As the nineties began, the Night had become an increasingly gay male domain in which the only female
figures were often transsexuals.
The first House of D. performances took place at the gigantic
Palladium and at Susanne Bartsch's trendy gay parties at the Copa. The audiences were appreciative,
but not exactly fetish-literate. It became clear that for Ms. Boots, Valenti and their rapidly
burgeoning girl gang, they would need to birth the kind of club venue where all would be in sync: the
crowd, the music, the decor and their gestalt.
With Valenti's husband, deejay Johnny Dynell, the pair began to experiment with
Jackie 60, an underground performance club
with a frankly female-superior edge: not a separatist
S/M club, but one that placed their performance center stage in a very mixed crowd of
heterosexuals, lesbians, gay males, transsexuals of both genders, and a healthy sprinkling of slaves.
Since its debut ten years ago, the Tuesday-night Jackie 60 built a fanatical following and
spawned a poetry series, a theater company, a magazine, a hit single, a clothing line for Ms.
Boots and a full-time venue,
MOTHER, open from 1996-June 2000.
The House of Domination was an integral element, establishing from the very beginning a
strong female presence in both the look and tone of the club. Their first joint production was
"Salon de Kinky Boots", which combined stylized boot-worship with a reading by author
Terence Sellers (The Correct Sadist) , an early and ardent supporter of the house. Encouraged by
the audience's enthusiasm, Ms. Boots and company began a series of "theme" nights, each
exploring a different classic fetish or S/M subject. The first of these was their
Salute to Betty Page, which has become an annual event.
Out of any figure in the history of the pin-up genre, Ms. Page's appeal is so widespread that
she has crossed over to become a pop icon: a veritable Elvis Presley of tease. Her mysterious
disappearance (the stuff of which legends are made) and the re-emergence of her lingerie and
high heels in post-feminist fashion has caused her to be rediscovered by a whole new generation.
Ms. Boots, a lifelong fan of the gartered one, had obviously touched a huge collective nerve, as
evidenced by the overwhelming response to the house's first Salute to Betty Page,
held in January 1991.
Over a dozen Bettys from the House - blonde Bettys, brunette Bettys, tiny tattooed Bettys, all
posed and crimped their way through four hours of light spankings and tease. Ms. Boots costumed
each one in signature Page - one wore her leopard bikini, another her ruffled babydolls and classic
black patent pumps. There were stunning transvestite Bettys and even a black Betty or two in the
audience, along with editors, writers and photographers from a half-dozen publications, from The
Betty Pages to Puritan Magazine and Interview.
As their theme nights progressed, Ms. Boots and company went on to explore less accessible
territories within S/M and fetishism, beginning with "Combat Love", an evening of
military dominance which was coincidentally held on the same evening American troops invaded Baghdad.
As the months went by, the productions became more intricate, with house members improvising on
specific roles within the theme. "She-Male Reformatory", a women's prison night
spotlighting transvestite prison guards, also featured house members as dominant wardens, rebellious
prisoners, helpless teen captives, along with an actual female police officer who got into the act,
frisking the guests at the door as they arrived.
By the following spring's "Rubber Nurses", an evening of medical dominance, Ms. Boots
realized her next goal of designing and executing an entire fetish collection around the evening's
theme. Her severe white PVC nurse's uniforms, caps and surgical gear were complimented by onstage
props from medical restraints to fake hypodermic needles. For May, 1992 "Come Fly With Us",
she outfitted the entire house as dominant airline stewardesses.
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