October 13, 2025 | Michail Takach

Champagne: still high-kicking after 60 years in drag

Champagne Beige, Wisconsin's oldest drag performer, reflects on a sensational six-decade career that propelled her from La Crosse to Las Vegas.

Champagne Beige

"The girls of my era made it possible for drag queens to walk the streets in daylight.”

“I’m a very private person, and the only name you will know me by is Champagne Beige.”

This was the opening line of our conversation with Wisconsin’s oldest drag performer, Champagne, who is still dishing it out at age 79.

“The old girl’s still kicking!” she laughed. “And no one has ever seen me not dressed.”

Champagne was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and adopted by a family in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Although her adoptive father died very young, she was blessed with a very bright and supportive mother. She was an only child – and says she was “spoiled rotten” – even showing horses as a hobby.

“I’ve been myself the whole time. I was very fashion conscious. I never hid what I was. I was never abused, never touched by any man. Sure, I was called a few names, but my answer to them was always, ‘oh, you never met one? Well, here’s what a real live one looks like.’”

“I learned a long time ago that if you lie to people, they don’t believe you, and if you tell them the truth, they don’t believe you. So, I would always tell them the truth, and these straight boys would just shake their heads. They didn’t know how to handle the truth. They didn’t know what to do with someone who admitted what they were.”

“Why would I deny it? I was attracted to men. Deal with it.”

“When I was 10, I told my mother that she would never have grandchildren. My mother brought me up with the attitude that I should be proud of myself, as long as I wasn’t hurting anyone.”

Champagne Beige

After high school, Champagne attended beauty school and became a hairdresser. She learned about hair, wigs, make-up, and wardrobe long before she started performing.

Champagne’s first job came as a surprise. She was having a cocktail at The Surf, when two Black girls approached her and asked her to dance.

“’You’ve got great rhythm,’” she said, “’wouldn’t you like to dance with the two of us?’ I looked at her and said, well, maybe! And that’s how it all started.”

“One night, this gentlemen from Chicago was in the bar, watching me dance, and he came over when I was on break. He asked, ‘have you ever thought of being a female impersonator?’ and I looked right at him and said, ‘boy, you sure hit the cord!’ I’d thought about it. I never thought I’d do it though.”

“I went in drag for the first time in Winona, Minnesota,” Champagne said. “I don’t even remember the name of the bar. All I remember is that the bar served only beer, not liquor.”

Champagne danced at The Surf and Viner’s Pub from the mid-‘60s to the early ‘70s.

“I started my career as a go-go boy and quickly became a go-go girl,” she said.

“Nobody knew I was a man,” she said. “These were all straight bars. No one knew except maybe the owner. Maybe.”

And then she started stripping.

“I worked at the Pink Pussycat out in Los Angeles,” said Champagne. “I worked all over. But I never did sex work. Although some queens do, I was one of the freaky ones who didn’t.”

“By the time I got to Las Vegas, I didn’t strip anymore. I was a dancer – later, a headliner, with my own back-up dancers.”

From the mid- ‘80s to the mid- ‘90s, Champagne starred at the Sahara, Silver Slipper, and the Union Plaza. She remembers doing two shows nightly with a full band, every night of the week, with three shows nightly on weekends. This included opening and closing production numbers. She was clearing $2,500 a week – a staggering amount of money at the time.

“You wouldn’t get that now,” she said. “Vegas was not a family-friendly vacation spot back then. It was strictly for the grown-ups. I still have friends out there, and Vegas is really hurting. It’s not what it used to be.”

“I was a busy girl, yes. Do I miss it? No. It was a job to me. Nowadays, when I’m performing, I am having fun. I don’t have to do it. I’m not under contract. I’m not under a confidentiality agreement. I’m doing this because I want to.”

Champagne laughed, “I should watch what I say. I don’t want to get myself in trouble, as much as I’d welcome some trouble.”

“It’s interesting, really, talking to people who lived in Vegas all their lives,” said Champagne. “Many of them wish the Mob still ran Las Vegas. The city was safe and clean. The properties were gorgeous. The businesses were thriving. Even the sex workers were taken care of.”

“Of course, you didn’t f*ck around with the Mob, or you’d wind up in the desert.”

While in Vegas, Champagne perfected the art of drag watching ‘80s primetime soap operas.

“I studied the women of Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Dallas, and Knots Landing,” she said. “I can be Alexis Carrington very easily if I want to. I can be Krystle Carrington with the bat of an eye. It’s all in how you carry yourself. If you don’t treat me with respect, be careful, because you don’t know what you’re going to unleash.”

“For years, I bought nothing but designer,” laughed Champagne. “I have very expensive taste. Bob Mackie. Oscar De La Renta. Diane Furstenberg. For years, I had a passion for Catherine Gaynor suits. Nowadays, I only spend that kind of money on stage gowns, because everything is beaded, or sequined, or feathered. Who knows what mood I’m in, you know?”

“I was very passable,” said Champagne.

“I don’t want to sound like a prima donna, but I looked like a natural woman. I could walk into a straight bar, dressed to the hilt, and no one would look twice at me. I was beautiful, I had very expensive clothes, and I knew how to carry myself. The girls of my era made it possible for drag queens to walk the streets today.”

