Drag ‘Elsa’ frees frozen BPD truck
It was a dark and stormy night, and some Boston police officers making a hamburger run Tuesday at the South End restaurant The Gallows found their wagon stuck in a snowbank.
When what to their wondering eyes did appear, not a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer, but Queen Elsa — taller and more muscular somehow than the character from the Disney movie “Frozen” — who gave them a push as one of the cops tried to steer.
There was a reason, as it turned out, for the queen’s heft: Elsa was a customer dressed in drag who spotted the cops in distress.
“He came in with a group of friends but was the only one in drag,” said Christopher Haynes, the restaurant’s publicist, who happened to be there with a friend. “He said, ‘I was going to wear all black, but I didn’t want to attract attention.’ ”
Up he sprang, his green gown flowing, determined as he was to help the cops get going.
In a video Haynes recorded, customers cheer as Elsa directs the driver back and forth and pushes the wagon, at one point hitching up his gown to do so and, at another, clearing away the snow on a tire with his bare hands.
“To see a Disney princess pushing a 2-ton police wagon out of the snow was nothing short of shocking,” Haynes said. “Everybody was like, ‘We should go help.’ But every time we were about to, it looked like the wagon was free.”
Each time, though, the wagon only became stuck again, but Elsa was undeterred.
“The driver was clearly taking directions from him,” Haynes said. “I mean, this was a 6-foot-3 guy who no one was going to make fun of.”
When, with one last push, Elsa finally freed the wagon, he curtseyed and made his way back into The Gallows to a standing ovation.
“I said, ‘I’m going to make you an internet star,’ ” Haynes said, “and he said, ‘Oh, ha ha ha.’ ”
Even the publicist, who said he has never gotten more than 100 likes on a Facebook post, wasn’t prepared for the reaction to his Queen Elsa video.
By the time he woke up yesterday, it already had been viewed more than 3 million times, and Haynes’ phone rang nearly nonstop with calls from The Washington Post, CNN, the “Today” show, People magazine and the celebrity gossip site TMZ, as well as news outlets in Ireland, Brazil and New Zealand.
“The officers involved were especially grateful for the help and would like to thank the Elsa impersonator for the assist,” said officer Stephen McNulty, a Boston police spokesman.
No comment, yet, from good Queen Elsa.