Martin Padgett

Journalist and historian

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  • About
  • A Night at The Sweet Gum Head
  • The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick
  • Other Writing
    • People
      • Object Permanence (Gravy, Fall 2025)
      • Before TV, Leslie Jordan was Miss Baby Wipes
      • Underneath the Sweet Gum Tree (Oxford American, Summer 2020)
      • “Your Fried Chicken Has Done Drag” (Gravy, Spring 2020)
      • Wild horses, part one: The misfits
      • Wild horses, part two: Horses with no names
      • Wild horses, part three: The land of second chances
      • I work the line: What it’s like to assemble a 2019 Volvo S60
      • Catch my drift: Porsche’s Ice Force Pro driving school graduates snow PhDs
      • How I learned to love Formula 1 at the Miami Grand Prix
      • The Mazda Miata that found its way home: Time Machine Test Drive
    • Cars
      • What it’s like to win a new car during “The Price Is Right” Dream Car Week
      • How Motown, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Ford Mustang wrote music history
      • The Nine Cars You’ll Drive In Hell
      • The first electric-car president? Ike Eisenhower liked them
      • Recycling Your Car? Try Recycling a Whole Airport
      • Touring: Chasing the Targa Florio’s ghost in the Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS
      • 15 Car Color Names That Are Just Keeping It Real (Or Are Maybe A Little Too Honest)
      • Spun off, spun out, spun and done: The 19 worst spin-off car models ever
      • Changing Car Names: Smudging The Past, Blurring The Future?
      • The 9 Cars (And Drivers) Guaranteed To Piss You Off
      • The Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe is not a coupe, and neither are these other things either
    • Books
      • Separate (W.W. Norton, 2019)

People

Before TV, Leslie Jordan was Miss Baby Wipes

People

Soft spoken, short and funny are the things that make Leslie Jordan so wildly successful and charming. But as a kid growing up gay in Chattanooga, Tennessee, it made him the target of bullies. He found refuge in the 1970s Atlanta drag scene at a club called the Sweet Gum Head. (“Before TV, Leslie Jordan was Miss Baby Wipes,” Bitter Southerner, Oct. 8, 2020; photo courtesy TheLeslieJordan.com)

November 28, 2025 Marty

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