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World of Wonder

World of Wonder also manages the global rights for all international versions of RuPaul’s Drag Race and consults on Drag Race Canada (BBC Three).

World of Wonder is the pioneering international entertainment creator of groundbreaking Emmy Award-winning feature and television programming, films, and unparalleled documentaries and series that give a voice to outsiders and marginalized communities. The world’s foremost LGBTQ+ and drag entertainment brand, World of Wonder is the multi-award-winning LA based media company that has been bringing

the best q***r talent, stories and counterculture to mainstream audiences for almost two decades. Founded in the UK in 1991 by executive producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, World of Wonder produced pioneering and headline-grabbing programmes such as The Adam and Joe Show (CH4), Power Le****ns (Sky One) and Housebusters (CH5). Expanding state-side in 1994, the team went on to produce award-winning factual entertainment, reality television and documentary content to critical and commercial success; as well as launching a specialist SVoD service and producing popular live conventions, podcasts and merchandising. Television highlights include: Emmy® Award winning RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1/Logo), RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (VH1), RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (BBC3), Million Dollar Listing LA & NY (Bravo), Dancing Queen (Netflix), Werq the World (WOW Presents Plus) and Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric (National Geographic). Nine of World of Wonder’s documentary films have premiered at the Sundance Film festival including Becoming Chaz, Party Monster and Whirlybird - which took home 2020's Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Documentary Features. Other award-winning films and documentaries include, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, Monica in Black and White, and Emmy Award-winning documentaries, The Last Beekeeper and Out of Iraq (all currently available to watch on WOW Presents Plus). Expanding its digital footprint, World of Wonder launched its specialist subscription on demand (SVoD) service, WOW Presents Plus. Landing in the UK in 2017, the SVoD is also available in America and 160 other countries and features World of Wonder content; including various titles across the Drag Race brand, digital series such as UNHhhh and Morning T&T and many of its documentary and film content. World of Wonder also produces RuPaul's DragCon, the world’s largest drag culture convention. Welcoming more than 100,000 attendees across LA and NYC in 2019 (with Vegas scheduled for January 2021), the company expanded internationally in 2020 with RuPaul’s DragCon UK taking place in London to a sold-out crowd. World of Wonder also co-produces the official RuPaul's Drag Race: Werq the World Tour, and the official RuPaul's Drag Race UK Tour. Co-founders Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey authored The World According to Wonder, celebrating decades of production and have been honoured with the IDA Pioneer Award, named on Variety's Reality Leaders List, and chosen for the OUT100 list for their trailblazing work in the LGBTQ+ community. World of Wonder was also selected for Realscreen's Global 100 list, which recognises the top international non-fiction and unscripted production companies working in the industry today. World of Wonder creates out of a historic building/gallery space in the heart of Hollywood.

09/13/2025

"Yma Sumac is my true name, and I was born in the mountains of Peru."
Yma Sumac
– September 13, 1922

She burst on to the pop music scene in the early 1950s like a vision from some sort of quixotic past. That voice was one of the marvels of the practicality wholesome Eisenhower era. Yma Sumac was a living, breathing, technicolor musical dream of MGM-style exotica.

Despite the rumors cooked up by her press agent, she was not a Brooklyn actor named Amy Camus whose name spelled backwards became strangely fascinating; Yma Sumac was the real deal.

She wowed audiences around the world in the 1950s with her stunning vocal range used for a modern spin on traditional South American folk music, her exotic beauty, elaborate costumes, and a singing that imitated the cries of tropical birds and other wild animals.

Details remain murky about the real story of this raven-haired singer. There have always been rumors about her life and origins, many of them myths of her own making. She said she was born in 1927, but it was probably 1922. She said she was born in Peru, and her name at birth was Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo.

Sumac claimed to be a descendant of Inca emperor Atahualpa, and she played up her Andean origins. Billed as the "Peruvian Songbird" or "Nightingale of the Andes",” Sumac's soaring, warbly, five-octave voice was matched with a flamboyant wardrobe, with studded gold and silver jewelry designed to make her look like our idea of an Incan princess.

