In this richly detailed memoir, Pam Tent offers a fascinating glimpse into the tumultuous life of a liberation movement-both artistic and sexual-whose influence is still apparent in the worlds of theatre,music,fashion,gay spirituality and urban club life.

Pam tent awoke from a nap in Golden Gate Park near the Haight-Ashbury district to hear a sweet tenor voice singing. "Tropical Heat Wave." it was 1969,and the voice channelling Marilyn Monroe on the dewy morning belonged to Hibicus, the anarchic androgynous theatrical genius who would soon draw Pam and a few dozen other Cockettes-to-be into his glitter-strewn orbit.

For two and half years, the Cockettes bedazzled audiences at San Francisco's Palace Theatre with exuberantly chaotic shows that featured fabulously original thrift-store costumes and rebellious.gender-bending sexuality.At the apogee of their fame,the Cockettes attracted thousands of their fellow travellers in the counter culture as well as the likes of Truman Capote, Gore Vidal,John Lennon, Annie Leibovitz, and Robert Altman.