Jim Flint (1941 - Present)
The Miss Continental pageant has become the most prestigious drag queen pageant system in the entire world. Not only is it held right here in the state of Illinois, but its founder is from right here in Peoria.
Jim Flint was born on July 27, 1941 in Mason City, but it was not long before he called Peoria home. He knew for a long while that he was not like many of the other boys his age - he did not particularly enjoy playing with toys, nor did he like hanging around the younger kids. Jim always seemed to be hanging around older guys at church and watching basketball. By the time he was eight years old, he had started to figure out why - he was gay, but it was not until right before his 14th birthday that he said anything. This revelation to his mother, however, was not by choice:
“I had to tell my mother because I had been caught coming out of the Hotel Pere Marquette at about 4:00 in the morning by the house detective. And of course my mother was head chef there…and he said to me, “Doesn’t some member of your family work here?” I said, “Yes, my mother and this [the man I was with] is a friend of our family that was just down at the house and as I walked him back up here.” He said, “I hope so because that's the first thing I'm going to ask your mother tomorrow when she comes to work.” So I waited up all that night until my mother got up the next day and she said I can understand [that you are gay], just don’t let your father know. Because my dad would've never accepted that.”
Eventually, Jim found other gay kids like himself. At one point, they referred to themselves as “The Peoria Girls”
“We used to meet at the courthouse square every Friday, Saturday night, all the gays, because we really didn’t have any bar at that time to go to and if we are going to go to the bar, we had to go late because the only bars that let us in were some of the black bars - Harold’s Club, where Richard Pryor got his start, and the Blue Flamingo. They were very very good to gay people. I mean, they sort of understood what we’re going through.
So we would meet and get together on the courthouse square and we would talk and carry on and, of course, we all started singing and thinking we were chorus girls. “We are the Peoria Girls, we wear our hair in curls…” started into a kick line there. Had a great time.”
Jim graduated from Peoria Manual High School in 1959. A month later, he went into the U.S. Navy and left Peoria. After his time in the Navy, Jim found himself in Chicago where in 1969, he opened up The Baton Show Lounge. As their website states, “In order to attract customers to the area, he soon starting having shows using a stage made of only beer crates with plywood, and few energetic entertainers which began to attract local audiences to the venue. Soon the audiences grew and the club’s reputation for fabulous unique and risqué entertainment become known across the country and around the globe.”
In 1980, Jim Flint made another impact by launching the Miss Continental pageant. What made this so different from Miss Gay America, the other major pageant at the time? Flint’s competition would have no specific rule regarding the participation of trans performers. Very quickly, the Miss Continental pageant has become one of the highly-coveted titles in the United States for all female impersonators, regardless of hormones or surgical enhancements. Not only that, but Flint’s Continental Pageantry System has expanded to include the Miss Continental Plus (1991) for plus-size competitors, Mr. Continental (2003) for male entertainers, Miss Continental Elite (2004) for competitors over 40 years old, and the Mr. and Miss Continental Newcomer titles (2023). These competitions are usually held over Labor Day weekends at the Baton Show Lounge in Chicago.
So much can be said about Jim Flint that it would fill an entire book. If you are thinking that you would read that book, you are in luck! With help from some co-authors, Jim wrote his biography in 2011, Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria.
In the interview below, not only does Jim discuss his time in Peoria, but also various events from his storied life:
