A Queer American Bandstand
What Is Lavender Lounge?
The Lavender Lounge television show was created by Mark Kliem and produced 72 episodes between 1991 and 1995 in San Francisco. Initially, the theme of the show can be described as a “Queer American Bandstand” format. The public was invited to “dance on TV” in the Public Access studio to prerecorded music with invited guests performing.
“I wanted this show to look different than any other show running on Public Access at the time,” says Mark Kliem, creator and Executive Producer. “Instead of the usual Public Access show of two talking heads in chairs sitting between ferns, we did extensive decorating of the studio with a different theme for each episode. It had movement, excitement, and lots of color. When viewers at home clicked through channels, I wanted them to stop and wonder, ‘What the hell is this?’ and take a look because it was so different.”
Lavender Lounge also distinguished itself from other Public Access shows by doing actual marketing and outreach to promote the show. “This was before the internet or email, so to get dancers to show up in the studio to be on the show, we needed to market the show aggressively through old-school press releases, classified ads, flyers, posters and word-of-mouth. We soon became, by far, the most popular show on Pubic Access.”
After about a year and a half of shooting in the low cost, non-commercial Public Access studio, the Lavender Lounge team acquired their own cameras and editing equipment to be able to shoot on location. Around the same time, the cable provider opened a second “Leased Access” channel that allowed commercials for an extra fee, so Lavender Lounge started producing 60 minute shows featuring event coverage, interviews,and comedy segments concurrently with the dance party shows on the original Public Access channel.
For a short time, episodes of Lavender Lounge were aired on a primitive satellite service that covered from Alaska to Puerto Rico during its last few months of its orbit. During that period, the Lavender Lounge Hotline received hundreds of messages from rabid fans as well as death threats. Segments of Lavender Lounge were also aired on a gay program featuring legendary drag performer Lily Braindrop on Channel 4 in England, and a gay program on Canel+ in France.
The Lavender Lounge television show ended abruptly when the cable provider in San Francisco became overwhelmed with requests for airtime from other producers on the Public Access channel. At the same time, the cable provider also increased the fees for airtime on the Leased Access channel to a level that was unworkable for our ragtag team.
In 2026 fans of Lavender Lounge can look forward to a documentary about Lavender Lounge, and the long-awaited autobiography of Lavender Lounge creator, Mark Kliem, will be self published at an undetermined date.
EVENT COVERAGE BY LAVENDER LOUNGE:
-Halloween In The Castro 1992 and 1993
-Folsom Street Fair 1993
-Official video of San Francisco Pride 1993 and 1994
-Mr. Drummer Contest
-Castro Street Fair 1993
-Club footage and Performances at Pleasuredome
-Club footage and performances at Faster Pussycat
-Club footage and performances at Decadance at the End Up
-First Annual Drag King Contest
-Miss Uranus Pageant
-Memorial Day Weekend in Guerneville, CA
-Complete documentation of Artfull Circle’s stage show “Christmas With The Crawfords”
-Veronica Klaus’s big band review at Swedish American Hall
PARTIAL LIST OF PERFORMERS THAT APPEARED ON LAVENDER LOUNGE:
-Jeanie Tracy, r&b artist and back up singer for Sylvester
-Fred Willard, actor and comedian – “Waiting For Guffman”, “Best In Show”, and “Fernwood Tonight”
-Right Said Fred, “I’m Too Sexy”
-Pansy Division
-Justin Bond
-Connie Champagne
-Pussy Tourette
-Acid Housewife
-Arturo Galster
-Beach Blanket Babylon alumi Michael Benbrook abd Richie Waits
-Cast of “Whatever Happened to BB Jane?”
-Cast of “Psycho The Musical”
-Cast of “Vegas In Space”, plus Philip R. Ford and Miss X
-Bucktooth Varmints
-Spoken word with gender outlaw Kate Bornstein
-Members of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc.
-Bob Paris and Rod Jackson, early marriage equality activists
-David Nash, choreographer
-Mark Sergeant as Ethyl Merman (and other characters)
-Leigh Crow as Elvis Herselvis
(And a cast of thousands!)
