Remembering Houston’s Iconic Studio 13
The popular '80s Black gay club empowered a generation in crisis.

In observance of Black History Month, OutSmart magazine is shining a spotlight on a little-known and oft-forgotten part of Black Houston history. Studio 13, a premier gay club in Montrose from 1984 until around 1994, was launched by owner Wendell Statchuk at 1318 Westheimer. It was one of the first clubs to cater specifically to Houston’s Black gay community, and it became a launching pad for several local drag artists and other entertainers.
“Every female impersonator from that time in Houston who went on to do great things got their start at Studio 13,” says Rodney Vernon, administrative assistant for TS Productions. “It was a place to prove yourself.” Or as one Studio 13 host used to say: “If you can make it at Studio 13, you can make it anywhere.”
Several performers from that era are still active in Houston, and OutSmart talked to three—Tommie Ross, Kofi, and Ivy Tondalayo—who generously took the time to share their fond memories of Studio 13.
Early Beginnings
Before becoming Studio 13, the club had existed as Inside/Outside from 1974 to 1981. In that era, news of clubs opening or re-opening spread mostly through word of mouth. “We didn’t have social media,” Kofi reminds younger readers. “We had TWIT (This Week in Texas), a magazine that was delivered to the bars every Friday. That’s where you found out what was going on over the weekend in Houston and all the bars in the state.”
At the time, Houston was rife with nightclubs, including The Plantation, Lazy J, JR’s, Numbers, The Copa, and Studio 13. By the time Inside/Outside changed management (and names), veteran performer Kofi was already established elsewhere. “I’ve been at JR’s for over 30-some years,” she says. “I was already performing when Studio 13 opened.”
Kofi already knew Studio 13’s resident DJ and was friends with its host, Cookie LaCook. In fact, it was LaCook who first asked Kofi to be a guest. “I know it was something Cookie asked me to come and do. I think I judged a couple of contests there first. Actually, I think my first experience was judging an amateur night or something like that. Then I performed a number, as well.”
Tommie Ross starred at The Copa, where she’d won Entertainer of the Year in 1982. “The Copa held a talent show every week where the winners would come back at the end of each month and compete, and then the 12 winners of the year would compete for the title of ‘Entertainer of the Year,’” she remembers. “However, I met Wendell Lee Statchuk at a club on Westheimer called the Midnight Sun. He saw me perform there a few times, and he asked if I would be interested in working at a club he was going to open called Studio 13. I agreed, and the rest was history.”
Similarly, Ivy Tondalayo, who worked three nights a week at the Midnight Sun, received an offer from Statchuk. “Wendell came down to the Midnight Sun and he would watch the show, and he would talk to us,” Ivy recalls. “And we would chit-chat. He’d say, ‘Well, I opened a club down the street. Maybe you’ll come and do shows with me.’”
Tempted by the offer, Ivy said she’d check the place out. “But I already knew I wasn’t leaving Midnight Sun, because there was a certain type of freedom that I could have there that was more open. Because my whole thing was musical theater—comedy, that kind of thing—Midnight Sun was a different kind of audience,” she explains. “It was a mixed audience, and usually an older audience. Studio 13 was a younger audience.” While she doesn’t remember her first visit, she always felt very welcome. “I had friends that worked there on a regular basis. Back in those days, everybody pretty much knew, or knew of, everybody.”
Ivy and Cookie LaCook formed a rapport from working in the club circuit; LaCook even helped style Ivy’s hair. She and Kofi were also close friends. “I’ve known her forever,” Kofi adds. “I used to go support her shows because she’s always just been a very nice and very professional person. And so, yeah, we’ve all known each other, like me and Tommie Ross and Roxanne Collins—people like that. We’ve been friends for years and years.”
Both Kofi and Ivy Tondalayo remember Statchuk as a friendly boss who took care of his employees. While Kofi and Ms. Ivy often served as guest performers, Tommie Ross became a regular part of Studio 13’s shows. “I was hired to be a cast member in the Sunday shows; we were known as “The Ladies of the ’80s,” Ross says. “I also worked the front door in the beginning, but shortly after worked as a bartender when I wasn’t performing in the show.”
There are few photos of Studio 13’s interior, but one of its early patrons was the late writer and trans-rights advocate Monica Roberts, who in 2016 wrote vividly about her Studio 13 experience on her TransGriot blog:
“There was a sunken dance floor that led to the stage and dressing rooms in the back for the showgirls, along with two bars on the lower level and the DJ booth on the east side of the club. Upstairs was another bar and pool table, with windows facing the McDonald’s next door and down Westheimer. In the back, there was a high-walled patio with a hot tub, but it stayed covered—especially after Houston started experiencing the first wave of AIDS deaths.

“In the front, on the Westheimer side of the club, was an enclosed patio with a high fence so no vehicles passing by could spot you. It allowed you to get away from the crowds and noise inside.”
Ms. Ivy describes Studio 13 as cozy and comfortable, resembling a Dutch farmhouse. “You’d walk in and we had to walk up the stairs. We’d get inside and then the dance floor seemed like it was sunken. There was a walkway all the way around on both sides, and the stage was centered at the back.”
“The club was unlike any other club I had ever been to,” Ross adds. “Ironically, it looked like a big house and became a place that truly felt like home.”
Studio 13 was indeed an oasis for Houston’s Black queer community at a time when, according to Ms. Ivy, some clubs would ask darker-skinned patrons for multiple IDs. At night, she says, parades of cars would drive down Westheimer and the suburban straight people inside those cars would honk their horns and yell gay slurs. “There was a time when you could walk the streets and see where the police had handcuffed gay people to telephone poles for no reason,” she recalls. “Just because they were gay and on the street.”
Fortunately, those experiences didn’t ruin the fun. According to Ms. Ivy, “Studio 13 was a fun place when it opened. It was the kind of place you could go into and you knew that almost everybody was gonna be friendly to you. You were like a part of the family. The dance music was great. The DJs were great—I mean, they were out of this world! So it was a real cozy club to go to. It was a safe place for Black kids.”

“I have heard horror stories about this time,” Ross agrees. “However, by God’s grace, it was truly a magical time for us during the Studio 13 years. The drag was absolutely amazing. People would drive to Houston from surrounding towns and cities just to experience the vibe. The club was never raided; the police never made us feel uncomfortable. We were a unique family that had a home where we could meet and socialize and be our unique, authentic selves.”
Ms. Ivy agrees. “Studio was family to everybody. It didn’t matter what color you were or who you were, you were gonna have a good time. When you walked into a club back then, you felt like you were in another land. The place lit up. I guess you could imagine being in Oz, because when you walked in, the music was booming, the building was zooming. Everybody was minding their own business and having a good time.”

Coping with Crisis
But the AIDS epidemic had a dramatic impact during the 1980s. Fewer people went out; crowds began to dwindle. Early on, Ivy had a book of about 100 people she would call to do shows. “But then the AIDS epidemic came in, and each week I would scratch off names of people that were no longer around.”
“I believe because the disease and the stigma that surrounded it was fairly new, you really didn’t hear lots of talk,” Tommie Ross remembers. “But everyone knew something was different. It was a scary time.”
“I think it almost brought the clientele closer together,” Kofi adds, “because we were going to funerals every week. Nobody knew who was walking around with it, so you treasured your friendships with people a lot more.”
“This younger generation, they don’t know how much we lived through when the AIDS epidemic first started—when there was no hope, and we had friends who were just dying left and right,” Kofi emphasizes. “And there was nothing you could do, except to just watch. Watching parents bury their kids.”
Studio 13 suffered another blow when owner Wendell Statchuk was murdered in 1991. His attorney, James Stephen Keyser, was charged with the killing, but charges were later dismissed.
“I think the largest change came after the murder,” Ross tells OutSmart. “The club continued afterwards, but the atmosphere felt different. I really can’t speak for others, but nothing really felt right after his death. Even though the club remained open and business thrived, things just felt strangely different and empty.”
“Everything changed,” Ms. Ivy remembers. “And not only did the spirit of clubbing and dancing and all that change, drag began to filter out and it became a male-stripper oriented society.” By 1992, she admits to being done with drag entirely.
The End of an Era
It’s unclear exactly when Studio 13 closed, but by 1996 it had reopened as Rascals. Its final incarnation was as the Royal Oak Bar & Grill, which is now permanently closed.
The end of Studio 13 also marked the end of an era that Ross still remembers fondly. “Studio 13 felt like home,” she says. “I know lots of people who came from broken homes where things were chaotic, and some felt unseen and unheard—and in some cases, unsafe. But Studio 13 definitely was a place of love. A place where you were not only seen, heard, and protected, but celebrated for just being you. For me, the beauty that was Studio 13 was unique, and sadly has never been duplicated since then. Of course, different clubs opened in Houston after Studio 13, but nothing for me ever felt like the big red house on Westheimer.”
“I think it’s important to acknowledge the trailblazers of today who are standing on the shoulders of those who paved the way for Houston’s Black gay community to advance,” Rodney Vernon concludes, “because it takes community to create community. People like Ian Haddock, Sherman Houston, Wendell King, Atlantis Narcisse, Mya Wesley, Harrison Homer-Guy, Alexyeus Paris, and Jazelle Barbie Royale—they are today’s change-makers, and I’m so proud of them.”

2024 marked 40 years since the establishment of Studio 13. In celebration, T.S. Productions (launched by Tommie Ross and Sophia McIntosh) held a reunion on October 13—the culmination of a three-day festival. Community members gathered at Park 8 Event Center for an all-white party honoring four decades of Black history.
Impulse Houston executive director Wendell King paid tribute to the club (and the icons that helped shape Houston’s Black queer history) in a poignant poem. The event featured performances by Mr. & Mrs. Studio 13 (Leo Luv D’mor and Porsche Paris, respectively), along with powerhouse vocals from singers Sybil, Pam Ward and Terisa Griffin. “This Studio 13 reunion has been a labor of love. Tommie Ross created the vision, and we worked for months to turn her concepts into reality,” said TS Productions administrative assistant Rodney Vernon. He said the event was Ross’s brainchild, “We have been friends for 20 years, and I love her dearly.”
Sponsors of the TS Productions/The Studio 13 Reunion events on October 11-13, 2024, included Wendell King from Impulse Houston, Ian Haddock from The Normal Anomaly, and LeDarre Zeigler, the CEO of Studio 13 Reunion, a 501(c)(3) community nonprofit. The organization’s mission is dedicated to providing a safe and inclusive space for the Black and Indigenous LGBTQIA+ community, promoting diversity and multiculturalism. To learn more about The Studio 13 Reunion nonprofit organization, or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit https://ts13r.org/
More information about the event can be found at studio13reunion.org/