ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997 TAG: 9702280017
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
Sit yourself down, baby, and have a little old talk with y'mama, The Lady Chablis. You have the time, honey, and if you don't, well make it.
You know Chablis. You met her in John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," where she sashayed off the pages with her Southern sass and iron nerve.
Well, she's holding court right now, and she's glad for you to listen in. Glad for you to listen in tonight, too, when she performs at Club 1919 on Church Avenue in Roanoke.
Right now, the Grand Empress of Savannah is recouping from a weekend of filming for "Entertainment Tonight." The broadcast last Friday featured a short-haired Chablis talking it up in front of the mansion that was the backdrop for much of Berendt's best-selling book.
"It went very, very well as a matter of fact," Chablis says over the telephone, her voice smooth and even, low and sexy. "The director told me that I was the director because I was so professional."
She's certainly had practice with television since 1994, when Berendt's book propelled Chablis to the stardom she says she was always meant to achieve. It gave her the chance to pour the tea (that's Lady Chablis for "dish the dirt") about her own life in her book, "Hiding My Candy," released in July by Pocket Books.
"I was on 'Oprah' and 'Good Morning America' like three times," she says.
Just a few months ago, she was cooking her Kickin' Chicken with Joan Lunden.
She has not been in Martha Stewart's kitchen yet, but get this straight: "I don't plan to be doing cooking with Martha Stewart, I plan for her to do cooking for me," Chablis says. "She can learn a few things from me, starting with how to dress in the garden. Let's put on some sun dresses in the garden, honey. Let's get out of those pants."
If we're going to keep talking with Chablis, we have to be aware of the ground rules.
"I have to ask, please when you refer to me, refer to me as she," Chablis says, quiet but firm. "Not 'he.' I can't deal with 'he.' My grandmother calls me 'she' and besides, you wouldn't want to hurt The Doll's feelings, would you?"
No. You definitely would not want to hurt The Doll's feelings, first because she comes across as nothing but pleasant, and second because her sometimes-profane nightclub act features her biting, sarcastic wit and - the truth here? - she could make mincemeat out of you if she wanted to, oooo, child, she surely could.
Chablis was born Benjamin Edward Knox nearly 40 years ago in Quincy, Fla. Her family was poor, she barely knew her father, and she suffered her share of heartache.
In her press material, she describes herself as a "little white girl trapped in a little black girl's body - or a little black boy's, rather."
She grew older, started taking hormone injections, and changed her name to Brenda, then finally to The Lady Chablis, which is what it says on her driver's license.
That was the way Berendt found her when he included her in two key chapters of "Midnight," an outrageous tale about Savannah's inner circle rooted mostly in fact.
"Everything Mr. Berendt wrote about me is true except for one thing, and that's when he referred to me as 'Frank,''' Chablis says. "My name has never been Frank and never will be."
In the book, Berendt also refers to her as a "drag queen."
"I labeled myself as a 'drag queen' for John Berendt because I wanted the book to sell and I wanted people to know it's about someone different," she says. But it is a label she loathes, as she does all labels. "My parents labeled me a boy's name which I have since changed," she points out.
If you have to call her other than Chablis (or Grand Empress or Doll), call her a "female impersonator," she says. "The female is God's best creation. The female is power. Women have the power - they have the power of birth, and women know emotions. They know so much, and they are so wise.
"I was raised by women. Everything I know I was taught by women: how to dress, how to walk, how to just be a woman and that's why I call myself a female impersonator."
The highest compliment, she says, is when a woman looks at her and says, ```Chablis, oh, you look so gooood.' When a man says that to me, he wants, you know, he wants to touch The Doll, honey. So what I do is a salute to all women."
It is not, she says, that she wants to be a complete woman - she supplements her natural femininity with hormones, "but I would never have the surgery. I don't need the surgery."
She is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. "I'm a size 3," she says. "I am the total package, girl. I have always been naturally feminine. I was born that way. I take my gift that God gave me, my looks, my humor. I put it all together and that's The Doll."
She is single, juggling three men, she says. "They all competed to see who could give me the best present for Valentine's Day. My Italian Stallion beat everybody. He gave me a ruby set with diamonds, cut in the shape of a heart."
The ring was prominently featured on "Entertainment Tonight," she says. "I threw it at the camera."
For the past eight years, Chablis has lived in Columbia, S.C., in a small salt-box house shaded by oak trees.
She still does her nightclub act in Savannah (a less profane act at 8 p.m. for the tourists, a more adult act later in the evenings) and tours the circuit when she has time. She has talked of opening her own nightclub, Chablis' Cabaret, and that's still a possibility, once she finishes some of her current projects.
She met James Blackburn years ago when they were both on the circuit as female impersonators. Blackburn's Club 1919, which officially opened in December and caters to a predominantly - though not exclusively - gay clientele, often features dancing and appearances by female impersonators, such as the former Miss Gay America.
"I called [Chablis] and said, 'Do you want to come work with me?''' recalls Blackburn.
"Well you really think you're something now, don't you?" Chablis replied, and agreed to make the trip. Blackburn still dons his wigs and Las Vegas-style costumes to perform as Marolin when he has the time and for special occasions, like this evening. Berverly Tate, a Reba McEntire impersonator, also will perform, along with a few other special guests.
If you don't get to see Chablis tonight, she may be on the big screen soon enough.
Clint Eastwood is directing the movie version of "Midnight." A complete casting list hasn't been released yet, but there's a good chance Chablis will be playing herself.
"I met with Clint Eastwood several times," Chablis says. "I reminded him that I am the Grand Empress of Savannah and that I realized he was an award-winning director and actor, but he can't do it by himself, baby. If he wants an Academy Award, he has to have me. All he could do was smile."
Rumors abounded in newspapers and on the Internet that Angela Bassett was another possibility for the role. "That rumor may have started with me, because people have asked if I didn't play myself, who would I want to play me," Chablis says. "But if I do not play myself, there will not be a movie, I'll see to that."
The Lady Chablis will perform at 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. tonight at Club 1919, 434 Church Ave., S.W. Call 343-1919. Admission is $6.
LENGTH: Long : 134 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Call her The Lady Chablis, Grand Empress of Savannah orby CNBThe Doll; just don't call her "he." color.