Artist Robert Heishman was rummaging through a junk yard while looking for material for an undergraduate documentary class, when he came across an old slide carousel labeled “Jack’s Slides: Chicago and Kansas City.” To his surprise, the carousel burst open, unicorns and butterflies flew out, and it was chalked full of dragalicious photos from 1960’s Kansas City!
Later, while helping a friend move into a house around the corner from a bunch of old drag clubs in Kansas city, they came across a shoebox in the house with a similar bunch of old photos that appeared to be by the same dude!
NYMagazine has a great interview with Robert regarding his glamorous discovery over here, but you can have a look at the full set of photos right here, after the jump!
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Kansas City, KS is not a suburb of Kansas City, MO. The two cities were originally founded as “The Town of Kansas” at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. As the city grew it eventually split into KCK, and KCM, with KCM being officially incorporated approximately 10 years before KCK. This doesn’t mean that KCM was the first city, just that it incorporated first. While KCM did go on to grow larger than KCK, calling it the “real” city is like calling a first born twin the “real” kid.
Except that Kansas City, Missouri is the city in question. Kansas City, KS is a suburb across the state line from the real city.