The Queens.The Queens targets the historic Chicago cabaret The Baton, a world-famous venue noted for its outstanding female impersonators.
For more than half a century, the club has drawn straight and queer audiences alike under the watchful eye of proprietor Jim Flint.
The popularity of the club also prompted Flint–a sometime female impersonator himself–to start the Miss Continental pageant, a nationwide Miss America-type beauty contest to find the year’s most talented female impersonator.
Over the years, the pageant has seen a number of before-they-were-stars contestants, including Alyssa Edwards, Jasmine Masters, Alexandra Billings, Candis Cayne and Dominique Jackson.Saxenmeyer weaves the history of The Baton and Miss Continental.