Best In Drag Show
| Best In Drag Show | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Fundraising event |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Venue | Orpheum Theatre |
| Location(s) | Los Angeles |
| Country | USA |
| Years active | 1989- |
| Inaugurated | 1989 |
| Founder | Alexis Pittman |
| Activity | Drag show |
| People | Kathy Griffin, Melanie Griffith, Vanessa Williams |
Best In Drag Show is an annual fundraising event in Los Angeles, California, originally benefiting the California-based non-profit, Aid For AIDS, a program of Alliance for Housing and Healing. Initiated six years after Aid For AIDS was founded in 1983, the bawdy fundraiser now supports Alliance for Housing and Healing, the non-profit that resulted from the merger of Aid For AIDS and The Serra Project in 2009.
The AIDS fundraiser, an elaborate drag show "beauty" pageant that features amateur performers as beauty contestants, evolved from a small event in a private apartment in 1989 to successively larger theaters to hold the growing audiences. In the 1990s, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre was used, followed by the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, which seats 1,800. A small group of friends in West Hollywood created the original show, Battle for the Tiara, a farcical beauty pageant aimed at raising funds for AIDS assistance through Aid For AIDS that was featured in an award-winning documentary in 1998, Battle For the Tiara. The original Aid For AIDS fundraiser ran for 11 years. Following the death of its founder, Alexis Pittman, the original group took two years off. During the interim years, a version of the fundraiser named Quest for the Crown was produced by non-profit Aid For AIDS, the beneficiary. The original group returned to helm the show for executive producer Aid For AIDS in 2003 with the currently-named production, Best In Drag Show. By 2009, more than $1.5 million had been raised with the new version of the show to help support the work of Aid For AIDS in Southern California. Both Best In Drag Show and Quest for the Crown are registered trademarks of Aid For AIDS.
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