Her first album, VOICE OF THE XTABAY (1951), sold half a million copies and was the start of a decade of fame that included performances at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl in an era when Americans were zany for all things "exotic".

Considered the height of camp, she acquired a big gay following. Sumac was rediscovered by the lounge music scene in the 1990s, and her songs appeared on compilation albums and film soundtracks. One of her songs was featured on RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE in a lipsync battle between Jinkx Monsoon and Detox.

She took her final bow in 2008, gone at what was probably 86 years old.

09/12/2025

"Why am I depressed? I have money and so many people love me."
Leslie Cheung
– September 12, 1956

His dramatic death brought as much speculation as his life. He leapt from the 24th floor of a hotel in Hong Kong in April 2004, leaving billions of fans stunned and devastated. He was 46 years old. Shockingly, the character he plays in the film FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (1993) was a cross-dressing actor who falls hopelessly in love with another male performer and then kills himself. In Wong Kar-Wai's romantic HAPPY TOGETHER (1997), he plays half of a couple in a very turbulent romance.

His su***de made headlines in Asian tabloids for months, searching for clues of why he did it. He was huge in Asia. His beautiful face was on magazine covers, and his erratic behavior was reported in the gossip columns. He had a longtime boyfriend, banker Hok-Tak Tong, who was as handsome as Cheung.

His musical genre "Cantopop" was produced primarily in Hong Kong where Cheung released 25 successful albums. His acting career began in 1986 with a starring role in A BETTER TOMORROW, breaking Hong Kong box-office records. Unlike many closeted actors, Cheung enthusiastically played q***r characters. After he came out of the closet in 1997, his career only got better, and his albums continued to be extremely popular, and so were his concerts. Ironically, Cheung's film fame came from playing macho heroes but he performed his music wearing wigs, skirts, and a white tuxedo with angel wings.

His su***de note read: "Depression! I can't stand it anymore. Many thanks to my family. In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?" Cheung put that note in his pocket, climbed over the balcony railing and jumped. He was 46 years old. In his final film, INNER SENSES (2002), he plays a psychiatrist who is nearly driven to su***de by a ghost. Among the explanations for his own su***de was that it was possibly an April Fool's Day joke gone terribly wrong.

The official Chinese media worried that his death would infect young fans with gayness, linking being LGBTQ to violence, depression, and su***de.

09/12/2025

WOO-OO-OO, shut up! 😍 Kennedy Davenport is BACK at RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!

Start planning your trip to see legend slaying the Main Stage at thru the end of October!

🎲 tickets on sale now at rupaulsdragracelive.com

09/11/2025

"The past you can't account for and the future you can't count on. Everything is now."
Lola Falana
– September 11, 1942

The entertainer: that unworldly talent who could do it all, the type of human who could sing, dance, act, and provide sparkling conversation, Lola Falana, a big talent in a tiny package, could do it all.

She conquered nearly every discipline in showbiz by 1976; besides television, Falana had already performed in Las Vegas and posed provocatively in ads for Faberge. Her Faberge Tigress perfume ads had Falana seductively costumed in a cat suit with a head of enormous hair. She proudly claimed: "This was the first cosmetics company that ever employed a Black woman to show a line that wasn't made just for Blacks."

Sammy Davis, Jr. discovered her in an Atlantic City casino chorus line and made her his protégé. He cast Falana as the lead dancer in his Broadway musical GOLDEN BOY, which ran for 593 performances in 1964 -1966. The show featured an in*******al kiss that shocked audiences already having difficulty adjusting to the urban jazz score by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse (who had just had a hit with BYE BYE BIRDIE) and the mentions of Malcolm X in the dialogue.

Davis took her to Las Vegas where she opened for comic Don Adams at The Sands Hotel and Casino (1952-1996) where, during its heyday, its world-renowned Copa Room hosted the most famous entertainers of the era, most notably the Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Davis.

