Dorian Corey (June 6, 1937 – August 29, 1993) was an American drag performer and fashion designer. She appeared in Wigstock and was featured in Jennie Livingston‘s 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning
After Corey’s death, the preserved body of Robert Worley (also known as Robert Wells) was found amongst her belongings; it appeared that he had died from a gunshot wound to the head.[12] He was last seen by his family in 1968.
Listen To ” Dorian Corey ” Below !
Find your preferred
Watch ” Dorian Corey ” On YouTube !
If this episode is unavailable at the time of this posting, it’ll be streaming shortly! In the meantime, the audio version of ” Dorian Corey: Mummy In The Closet” is streaming wherever you listen to podcasts from! Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Luminary, Stitcher, & more !
Find Bizarre Buffet Podcast Online!
Support Bizarre Buffet On Patreon
Follow Bizarre Buffet On Instagram
Like Bizarre Buffet On Facebook
Subscribe To Bizarre Buffet On YouTube
Follow The Host’s Of Bizarre Buffet
Follow Marc Bluestein On Instagram
Follow Jen Wilson On Instagram
Follow Mark Tauriello On Instagram
If you’re enjoying the content brought to you here at Bizarre Buffet, please consider leaving a positive review of the show on Apple Podcast’s / iTunes.
Listening on Spotify ? Give our show a ” like ” ! It helps a tremendous deal.
Subscribe/Follow
Bizarre Buffet is an indépendant production.The support of our listener’s keep’s this show going. Thank you for listening !
Dorian Corey – Episode Credits
Hosted by Marc Bluestein, Jen Wilson, & Marc Tauriello.
Original Episode Art by Mark Tauriello.
Original episode / story concept by Mark Tauriello.
Show Notes by Mark Tauriello.
Audio & Visual production by Marc Bluestein.
Dorian Corey – Show Notes
SKELETON IN THE CLOSET: DORIAN COREY
Dorian Corey was an American drag performer and fashion designer. Born June 6th 1937 in Buffalo NY assigned as a male at birth, later in life she realized that she was a trans woman while being raised on a farm in Buffalo.
In there 1950s she moved to NYC after getting a really cool job as a window dresser at Hengerers (A well known department store) while studying Art at Parsons
In the 1960s she toured as a snake dancer in a cabaret drag act.
She was also the founder of the voguing House of Corey where she won over 50 grand prizes from Voguing Balls. She later became a house mother where she took care of LGBTQIA people who were without families and homes. This has always been a common theme in the community.
1968 documentary, the queen, about the super OLD SCHOOL drag queen oadgents.
One of her biggest claims to fame was being featured in the legendary documentary, Paris Is Burning. A 1991 film about Ball culture in NYC night life. It showcases the challenges transgender women, drag queens, and gay been faced in their day to day lives while competing in the highly competitive ball circuit. The TV Show RuPaul’s Drag race is a huge homage to this film and thats where we get sayings like “ Serving Looks” “______Relness” “Catagory is….. Rich Woman Eleganza “ etc
She also appeared on talk shows like the Joan Rivers show
It should also be noted that she had her own clothing label called Corey Design. For one of her acts she wore a feather cape which was 30feet by 40 feet . Once she removed this cape to reveal a sequin body suit, the cape was raised over the attendees with poles to cover them, creating a feather like tent!
Sadly, she too fell victim to the AIDS crisis and dies in 1993 at the age of 56.
She was iconic to the vogue/ ball room culture then and fondly remembered and celebrated today.
Great… Now we know about her. But what puts her into the Bizarre Buffet Universe?
-For the record, this story isn’t necessarily ground breaking… apparently the tb show POSE did an episode inspired by this…I wanted to cover this topic because I thought it would be a lot of fun for us, and I believe it truly fits into our bizarre universe.
After her death, a close friend of hers Lois Taylor who was a fellow drag queen, was going through Coreys Closet to sell off her costumes. While rummaging through her closet , Lois unearthed a suitcase that was so heavy she could not lift it.
She dragged out the suitcase to cut it open, and immediately “a horrible stink came out of the dusty fabric bag” which she told New York Magazine in 1994.
“Thats when we called the police, cause honey, I wasn’t chancing it” she explained.
Inside the bag was a partially mummified body who was identified as Robert Worley, last seen in 1968. Items found with the body were vintage beer can lids which were at least 15 years old.
Immediately this “skeleton in the closet” …quite literally… created a buzz and the rumors went flying.
What was the connection this man had to Corey? Why he partially mumfieid? How did the body sit in the closet all these years and nobody know?
Her fellow Drag Queen friends never heard her speak of him at all.
Some theorize that Corey had shot Worley during a failed robbery. And at that time, the police clearly were not of help to the gay community, let alone the trans community. And reporting this burglary/ killing in self defense could come back to bit Corey in the ass.
However, after a reporter from New York Magazine did some digging around, some clues were unearthed. Worleys (the corpses) brother claimed that his brother was called him while drunk and rambled on and on about having a fight with a woman named Dorian that he was allegedly seeing.
Lois Taylor, the friend of Dorian who discovered the corpse, told the reporter that Corey has once written a short story about a transgender woman who killed her lover in revenge after he pressured her to have a sex change…
Though this is just heresay…but I am sure trans women who are in relationships with “hetero” identifying men are probably pressured to have a sex change more often than you think. That was also a premise used in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
It’s also theorized that disposing the body in a very congested city like Manhattan was basically imposeble. So Corey covered it in baking soda and tightly wrapped the corpse (probnably in syram wrap) to cover the odor.
Most people lean into the idea that this was not an intentional murder, but that is happened under specific circumstances, and due to the nature of the times…She did the best thing she could think of to protect her self
One other theory which I don’t find to be as plausible is that she didn’t kill anyone, but instead, she was doing a friend a favor who murdered him by allowing the body to be hidden in her closet.
Regardless of the motives, I am leaning more toward the logical here. It was NYC, in the 1960s…. She had to do what she had to do. And as we know, the LGBTQ community is pretty good at getting shit done and being bad ass. Look at the shooting at Club Q in Colorado, it was 2 gay men who effectivelly took down the shooter after he killed 5 people. Allegedly the other was a TRANS WOMAN who used her high heel as a weapon. FUCKING AMAZING. A trans woman/dragqueen were more effective than the police.
What I love about this story is the irony of it. “Skeletons in the closet” and the term “coming out of the closet” and all this conveniently happened to a trans woman. I believe there are probably a lot of stories like this that just haven’t come to surface yet. I find it fascinating that all this time she had to live with a corpse in her closet for years. Going to bed each night knowing what was behind her closet door.
Ill end this with a quote she says in Paris is Burning
“I always had hopes of being a big star. But as your get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you’ve made your mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you’ve left your mark. You don’t have to bend the whole world. I think it’s better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you:
