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By Jesse Monteagudo
Closer to home, the deaths of beloved friends and community dealers are tragic reminders that the AIDS epidemic is definitely not over. One of the recent AIDS-related deaths that touched us all was that of entertainer and humanitarian John Goodwin, known the world over by his drag persona, "Dana Manchester". For many of us, the fact that Goodwin had AIDS was a total surprise: as far as we knew, John was sick one day and dead the next. But during the few weeks between the first announcement that John was sick--from the "flu"--and news of his February 3rd death--from AIDS-related pneumonia--our community united as it almost never had.
John Goodwin was born in Kansas City, Missouri on July 24th, 1955. A born entertainer--"My mom said that when I opened the refrigerator door at night and the light came on, I would stop and do twenty minutes of standup." --Goodwin found his calling in the burgeoning field of female impersonation. He moved to South Florida--then as now a center for female impersonation - in 1976, where he adopted the drag name of Dana Manchester; combining a suitably androgynous name with a tribute to his idol, singer Melissa Manchester. Dana's multiple talents--she could sing as well as lip-synch, dance and tell jokes--won her the admiration and friendship of colleagues like Ray Fetcho, also known as "Tiny Tina". "He was a very talented artist," Fetcho told a reporter. "When he was on stage you watched him. You didn't take a bathroom break. . . You stayed and watched the whole number." Dana's talents quickly took her to the top of the female impersonation world --the Miss Florida Pageant--which she easily won in 1977. "Dana was a real trooper. She was always learning, always developing," said author and activist Jack Nichols, who knew Dana through his late lover Logan "Roxanne Russell" Carter. "I remember her first show at Keith's Cruise Room in those days--and then suddenly she had bookings everywhere." For two decades Dana reigned as the "queen" of female impersonation in the Sunshine State, earning her the title of "First Lady of Florida" from entertainment columnist Jay "Mrs. Beasley" Lynch, a personal friend. Though John Goodwin/Dana Manchester had great talents, he will be remembered for his great heart. There was hardly a fundraiser for a GLBT or AIDS charity that did not feature Manchester's singing, lip-synching, dancing or MC talents. "She always went out for fund-raisers. She was always there to make a personal appearance," activist Andy Eddy told a reporter. "That brings the community together. A spirit of belonging. And it brings in the money." The South Florida activist group GUARD--Gays United to Attack Repression and Discrimination--recognized John/Dana's humanitarian work last year when it gave him its first Buddy Markwell Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the South Florida community by a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person. I first met and enjoyed John Goodwin/Dana Manchester in 1978, when Dana was performing at a benefit (of course) in a long-gone bar on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. Dana and I continued to cross paths during the next two decades, and though we were never more than casual acquaintances, Dana always had a smile, a warm greeting and kind words for me. My most memorable Dana performance was at the 1997 and 1998 gatherings of IMEN--International Men Enjoying Naturism--where Dana performed before over 300 naked gay and bisexual men (myself included).
But Dana didn't need a big audience to put on a show. The last time I saw Dana was at a lounge bar in Fort Lauderdale where, accompanied by a pianist, she gave a classy, intimate, and quite touching performance. "John Goodwin leaves us with the belief that together we can make a difference, and reminds us that without the power and the strength of our female impersonators, we would have never had our 'Bunker Hill' at Stonewall," said Tony Ramos, president of GUARD. "Dana Manchester--John Goodwin--danced wholesomely and happily across the stages of our lives, infecting us all with her smile and her natural goodness," agreed Nichols. In his song "Everything Possible", folk singer Fred Small wrote that "the only measure of your words and your deeds/Will be the love you leave behind when you're done." John Goodwin--Dana Manchester--left a lot of love behind when she left. And it is that love, and what it meant for us, that will stay with us until it's time for us to go. |
Dana Manchester was always the darling of South Florida's gay publications 
Dana--who often conquered stage fright by
imagining that her audience was naked--joked that she didn't know what to do
now that her audience was naked. She then went on to give the performance of
her life, earning her a standing ovation from her scantily-clad audience.
© 1997-2000 BEI