In Las Vegas, Falana became known as "The First Lady of Las Vegas Entertainment", she worked 10 weeks a year, earning $100,000 a week ($350,000 in 2025 bucks) as the opening act for Wayne Newton, who became her best friend.

In 1987, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and found it impossible to continue performing, cancelling her two million dollars (5.5 million in 2025 $) in signed contracts. But Falana wasn't done. She made a triumphant return to Las Vegas in 1989 with a series of sold-out shows at the Sands. Then she turned her back on showbiz for good.

09/10/2025

"Trendy is the last stage before tacky."
Karl Lagerfeld
– September 10, 1933

He had a remarkable 64-year career creating clothes for the world's most famous females, including Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and Princess Diana.

Lagerfeld was noted for entertaining at his lavish apartment on the Paris's Left Bank which he shared with his partner Jacques de Bascher until Bascher was taken by HIV/AIDS in 1989.

Lagerfeld loved his cat "Coupette", and in 2013 he told the press that he would gladly marry Coupette if it were legal. The cat had its own Twitter and Instagram pages, with a huge following.

Lagerfeld was born to an affluent family in Hamburg and fell in love with fashion when he accompanied his mother to a Christian Dior show in 1949.

In 1954 he won first prize in the coat category in a competition run by the International Wool Secretariat. The best dress award went to a teenage Yves Saint-Laurent, sparking a lifelong rivalry.

Over the next six decades he worked for many of the world's most prestigious design houses including Chanel, Chloe, plus his own brand, and he also designed for H&M.

Lagerfeld said the most outrageous things. In an interview, the white-haired, short-fingered-glove wearing designer called models "stupid, sordid creatures". When he asked about the movement and whether it had affected the way he works with models as a designer who often does his own photography, Lagerfeld said: "I read somewhere that now you must ask a model if she is comfortable with posing. It's simply too much, from now on, as a designer, you can't do anything."

Lagerfeld gave an interview to a French newspaper in 2017 saying he was considering renouncing his German citizenship because of the one million Muslim immigrants that Chancellor Angela Merkel had accepted into Germany.

Lagerfeld said outrageous things for so long, so regularly, that it was almost expected. He was a provocateur; it was his brand. But it doesn't seem that he thought any of it would be memorable. Two months before his death in 2019, he said he was uninterested in writing his memoirs: "I have nothing to say. I'm actually trying to make sure that I won't be remembered."

09/10/2025

Heartbroken to share that Alex Garcia, long-time WOW colleague of over 25 years, has passed away. Alex was beloved by everyone at World of Wonder, and he was family to us all. We’re sending our love and support to everyone touched by his passing.

Rest in perfection, Alex. ❤️

09/09/2025

"With my medal, it seemed that I had acquired all the trappings that went with it, the chains as well as the ribbons."
John Curry
– September 9, 1949

On a winter evening in 1976, millions of people watched the innovative, handsome John Curry skate to Olympic Gold glory in Innsbruck. Suddenly he was one of the most famous men on our pretty planet and he changed figure skating from a sport to high art. Athlete and artist; he was a visionary. This charismatic, elegant British champion infused figure skating with all the possibilities of dance.

Growing up, Curry wanted to be a ballet dancer, but that was forbidden by his abusive alcoholic father. He turned to ice skating, which came close to being dance, but was acceptable to his dad.

Just hours after receiving his 1976 Olympic Gold Medal, Curry inadvertently came out of the closet to a reporter, thinking he was speaking off the record, telling: "I never pretended not to be gay. Ever. I think the more open people are, the easier it gets for everybody else because it demystifies it. I don't want others to be frightened like I was…"

After the Olympics, no longer bound by amateur rules, Curry went pro and explored different forms of skating, bringing his ICE DANCING show to Broadway in 1977-78 and later touring with his own John Curry Skating Company. He didn't go for Ice Capades style shows. Curry: "I never could see the point of spending 12 years training to go dress up in a Bugs Bunny suit. I was brought up on the Royal Ballet, and I hope it shows in my work."

Actor Alan Bates was a big fan. A married father, Bates was at the height of his own fame when they began a long passionate affair.

