November 13, 1990 - Birth of Central IL FRIENDS Announced

-

As Central Illinois FRIENDS kicks off their annual Dining With Friends fundraiser, let's take a moment to step back in time to when it all began!

From the archives of The Journal Star:

Popular posts from this blog

David Ogden Stiers (1942-2018)

-
Image
     David Ogden Stiers was born in Peoria on October 31, 1942 to Kenneth and Margaret Stiers at Saint Francis Hospital (the predecessor of the current OSF Medical Center). The Stiers family looked like any other in Peoria at this point in time - his mother, Margaret, worked as a secretary, while his father, Kenneth, worked at Pabst Blue Ribbon. They all lived in a home on Constantine Avenue in Peoria Heights that his father had built. As fate would have it, young Stiers’ path crossed with a pair of other Peoria stars - Fibber McGee and Molly. As Stiers told the Journal-Star back in 1988, “I vaguely recall meeting Jim and Marion Jordan when I was little, because my grandparents sang in a church choir with them.” The longtime husband and wife’s comedy show, which ran from 1935-1959, is considered to be one of the most popular and enduring radio shows of its time.       As he later recounted his time in Peoria to Bill Knight in his 1988 interview: ““It ...
Read more

Happy Halloween from the Club Peorian!

-
Image
  Judging for a Halloween Emperor/Empress show (date unknown).   Left to right: Chuckles, Ty, Anastasia, Carey & Scott "The lighting is low, the air is thick with smoke and helium balloons, the music pounding and loud. People crowd around the edges of the dance floor and spill through doorways. John, the emcee, greets the crowd and announces the contestants. First, 10 men dressed as women slink onto the stage, decked out in sequined and satin evening gowns, heavily padded in strategic areas. They wear long ringlets and heavy makeup. Next, three women strut out, wearing suits and facial hair. They, too, are padded - in a different area. It’s the weekend before Halloween, and these are the candidates for Empress and Emperor at the Club Peorian, 733 SW Adams. On the Friday before Halloween, more than half the crowd of about 200 were women...On this festive night, the crowd was racially integrated as well, and most Empress and Emperor contestants were black... The Club pu...
Read more

Richard Pryor, Jr. aka: "Rainy McKnight" (1962 - present)

-
Image
Even in death, Peoria comedy legend Richard Pryor casts a large shadow. Perhaps no one knows this better than his son, Richard Pryor, Jr., who left his own mark on the Peoria area in his own way. Those who are old enough to remember the Club Peorian no doubt remember Pryor by another name - Rainy McKnight, the headlining drag queen and emcee.  Recently, Richard Pryor, Jr. wrote an autobiography entitled, In A Pryor Life . While discussing the ups and downs of his life, Pryor wrote the following about his time performing before the tabloids got wind of it: "Club Peoria was a gay club that held about 200 people, featured a nightly drag show, and smelled of stale beer. There was a dance floor with a mirrored disco ball and colored lights. During the shows the DJ played whatever songs the performers lip-synched to. Between shows there was dancing to stuff like “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This,” “Hey, Mickey,” and anything by Donna Summer or Grace Jones. With my performing experiences in...
Read more