Leggs Galore collection

PXA 944
ON 246
R 922
VT 1020 - VT 1021

fonds

ca. 1989-1993

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Objects, Moving Images

404645

100 negatives - colour
127 photographic prints - mainly colour - 25.5 x 20.5 cm. or smaller
1 award
2 videocassettes (3 hrs.)

Leggs Galore (1958-1993)
Afro-American Cliff Powell was born 16 Apr 1958 and trained as a dancer in New York, working on costumes and choreography for shows. He also modelled women's jeans for Levi Jeans in the US because of his 26" waist. He came to Australia but had to return to the US as an overstayer. He changed his name to Kliphe Gillard and, issued a new passport, returned to Sydney, where he lived in Erskineville.
He had not worked as a drag performer in the US but went into a competition in Sydney "as a joke". A barman at the Flinders Hotel nicknamed him Leggs Galore. He performed for 11 years in Australia, as a cross-dresser mime artist but not as a singer. His signature songs were "I am what I am" and "Over the rainbow" and he worked mainly at the Albury Hotel.
Leggs Galore appeared in a Triple MMM television and cinema commercial, also Mardi Gras. He appeared in the "Diana Ross" show at the Sleaze Ball 1988-1989. He won Best Costume at the 1990 Mardi Gras (as a mermaid with lights), and the Entertainer of the Year 1991 at the DIVA Awards 1992.
He was remembered on the Mardi Gras Roll of Honour after his death 6 February1993.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTONEGATIVES
1-31. Rocky Horror Show, Albury Hotel, 1990 [featuring Leggs Galore, Hugh Munro and unidentified] (no photoprints nos.4-6,12,14)
32-62. DIVA Awards, 1991 [featuring Leggs Galore, Carolyn Clarke, Robyn Lee and unidentified] (no photoprints nos.32,34,59)
63-100. Illusion (last show), Albury Hotel, July 1992 [featuring Leggs Galore, Robyn Lee & Mitzi McIntosh] (no photoprints nos.64,66,68-70,72,78,79,84,88,90,92,93,96,97,99)

PHOTOGRAPHS (NO PHOTONEGATIVES)
101-105. [Unidentified performer, DIVA Awards, 1991]
106-107. [Portraits of Kliphe Gillard at home, Erskineville]
108-114. [The show, Sleaze Ball, 1989]
115-116. [Leggs Galore at an award ceremony, Caps, June 1990] / J.Dunbar]
117-127. [Single and group portraits of Leggs Galore]

PHOTOGRAPHS REMOVED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM / L.Rudanycz
128-148. [Leggs Galore, Robyn Lee and unidentified in a show, Albury Hotel, Mar 1991]
149. [Leggs Galore with DIVA Award, 1991]
150. [Leggs Galore at Attitude, Sunday 9 June 1991]






151. [Polaroid of Leggs with a "gendarme" friend]

PRINTED
152-153. [Mock-up of newspaper "Dragnet", 26 Sept 1989]

REALIA
R 922. DIVA 92, Entertainer of the Year, Leggs Galore: [perspex stauette of Marilyn Monroe on a wooden base with inbuilt light]

VIDEO RECORDINGS
1. Triple M commercial (Leggs) (CALL NO.: VT 1020)
2. Tribute to Leggs, Love the Shift, Jan 1993 (CALL NO.: VT 1021)

Access via appointment - ON 246
Access via appointment - R 922

Photographs 128-151 removed from plastic album (unstable medium)