During a 1993 vacation, Curry confided to Bates that he never had wanted to have a long life, or to ever grow old. He desired a life well lived in the present and somehow have it be significant.

In 1994, Curry left this world while being held in the arms of Bates. He was just 44 years old. His life was significant, he transformed figure skating into a dazzling art.

1977 portrait by Bern Schwartz

09/08/2025

"I recorded a song called I FALL TO PIECES, and I was in a car wreck. Now I'm worried because I have a brand-new record, and it's called CRAZY! "
Patsy Cline
– September 8, 1932

Born Virginia Patterson Hensley in a tiny town in the Shenandoah Valley, she left us at 30 years old when the private plane she was flying in with music executive and pilot Randy Hughes and musicians Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins crashed in Tennessee during a thunderstorm.

In her short life she enjoyed unprecedented crossover success, performing at Carnegie Hall and on AMERICAN BANDSTAND. Not just Country music fans love her, she is an icon for the le****ns, and older gay guys are also crazy for Cline, she's sort of the Country music version of Judy Garland (the voice, the breakdowns, the men, the tragedy). Cline remains a gay icon because of her powerful image as a strong, independent woman who defied societal norms. Her voice's intensity and longing, coupled with her ability to remain true to herself and her roots, made her a symbol of artistic integrity and a source of emotional connection for fans, including k.d. lang.

I FALL TO PIECES (1961), the first song Cline chose when she could record what she wanted, went to Number One on the Country charts and Pop charts crossovers, a prototype for modern commercial Nashville Country.

She has been portrayed in films, smartly by Jessica Lang in SWEET DREAMS (1985), who was Academy Award-nominated for her performance, and by Beverly D'Angelo, doing her own singing in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER (1980). Meryl Streep lobbied hard for the opportunity to play Cline but was turned down after insisting on doing her own vocals. Lange lip-synced to original Cline recordings.

Cline possessed a unique alto with impeccable phrasing, texture, musicality, and deep honesty. Her music still picks up robust sales in the 21st century. What a legacy for living such a short time. She is truly one of the 20th century's greatest vocalists. Willie Nelson' ballad CRAZY is a perfect piece of songwriting with the perfect singer to put it over.

09/07/2025

"The media was, 'Oh my God, you're gay,' and I'm like yes, I've been out my whole life to my family and friends. Everyone in the skating community knew. The judges would say, 'You have to tone down your costumes, your choreography,' and I'm like, 'No, I wanted to skate for the audiences, not for the judges."
Val Joe "Rudy" Galindo
– September 7, 1969

As a single figure skater, Rudy Galindo was the 1996 U.S. National Champion, 1987 World Junior Champion, and 1996 World Bronze medalist. As a pairs skater, he and his partner Kristi Yamaguchi were the 1988 World Junior Champion and the 1989 and 1990 U.S. National Champion. He is the first openly gay skating champion in the USA (Olympic champion Brian Boitano came out long after his career was over).

In 1996, he came out as gay, yet he wasn't really prepared to be a gay role model, so he focused on his training, which brought some hostility from the LGBTQ community, but after he won the bronze medal at the World Championships, he showed his gayness directly in his skating, and he served as Grand Marshall at the Fort Lauderdale Gay Pride parade, back when you could be openly gay in Florida, and appeared on the cover of OUT magazine, proving that the public could embrace a gay skater as a national sports hero. Other gay sports figures have been inspired to come out by Galindo.

In his memoir ICEBREAKER (1997), Galindo writes that his sister Laura drove him to practice years before she was old enough to have a driver's license. She gave up her career to support him. She was his coach during that 1996 championship season.

In 1996, when he won the men's title at the U.S. Championships, it was a performance that has become legendary in the skating world. He was the oldest male to win the title in 70 years, the first Mexican American champion, and the first openly gay champion. He was named to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2012.

He had an older brother, George, who died of HIV/AIDS. Galindo was paired with Yamaguchi by his coach, Jim Hulick, who died of AIDS in 1989. In 2000, Galindo announced he was HIV positive.

Don't confuse him with Rudy Giuliani.

09/06/2025

Sending all of our love to Season 1 star , who has received a heartbreaking cancer diagnosis ❤️ Please consider donating to the GoFundMe set up by Team Maxi Shield, which will help ease the financial stress of medical treatment, and living costs during this time.

Follow for more info or make a donation here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/maxi-shield

09/06/2025

"I feel real when you kiss me
I feel real when you touch me
I feel real when you want me
I feel real…"
Sylvester James, Jr.
– September 6, 1947

Sylvester's soaring falsetto marks him as one of greatest singers, performing songs in nearly every genre. He brought strength and courage to his performances. He was Black but didn't identify with the Black community. He was gay but didn't quite fit in with the Gay Community. He wore drag but didn't consider himself a drag queen. He was a Christian but didn't fit in with his church. He took all these things that were used to stigmatize him and turned them into assets. Sylvester used his considerable talent as a radical vision of music, identity, and authenticity. Sylvester was a rebel.

Sylvester was an effeminate kid with a stirring voice who sang in the church choir. While still a teenager, he began hanging around with gay boys and transgender women on the Sunset Strip. They found trouble while doing drag. In the 1960s, a male dressing as a woman was a crime.

In 1969, Sylvester moved to San Francisco where he lived for the rest of his short life. The gender-bending cabaret troupe The Cockettes invited Sylvester to be a member. A Cockettes show was camp mayhem, but Sylvester performed authentic Blues/Jazz. Audiences who didn't go for The Cockettes' stage insanity embraced Sylvester, and he decided to try as a solo act.

He released two albums that sold poorly, but in 1976, Sylvester hired two plus-sized backup singers, Martha Wash and Izadora Rhodes. They called themselves "Two Tons Of Fun". Sylvester and his girls were a big hit in San Francisco. Sylvester's YOU MAKE ME FEEL (MIGHTY REAL) and DANCE (DISCO HEAT) were hits and made Sylvester a star.

Before going on stage, Sylvester liked to take a hit of acid with a Champagne and Quaalude chaser, just to take the edge off.

In 1982, the new plague still didn't have name. Within a year, it was killing a generation of gay men. Sylvester bravely volunteered at the hospital AIDS ward, at a time when doctors didn't know how it was spread, and sang at the first AIDS benefit.

Sylvester left this world in 1988, taken by the plague at just 41 years old.

09/05/2025

"You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man."
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara)
– September 5, 1946

"I always knew I was a star and now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me."

THE FREDDIE MERCURY MEMORIAL CONCERT FOR AIDS AWARENESS, held at Wembley Stadium and broadcast around the world on April 20th 1992, featured David Bowie, George Michael, Elizabeth Taylor, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Elton John, and Annie Lennox. It was watched by more than a billion people worldwide, about 25% of the population of the planet, including me and the man that would become my husband.

Most music fans and critics agree that Queen's gig at LIVE AID in 1985 was the best live performance in the history of Rock 'n' Roll. Queen spent more weeks on the UK charts than any other band, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
I think Freddie Mercury's voice was probably finest instrument ever to sing rock music; it was truly operatic and astonishing in its range and power. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS are two of the greatest Rock compositions of all time. The band has sold more than 400 million albums. They were campy, theatrical, and electrifying.

Mercury would have, should have turned 79 years old today. If he had survived, I believe he would still be touring, recording and wowing the fans. If that seems improbable, just ask The Rolling Stones, The Who, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, The Righteous Brothers, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Turtles, Badfinger, Billy Joel, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, or Patti LaBelle, all out on tour this summer.

Although nearly everything about Queen was gay, including the band's name, the founder/main songwriter, Freddie Mercury never admitted to being gay and hid his HIV status. He also denied his ethnicity.

In November 1991, Mercury died at 45 years old at his home in London, taken by the plague.

"What will I be doing in 20 years' time? I'll be dead, darling! Are you crazy? "

Photo by Andrzej Sawa

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