Champagne has been with her husband, John, for nearly 50 years. The couple met in La Crosse and moved to Las Vegas (and back) together. They will celebrate their golden anniversary in 2026.

“It wasn’t really a pickup line. He wanted to be like me. Yes, my husband was a drag queen for a while. A very, very beautiful drag queen, in fact. I got ‘Joy Noelle’ booked around the Midwest, from Superior to Minneapolis to Milwaukee, and when she would perform, I would not. I let her shine.”

“Nowadays, our relationship is no different than a straight relationship. We’ve had our trials and tribulations. We’ve had our fights and our fun. Just like everyone else. When people ask me, ‘how can you be with the same person for 50 years?’ I look at them, and say, ‘I will never even try to explain it to you.’”

“People think all we do is go to bed,” Champagne laughed. “And we’ve been together so long, well, as far as the bedroom, who even wants to be bothered? The companionship, the trust, the love. That’s what’s most important.”

When John got a six-figure job offer in Michigan, the couple decided to leave Las Vegas, and Champagne retired to the role of housewife.

When they left Las Vegas, Champagne sold most of her stage wardrobe, keeping only a handful of especially memorable outfits. Unfortunately, she does not have any photos from her showgirl era, due to a binding casino contract she honors to this day.

She still owns a dress that was a replica of Barbara Streisand’s 1967 Happening in Central Park concert outfit.

“That dress cost me $5,000!”

After ten years in Livonia, Michigan, career burnout started to catch up with him, and the couple had a decision to make.

“I looked at him and said, ‘quit,’” said Champagne. “Your health is more important to me than money. Money is not going to keep us alive. That’s when we decided to move back to La Crosse…and that’s where the story gets good.”

Champagne and John decided to start Illusions, a production company that hosted sold-out monthly shows for over a decade. Originally held at Players, a local gay bar, the shows moved to several locations over the next ten years. Illusions debuted on New Year’s Eve 2006 and ran every month until August 2016.

“Our crowd was not gay,” said Champagne. “They were anywhere from 90%-95% straight people.”

Illusions operated with extremely high standards: performers had to report to work on time, with on-point hair and wardrobe, and absolutely no runs in their stockings.

“I was very strict,” said Champagne, “but that’s how I was raised in Vegas. If people couldn’t abide by that, I got rid of them. If they created drama, I let them go. If people couldn’t perform, they had to go. Nobody was running through their routine grabbing dollars. That was the deal: all our entertainers were paid, but there were expectations.”

“I always reminded everyone: nobody here is a star. The star of our shows is our audience. They are here to see talent. They are here to see beauty. We owe them perfection. Without the audience, we are nothing.”

After ten years, Illusions concluded its trailblazing run. John took a job at a local hotel, where he became very successful as a wedding planner.

“People were very sad, but I’m a firm believer that when it’s time, it’s time. Get your ass going when the going is good!”

After Illusions ended its run, Champagne performed a few shows in Rochester, Minnesota.

And then, on October 19, 2024, Illusions returned for one night only. Over 300 people attended the sold-out 18^th Anniversary Reunion Show at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Union Bluffs Ballroom.

“This was not like a drag show in a bar,” said Champagne. “This was a true stage performance on one of the biggest stages in La Crosse. The lighting was just outstanding. They had me lit like a Roman candle!”

Champagne and John hope to bring Illusions back in 2026. It will be the 20^th anniversary of the production company, the 50^th anniversary of their relationship, and a milestone birthday for Champagne.

“I’ll be 80 years old – and still walking in four-inch heels,” said Champagne. “Let’s face it honey, I’m old!”

“I happen to be a very lucky queen. I’m very photogenic. My images are never Photoshopped. You know, you get older, and everything goes south. But this old girl, she ain’t bad!”

Champagne still attends local shows occasionally. As a spectator, she’s not always impressed.

“There were too many drag shows, and most of them were in gay bars,” said Champagne.

“And then, they started to branch out to other venues, so now they’re just everywhere. Along the way, they’ve lost what drag is all about. Drag is about illusion. Drag is about presence. Drag is about perfection from head to toe.”

“When I bring a new song out, I probably practice three months before performing,” she said.

“You have to learn the breathing of the person who is singing, because if you learn that, the world will be right there. Hours of sitting with headphones on, listening to breathing. And meanwhile, these girls are out there, saying peaches, peaches, pumpkin pie because they don’t know the words.”

“I’m so tired of seeing backflips, death drops, handstands, come on already. It just gets to the point where it’s not even drag anymore – it’s a circus act with no class to it at all.”

Champagne Beige

In over sixty years of performing, Champagne has always done her own make-up, and only one other person has ever styled her wigs. For the past 50 years, John has personally selected Champagne’s stage outfits, from earrings to shoes.

Today, she identifies as transgender -- but cautions that we can’t allow ourselves to be divided by labels.

“We are gay people, together, no matter if we’re male, female, transgender, whatever word you use for yourself. We’re gay period.”

“The only word that still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck is the Q word. We fought so hard for so long against that word. It’s hard to hear it.”

In closing, Champagne offers these words of advice: “be true to yourself. Be good at what you do. Be proud of what you do. It’s not always about the almighty dollar.”

“Everybody has choices,” said Champagne. “And in the end, all of my life choices were my choices to make.”