LOS ANGELES – Avant-garde Minneapolis fashionista Ethan Mundt found inspiration in iconic movie costumer Bob Markie and comedienne Carol Burnett for his latest drag outfit. Mundt, whose show name is Utica Queen, wrapped himself in heavy curtain velvet and tassels, a la “Gone With the Wind,” for the fourth episode of Ru Paul’s “Drag Race” this season. The Burnett touch: A curtain road across her shoulders. Utica Queen was among 14 contestants, of whom 13 got passing marks to return next episode.
Not quite Scarlet. Novelist Margaret Mitchel and Hollywood costumer Bob Markie forgot the curtain rod that Carol Burnett and now Utica Queen remembered.
Utica in rearview mirror. Mundt calls Utica a “beautiful little farm town,” but his memories growing up are mixed. “It’s a tiny, tiny town of 291 people. We don’t even have a school or a gas station, but we do have four bars. And one gay who escaped.”