Hiding My Candy by the Lady Chablis

Like most people, I first saw The Lady Chablis when she played herself in the 1997 movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring John Cusack. 

The movie is based on John Berendt’s book of the same name, in which The Lady Chablis is first introduced. She is the best thing to have happened to both Berendt and Eastwood. 

Since then, she has become one of the most famous trans drag queens of our time.

Also known as The Grand Empress or, most famously, The Doll, she stole every scene in the movie she was in. She mentions in her book telling Clint Eastwood to let him play herself in his movie if he wanted it to be a hit.

I learned about The Doll in reverse. After seeing the movie, I found her autobiography, “Hiding My Candy, " which stayed on my shelf for over two decades. I finally read it in January 2024.

It was highly entertaining and made me admire The Lady Chablis’ originality so much more. It was a tough upbringing. There was child abuse, and then she found the drag life as a teen and never looked back.

It was refreshing to read about her many ups and downs and I respected how honest she was about her lowest of the lows and the many successes she also enjoyed.

The book includes a lexicon guide for her “vernacular of words and phrases” and recipes for ribs, biscuits,` and mac ‘n’ cheese. 

The Lady Chablis died on September 8, 2016.