Betty Deuce hasn’t worn this turquoise getup since May 2011, when she wore it to a brewery, which put me in the mind of candy buttons.

Her majesty, 85, appeared at the Dersingham School on Monday, celebrating Accession Day and her 60 years on the throne.

The Diamond Shell Brooch belonged to her mother, who lived to be 101. There are approximately 400 diamonds in the bauble, with tassels that dangle dozens of 1-2 carat stones. This pin is probably worth about $250,000.

The hat is available at Disneyland for about $15.

God bless Rosa Parks, born on this day in 1913. One person can change the world.

For the Sephardim.

Miller and Lyles.

Billie at Carnegie Hall…

It’s time to play everyone’s favorite home game, “Clock the Drag Queen”!

These nine beauties attended the Jersey Couture Pop-Up Beauty Bar event last night in NYC. Can you guess which one is not a biological woman?! (click pic to enlarge, scroll down for answer)

Answers: (left to right) Sammi Giancola, Tracy DiMarco, Deena Cortese, Carmen Carrera, Johanna Sambucini, Tinsley Mortimer, Sandra Denton and Cheryl Salt James, Sharie Manon.

Carmen is the man. I think.

via Johnny Lopez
Getty

In a 1926 issue of Popular Mechanics, this was a prediction for a future airport in the sky, atop a nifty skyscraper.

Nice landing strip! (I’m sure some of you have heard that before.)

A desolate Burbank, Calif. parking lot, as seen through the determined lens of Austin Shear.

Absolutely haunting.

Here’s another in his series of Burbank places…

(Double click the images for full effect.)

A model, as seen today in the Minimarket A/W 2012 Fashion Show in Stockholm, and actor Willam Belli from the new season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

At least one of them is a man.

(Video sound may not be safe for work.)

This magnificent building was located at 16th and Curtis Streets in Denver, built in 1881 for a then unheard of $850,000 ($19 million in today’s dollars) by one Horace A.W. Tabor, who made a fortune in silver mines. Look at this interior!

Cherry wood was imported from Japan and mahogany from Honduras, with 1,500 mohair seats facing a 72-ft. stage that was 50-ft. deep, with a giant painted curtain… seen here in glorious black and white.

The inscription on the curtain prophetically states:

“So fleet the works of man, back to the earth again.
Ancient and holy things fade like a dream.”

Here’s another view of the building…

The Tabor was remodeled in 1921 for movies, and operated for nine years as the Colorado Theater, before once again becoming The Tabor. The great acts of Vaudeville played the stage. It was sold in ’49 for a million dollars. By the ’50s, it was facing the threat of demolition as the population departed for the suburbs.

It was torn down in 1964. Its giant curtain, too large to be displayed anywhere, was stored for years and disintegrated, and was later hauled to a dump. Today, the site is this:

…the Denver branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Things fade like a dream.

Fluffed and folded actor Nicolas Cage as seen during an Italian TV interview on Saturday (left), and Broadway belter Ethel Merman (right).

One played a soldier who thought he was Ethel Merman.

Florence Arto of Houston Texas was born in 1895. Her husband was film director King Vidor, who put her to work in silent films in 1916 as Florence Vidor. They had a daughter, Suzanne. Flo divorced King in 1925 and married famed violinist Jascha Heifetz.

Her career ended with the advent of sound pictures. She died in 1977 at the age of 82.

Here’s a trailer for her lost film, Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Patriot,” the last silent film of the era to be nominated for an Oscar.

And here’s Jascha now with a little Tchaikovsky, ya slobs.

In memory of Ian Abercrombie

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the original Callista Gingrich, was spotted handing out medals to Royal Navy personnel, while wearing this positively witchy ensemble.

That’s Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo on “H.R. Pufnstuf.”

for Porgy