[Blog/People] [Netherlands/Germany] Romy Haag (1951 - ) actor, singer, nightclub owner
Stephanie Stevens
08 April 2010
Romy Haag (1951 - ) actor, singer, nightclub owner.
Edouard Frans Verbaarsschott was born in Scheveningen, in the
Netherlands. He was an intersex child and was bullied at school for
his effeminate looks.
At 13 he left school and worked with Circus Strassburger as a clown.
At 16 Romy was working as a female impersonator at the Club Alcazar
and Le Carrousel in Paris.
After a friend set their apartment on fire, she stowed away on a
merchant ship to the US, and found work performing at Fire Island and
Atlantic City, where she met and loved a Berlin street singer and they
moved to West Berlin together.
At the age of 23, they opened a nightclub, Chez Romy Haag featuring
Disco and mainly transgendered artists – one of whom was Peki d’Oslo
(Amanda Lear <http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/07/amanda-lear-1939-performer.html>
) whom Haag had met in Paris. The club became the place for
celebrities to go. David Bowie
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie> and Mick Jagger
<http://gvarts.blogspot.com/2009/05/mick-jagger-and-rolling-stones.html>
had affairs with Romy. She released her first single, “Liege-Samba”,
in 1977, and her first album, So Bin Ich, in 1981.
In 1983 she sold her nightclub and spent a year touring the world. On
return she had sex-change surgery in Switzerland.
She then toured with her stage act. She has been in 26 films, mainly
German, including Mascara, 1987, with Charlotte Rampling
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Rampling> and Eva Robin
<http://zagria.blogspot.com/2009/11/eva-robins-1958-performer.html>
’s. She has released 17 albums.
In the mid-1980s she was the lead figure of Queen Zero, a
performance-art video intallation at New York’s Museum of Modern Art
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Modern_Art> . In 1997 she
received the Jackie O. Music Award in New York for her interpretations
of Berthold Brecht <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold_Brecht> ’s
music. Also the same year she was awarded the Teddy Award
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Award> at the Berlin International
Film Festival for lifetime achievements in GLBT film. In 1999 she
published her autobiography.
* Romy Haag with Martin Schacht. Eine frau und mehr. Berlin:
Quadriga 319 pp 1999. Autobiography.
* www.romyhaag.de’ <http://www.romyhaag.de/>
* “Romy Haag”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy_Haag.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy_Haag>
[Video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6en0mExSrw> ]
[Video <http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8x5hk_romy-haag-berlin_shortfilms> ]
Time: 07:41 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: circus, facilitator, movies, musician, performer
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