TODD TREXLER (1944-2014)
The Cockettes & Sylvester. Offset lithograph poster. 635x521 mm; 25x20½ inches. [San Francisco]. 1971. Founded in 1969, the Cockettes were a popular and successful San Francisco-based performance troupe. Their overall ecclectic vision augmented by elaborate costumes, music, imagination combined with hippie psychedelia had catapulted them to local stardom and they were considered the darlings of the Bay City counterculture. Their fame led to a New York tour in 1971 where they were coupled with Sylvester. The show was not successful, with many of New York's downtown gliteratti walking out on opening nght. The show closed at the end of it's three week contract. Sylvester himself only performed for a few evenings before he heeded the advice of his friends and disassociated himself from the rest of the troupe.