Miss Foozie


Lucy Foozie, better known as simply Miss Foozie, is a character from Chicago. Today, Miss Foozie is not a "drag queen". She is a "personality." Time Out Chicago calls her a "drag hostess and entertainer", consistently awarded her The Pressie for "best female impersonator". Since 2008, Miss Foozie has served as Community Ambassador for ChicagoPride.com.
In 1997, Miss Foozie was "born" at her portrayer's 37th birthday party. Since then, her career has included parades, four films, and live performances throughout the United States. Her influence extends internationally as publications featuring her are available in both the United States and Canada.

Origins

When Miss Foozie was a little boy, he liked other people and had lots of friends in school. From a very young age, he was a character and made people laugh. Years later, he moved to the more populous Chicago, certain that the city had a lot to offer him and that he had a great deal more to offer the world. He began a career in customer service, traveling downtown every day working 9 to 5. He claims he was a "great worker", but too often the job was not as satisfying as he had hoped it would be. He wanted to reach out to more people, not to just talk on the telephone.
As his birthday came up, there was a new bar opening on North Halsted Street called Circuit. Very few people knew about it. "Can I have my birthday party here?" he asked. He had no shortage of friends, so they all pulled together. He passed out invitations to everyone he knew, and even some people that he did not know. He taped a thousand fliers that had happy faces all over Boystown announcing the party: "Bring your friends. If you like 'em...I like 'em."
On Friday, April 6, 1997, he got to the celebration early, and pretty soon some friends pulled him into a back area and said "Perform something!" and presented shoes, jewelry, a dress and a wig. He told them,"Well, I don't do that sort of thing. I don't dress like a woman..." While they were trying to talk him into it, another friend ran in and yelled "Do something and I mean fast! There are over four hundred people out there! You'd better hurry up Foozie!" Dumbfounded, he thought about the four hundred people and replied, "That's Miss Foozie to you!"
The birthday party was a huge success, and all of Miss Foozie's friends had a great time. Miss Foozie was never the same again, having found something that made her happy, and she had found something truly special that made people laugh.

Career

In April 2007, Miss Foozie told Chicago magazine her first paid gig was the weekly stage show "Miss Foozie and Her Floozies" at age 37 for US$30 per show, however, Chicago gave Miss Foozie's age as 48 at this time, mistakenly, since Miss Foozie's first gig was indeed at age 37, and before his 37th birthday on April 6, 1997, Miss Foozie did not exist. That would have made Miss Foozie 47 on April 6, 2007. Miss Foozie also told Chicago her alter ego works full-time at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and her fantasy job is to be Miss Foozie full-time, although she takes working vacations roughly every other month to cities including Washington, D.C. and New York.
In April 2007, Boystown pizzeria Pie Hole named a pie after her: "Miss Foozie's Signature Pie". "She's a ham, and she calls everyone pineapple... so it was only a matter of time. Full ¼ lb of ham and big chunks of pineapple, plus we pull out a $1 donation for Foozie Charity in honor of all the work she does in the community." In addition to Foozie Charity, she was Miss December in the "Glamour Of Boystown Chicago" Charity Calendar.
Miss Foozie had the opportunity to be hostess of the 2009 13th Annual Triangle Neighbors' Northalsted Halloween Parade, and she did indeed emcee the parade as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts, following that year's theme of the parade, "Mad Hatter's Ball". This was her third year as emcee for this huge event in Boystown.

Films and television

In 2004, Miss Foozie appeared in Twenty Gay Stereotypes Confirmed, a tongue-in-cheek look at Gay stereotypes using the director's childhood home movies. She appears on the streets of Chicago introducing the third stereotype with her iconic catchphrase, "Hello, Pineapples!"
In 2005, Miss Foozie made a special appearance in Bowser Makes a Movie, a comedy with a young man struggling to make a Gay adult film. In 2007, Miss Foozie appeared as herself in Father Knows..., a Gay interest film involving a father-son relationship, Gay romance, and explicit sex. In 2009, Miss Foozie played herself again in Sister Mary, a dark comedy written and directed by Scott Grenke, starring Brent Corrigan, Bruce Vilanch, and producer James Vallo who plays Mark Rima, a homophobic Detective who must "partner" up with the very Gay and flamboyant Detective Chris Riant to stop a serial killing Nun from offing 5 band members otherwise known as "The Ex Choir Boys", but when it is determined that the Detectives cannot solve the case on their own, expert F.B.I. profiler Agent Peccant is assigned to the case. As the details of the case slowly emerge the police determine that the "nun" may only be a silent witness to the grisly murders. The task force then turns its attention on the Catholic Church and a suspect group of Priests that have had a propensity for "cleansing the souls" of innocent young choir boys.
On May 25, 2011, Connie de Bie spent "A Night with Miss Foozie" in Chicago with the Windy City celebrity for 1st Look Chicago on Life/Style Television, a division of NBCUniversal, describing, "She's a character artist with a supersized personality and when Miss Foozie enters a room, you'll know it! She's extremely well-known and supportive of Chicago's gay community. Watch as the two paint the town as Miss Foozie gears up for The program was broadcast on June 19, 2011 on NBC nationwide after

Publications

On March 20, 2002, Miss Foozie appeared on the cover of Nightspots, an extensive, four-color glossy of Chicago's vibrant LGBT nightlife scene, published by Windy City Media Group, which also publishes Windy City Times, the city's oldest Gay newspaper. Artwork of her appeared on the cover on May 1, 2005, and she appeared on the cover again in April 2007. In November 2002, she appeared on the cover of BoystownChicago, and she appeared on the cover again in 2005 as "Chicago's Most Loved Host".
For North Halsted Market Days in 2003, Chicago artist Lee Kay created a characture of her in the window of Boystown adult shop Batteries Not free magazine established in January 2000 distributed in bulk in the Chicago area, featured Kay's photo & artwork on the cover. In June 2004, she appeared on the cover of Chicago magazine Crusin'. In June 2005, she advertised beads in print ad for Gay Mart in Chicago.
In March 2007, she appeared in Time Out Chicago, and her photo ran alongside a question she answered in a Gay & Lesbian article for their October 15–21, 2009 issue titled "Virgin territory"; Jason A. Heidemann asked some of their favorite LGBT Chicagoans to "reveal their first same-sex shag.": "My first time was all about who is the top and who is the bottom. That took five minutes."
In April 2007, she appeared on the cover of Gay Chicago Magazine and again on October 29, 2009 as the Queen of Hearts for her then-upcoming role as hostess and emcee for the parade. Photographer Ashley Allen photographed her front and center with the other characters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Alice, Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Cheshire Cat.
In April 2007, she appeared in a straight periodical, wig and all, for Chicago magazine's special report "Money in Chicago 2007". The section entitled "Who Makes What" featured other Chicagoans from a variety of professions from many walks of life with salaries from $200,000 to $0, where she revealed her own to be $23,500.
In June 2007, she was on the front page of Metromix published by the Chicago Tribune for that year's pride parade, and she was featured in the "Summer Festivals" gallery in the Chicago section for Market Days of that year.
On August 24, 2007, Photographer Mia Algotti featured "Miss Foozie of the crowd to try their hand at the dunking booth during North Halsted Market Days Saturday afternoon." The photo showed her in front of a dunk tank seating a twink in Skyline, which was a publication of Pioneer Press, a division of Sun-Times Media Group. Dave Ouano photographed her for the August 2007 cover of Chicago Free Press' Freetime section. She made the cover in Gay Friendly establishments throughout Southeastern and Western Michigan, Sarnia and Windsor, Ontario, Northern Ohio, Indiana and Chicago, for their November 12–25, 2009 issue.