda’s success in the pageant arena, in May of this year at the Stallions anniversary celebration she was awarded the “You Go, Girl!” Award. This award is known as a very prestigious award given annually to one member of the Gay Community. Miss Glenda received this award due to her devotion to charity (every dollar raised in tips, etc., was given to charity) and for her time and effort in volunteering to help with special events at Stallions as well as other local bars and organizations. As Michael Shefet, the owner of Stallions, puts it, “She is giving so much back (to the community) without condition.”

What’s next? Miss Glenda plans to run for Miss Strawberry in January 1999. All winners of the bar titles automatically compete for Miss Harrisburg, so perhaps we’ll see Miss Glenda in the Miss Harrisburg pageant in 1999. In case you didn’t realize, the female impersonator pageants have rules and regulations and a pageant structure similar to other beauty pageants. For example, the Miss (Gay) Harrisburg winner goes on to the Miss (Gay) Pennsylvania pageant, and Miss Pennsylvania goes on to the Miss (Gay) America pageant. Miss Glenda would be content with the Miss Harrisburg title.

You may wonder about the “Glen” behind Miss Glenda. Rest assured, there is nothing to hide. Glen finds his parents and coworkers very supportive of Miss Glenda’s activities and accomplishments. Glen’s employer is aware of Miss Glenda’s involvement in the community and his parents have been in the audience at Miss Glenda’s performances. How great that the many contributions Miss Glenda makes to the community can be respected inside and outside of the gay community.

“You really gotta love it!” Miss Glenda says of the whole female impersonation scene. When you consider the makeup time, expense of gowns (easily $800 and up), cost of performance sets, planning and promotion time for shows, effort of organizing pageants, and all the performance time involved — all for what amounts to a second full-time job without salary — that’s commitment! And if keeping busy could sum it all up, Miss Glenda’s life is anything but a drag!