From The Village: Michelle DuBarry: Call Her Mother

July 16, 2026

Photo via Angelo Drago (Facebook)

Today is International Drag Day, and we’re honouring the profound impact of the legendary Michelle DuBarry, also known as Russel Alldread, who our community recently lost.

Born in Bowmanville, Ontario in 1931, Michelle performed actively as a drag queen from the 1950s until the early 2020s, at one point holding the Guinness World Record for oldest performing drag queen!

For the many performers whose lives were touched by Michelle, she was, as the kids say: Mother!

We spoke to Fontaine, another drag legend, about what it was like to do drag in the 60s and 70s with Michelle DuBarry as your drag mother.

“One day we were at her place, and she just said, ‘Come on!’ and she threw a gown on me and a wig. ‘We’re going to the 511!’” Fontaine says, referring to a basement venue on Yonge Street that hosted drag shows in the 1960s. She says the venue avoided being raided by operating as a private residential party, instead of advertising as a bar or club. Michelle got her start in drag at the 511, originally going by the name Anita Modé.

Michelle was a member of several drag collectives including The Great Imposters and The Golden Girls. While aspiring queens today can find drag looks on Amazon, there was a time when queens needed to rely on one another – drag families would work together to source the materials they needed to perform.

“We couldn’t get shoes in those days, or wigs. It was all underground. You couldn’t go into a shoe store and put high heels on and say, ‘Oh, they look nice, I’ll take them!’” Fontaine says. “They’d lock the door, call the police, and you’d get beat up!” Michelle worked at Bata Shoes, so she would hook the girls up. “You’d get five pairs of white pumps, spray one blue, one black, one red,” she says. Friendly beauty shop owners would sell wigs to queens in secret. “Michelle made all the outfits.”

Michelle also performed at a time when drag was criminalized, but queens found a loophole that allowed them to perform. “As long as we wore men’s underwear, which I still do, and so did Michelle,” Fontaine says, “it would make it legal.” Fontaine shared that many old-school queens continued to wear men’s underwear under their drag as a tradition, long after the law changed.

Photo via Scorch Erb (Facebook)

“[The Great Imposters] used to go to all the hick towns where they hated gays but LOVED [the queens.]” As The Golden Girls, Michelle and Fontaine performed at venues like the Drake Hotel when it was a biker bar.

Michelle most famously performed regularly at the St. Charles Tavern, a bygone gay bar on Yonge Street with a still-iconic clock tower north of Yonge and College. The St. Charles Tavern’s Halloween drag balls drew huge crowds of homophobic protesters. “They were throwing eggs, spitting, all that,” Fontaine says.

In 2016, Michelle spoke to the CBC about being pelted with an egg, going home, changing into clean clothes, and coming right back out again.

“Nothing could ever stop me from doing what I wanted to do,” DuBarry said.

Fontaine says she’ll miss the laughs most. She and Michelle did comedic numbers together, playfully roasting each other, another fabulous drag tradition. “We had so much fun,” she recalls.

Rest in peace Michelle DuBarry. The 519 thanks you for your art, your grace, and your bravery.