Dreamboy Interviews: Doug Phillips

Baltimore native Dale Madisons movie DREAMBOY: My Life as a QVC Host and Other Greatest Hits took a film award and three other nominations at the 2008 San Diego Black Film Festival this month.

The documentary chronicles Madisons life from a schoolboy in Baltimore through his career as telephone operator, artists model, movie extra, founder and member of two educational theater troupes, QVC host, African doll designer, drag queen performance artist, owner of an African-themed store, and TV, movie, and theater actor.

Madison, now of Inglewood, Calif., originally conceived the movie to promote his unpublished memoir of the same name. After shopping his book to a few agents, he and music editor Joe Breaux turned slides, video footage, music and voiceover into a 25-minute DVD that tells the short version of Madisons life.

His book is an homage to the 1984 Mary Wilson book, DREAMGIRL: My Life as a Supreme, with each chapter likened to a hit Supreme song. He discusses with candor and charm his Baltimore childhood, his gay and straight relationships, his varied careers, his four years as a shopping channel host at QVC, and his work as a background bit player in the Hollywood system.

The documentary, which took best LGBT honors at the San Diego festival, is being screened at 10 p.m. March 22 at the Vintage Hollywood Private Club in Los Angeles to benefit The Village Health Foundation (www.villagehealthfoundation.org). It will also commemorate Madisons 50th birthday.

My goal was to have my book published by my 50th birthday, says Madison, but this works out the way it was supposed to be. I want people to walk away saying, I want to read a book about this guys life.

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