Carmen tells her story

Press, 26 September 1989, Page 11

Carmen tells her story

When New Zealand’s history in the sixties and seventies is written, one colourful and controversial character will stand out.

Tonight’s documentary, “Carmen” (8.30 on One) takes a closer look at this larger-than-life personality, the country’s most famous transsexual and outspoken advocate of homosexual law reform.

The documentary was made by independent filmaker Geoff Steven (producer/director of the “American Pie” series), who saw his opportunity after a book chronicling Carmen’s life was released last year. Realising that Carmen was in the mood to tell her story, he persuaded her to return from Sydney, where she has been based for the last nine years, to revisit the old landmarks. "It was a chance to tell about an era in New Zealand and one of New Zealand’s major phenomena,” he said.

“Not many people know Carmen’s background, where she comes from, and what it was like in the early days, being a transsexual in the fifties. “New Zealand is more worldly now, I don’t think those activities would raise many eyebrows, but Carmen was important because she pushed the boundaries at the time and brought New Zealand in touch with the underbelly of society. “She came out of the closet long before it was fashionable.”

The documentary traces Carmen’s life from her early days as Trevor Rupe in her hometown, Taumarunui, to her days in Auckland during the 19505. ; It covers the time Carmen was arrested for being dressed in publicas a woman but the charges dropped when the judge decreed she looked better dressed as a woman than a man.

It looks back over the controversial years in Wellington when she shocked the capital by opening the exotic allnight International Coffee Lounge in Vivian Street as well as the Balcony nightclub with its transsexual strippers. And it documents the political uproar caused in the mid-1970s when Carmen claimed that some M.P.s were involved in homosexual and bisexual activity and was taken before the parliamentary privileges committee. Carmen further scandalised Wellington when she ran for Mayor in 1977, backed by businesman Bob Jones, who still believes the votes were miscounted and Carmen should have been elected. Jones appears in the documentary with other well known associates of Carmen, including Auckland city councillor Phil Warren, and strip club king Rainton Hastie. “They were wonderful times,” says Carmen. “We’ll never see them again. If I came back to Wellington I’d never open up a coffee bar because I’ve been there done that.”

She’s annoyed that legislative changes she was fighting for did not happen when she was around. "I wanted homosexuality legalised at 21 and 18 and they wouldn’t hear of it, then I went away and they made it legal at 16. "I wanted a liquor licence in the striptease clubs and they wouldn’t allow it. Now that I’ve left, they have. I was ahead of my time.” In an attempt to capture Carmen’s theatrical nature, the documentary is interspersed with six fantasy sequences based on aspects of the entertainer’s life.

Playing Carmen in her younger days is actor Neil Gudsell, in a complete change of role from his last television appearance as Ra in the police drama

series “Shark in the Park.” Gudsell, aged 27, has been fascinated by Carmen since he was a teen-ager in Timaru reading the headlines about her. When he saw an article about the making of the documentary, he jumped at the chance to audition.

“I rang up some of the ex-queens she used to work with and said, ‘Look I want this role.’ So they wrote to Carmen, she sent me some photos of herself, and I made myself up to look like her — as a man and a woman.”

Gudsell also practised speaking like Carmen. Although he does not speak in the fantasy sequences, he has incorporated the character of Carmen into a one-man show he performs around the country and at Australian art festivals.

“I do the voice, I dress up like her, I show her positive side. “People like Carmen are so inspirational because she brought human rights to the fore. The things she did, even in the late 50s, are the things that led to the law reforms of today.

“She came to our show in 1986 and she was like royalty. With a section of New Zealand she has a lot of mana. She’s always had the courage to be what she is and that’s what I love about her. “The first time I met her she was absolutely lovely — just like one of the old aunties. You’d expect her to be quite hard sometimes and she’s not at all. She’ve very giving.” Many people have fond memories of Carmen, says Geoff Steven. While filming the documentary in Kings Cross, where Carmen now lives, they were constantly approached by New Zealanders who wanted to introduce themselves. ‘Wherever we went people would ask for autographs. She's such an institution.”