Big Johnson, The

Big Johnson, The

Dean Johnson was a legendary New York drag queen, rock star, sex party promoter, and later in life, an escort. In 2007, he took a job and never returned. His death - an apparent overdose - became a mystery, especially since another escort had died in the same apartment just days earlier. But Dean's life was as wild as his end. He was a trailblazer - the first bald drag queen, the first to host sex parties during the AIDS crisis, the first openly gay singer on Island Records and the only person to throw an LGBTQ+ party at CBGBs. This exceptional, critically acclaimed documentary from filmmaker Lola Rocknrolla dives into his burned-out, fabulous world of the 1980s East Village, where the looming AIDS crisis made every day feel like the last. Dean Johnson wasn't just a figure of his time - he was the time. Get to know the man, the myth, The Big Johnson.