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Tag: female impersonator

Hollywood Movie Memorabilia

When it comes to Hollywood Movie Memorabilia, much of WalterFilm’s vintage original stock might be considered “Hollywood” because a substantial amount of material either comes from Hollywood or references it. And when it comes to “Movie Memorabilia”, a large portion of what we offer could fit that description as well. But we do try to clearly define, describe and date each object we present as a vintage original poster, photograph, script, etc.

However, sometimes items come along that are difficult to define and ‘Hollywood Movie Memorabilia” provides an excellent catch all.

MGM Advertising Pull-Outs

The first three items are of particular note: they are vintage original 9 x 12″ (22 x 30 cm.) Metro-Goldwin-Mayer advertising pull-outs on card stock for three movies starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. 

They were created for the industry publication The Lion’s Roar by the famous  caricature artist Jacques Kapralik, They each were created in three dimension using elements of yarn, fabric, paper, buttons, sequins and miniature creations to highlight the themes and elements found in the film’s story.

BABES ON BROADWAY (1941)

See above photograph.

The film’s “let’s put on a show” theme was presented at its most spectacular in this Busby Berkeley extravaganza produced by Arthur Freed.

LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY (1941)

Life Begins For Andy Hardy

The two stars are featured in a New York City setting when Betsy Booth (Garland), daughter to a Broadway actress, shows “Smalltown, USA” Andy Hardy (Rooney) the ropes of making it in the big city.

GIRL CRAZY (1943

Girl Crazy

The last and likely the finest of the grand MGM Mickey and Judy musicals featured a superb score by George and Ira Gershwin and a story set at a dude ranch college.

LUCIFER RISING (1972) 

Kenneth-Anger-(filmmaker,-artist)-LUCIFER-RISING-(1972)-Original-artwork-2
[Los Angeles, 1972]. Vintage original artwork on illustration board, 8 1/2 x 9 5/8″ (21 x 24.5 cm.) on 13 7/8 x 15 1/2″ (35.5 x 40 cm.). 

Kenneth Anger (filmmaker, artist) Original artwork used for the opening shot of Kenneth Anger’s experimental film LUCIFER RISING, which was his attempt to depict the age of the hippies. In this film, Egyptian gods summon the angel Lucifer to usher in a new occult age.

HOTEL SAHARA PRESENTS… CHRISTINE JORGENSEN (1953) 

Las Vegas: Hotel Sahara, [1953]. Vintage original 9 1/2 x 8 1/8″ (24 x 21 cm.) die-cut promotional flyer. A holograph note indicates that someone attended this show on Monday, November 16, 1953. Near fine.

“A New York Daily News article in late ’52 that brought instant notoriety to Christine Jorgensen, the first person in the US to become famous for having sex reassignment surgery. Celebrity agent Charles Yates teamed with Jorgensen to turn this notoriety into an unlikely nightclub act. The Sahara booked Jorgensen for a summer 1953 engagement with singer Marguerite Piazza and dancer Gene Nelson, but was fired when both Piazza and Nelson protested the co-billing.

Jorgensen sued the hotel.“Jorgensen was a controversial figure in the press, treated with sensationalism, praise, respectful curiosity, and indignantly. The Sahara’s firing was done with a public letter that began, ‘Dear sir’. Despite this, Jorgensen was rescheduled at the Sahara and opened in November that year. A mostly-positive column about the show in the Las Vegas Review Journal commented that Jorgensen was ‘either an opportunist of supreme magnitude or an individual of indescribable courage.’ Jorgensen returned to Las Vegas later for a show at Silver Slipper. 

ED EMSHWILLER (ca. 1980) Signed letter

[Los Angeles, ca. 1980] Original two page autograph signed letter, 11 x 8.5″ (28 x 22 cm.), folded once for mailing, near fine.

A letter from pioneering experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller to Doug Edwards, who was at that time the leading figure in Los Angeles for the showing of avant-garde film. In this fascinating letter, he lists each of the four films which he has selected for Edwards to screen, with a succinct paragraph describing each one: LIFE LINES (1960); THANATOPSIS (1962); RELATIVITY (1966); and SCAPE-MATES (1972).

PAUL ROBESON AUSSTELLUNG ZU EHREN SEINES 70 GEBURTSTAGE AM 9 APRIL 1968 German pamphlet

[East] Berlin, Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, 1968. Printed wrappers, 24 pp. Light wear to wrappers, VERY GOOD+.

A pamphlet issued to honor Paul Robeson’s seventieth birthday. Contains photos documenting Robeson’s varied visits to the USSR and then-East Germany, as well as commentary on his artistic and political careers.

SHE’S A HE – Lynn Carter (1957) Vinyl record

New York: Fiesta Records, [1957]. Vintage original 12 x 12″ (31 x 31 cm.) vinyl LP record. Very good+ in pictorial sleeve.

The front sleeve states “Introducing Mr. Lynn Carter, America’s foremost female impersonator.”

Lynn Carter was a headliner in the Jewel Box Revue, a racially inclusive traveling revue of what were then dubbed female impersonators. The show was staffed almost entirely by gay men and one lesbian. OCLC only records one known copy.

AGNÈS VARDA (ca. 1965-77) Archive

Portrait of Varda (ca.1965) 7 x 5″ (18 x 13 cm.) black-and-white print still photo;

Collection of vintage original French promotional materials, all just about fine or better.

  • LE BONHEUR [HAPPINESS] (1965)  Pressbook
  • LES CRÉATURES [THE CREATURES] (1968) Pressbook
  • LION’S LOVE (1969) US two-sided poster, 23 x 19″ (59 x 49 cm.)
  • L’UNE CHANTE, L’AUTRE PAS (1977) Promotional book

female impersonator, George and Ira Gershwin, Hollywood Movie Memorabilia, Hollywood Musicals, Judy Garland, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, Mickey Rooney, sex reassignment surgery

Drag Before RuPaul

The term “Drag” is the shortened version of “Drag Queen” which, in many circles today, is a derogatory description of men who like to dress as women either as a life choice or as a female impersonator.

RuPaul changed “Drag Queen” to “Drag” in 2009, when he became an international celebrity, turning his success as RuPaul Female Impersonator, recording artist, spokesperson, actor, author and talk show host into a reality competition television series, RuPaul’s Drag Racewhich he produces, hosts and judges to this day.

The success of that show has spread around the world in a variety of formats. For RuPaul’s Drag Race, he has received eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, becoming the most-awarded person of color in the history of the Primetime Emmys. In 2017, he was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Outside of film and television, he continues to write and record music, releasing fourteen studio albums as of 2022. His success couples the entertainment value of Drag with the sensibilities of an enlightened audience.

A Brief History of Drag

Boys dressing as women was a requirement of actors in all of Shakespeare’s plays as it was illegal for women to appear on the stage. It wasn’t until the restoration of Charles II of England and bawdy “Restoration comedy” became a recognizable genre that theatre licenses granted by Charles required that female parts be played by “their natural performers”, rather than by boys.

Pantomime Dames

In the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, pantomime dames became a popular form of female impersonation in England and Europe. This was the first era of female impersonation to use comedy as part of the performance, contrasting with the serious Shakespearean tragedies and Italian operas. The dame became a stock character with a range of attitudes from “charwoman” to “grande dame and continues today in British “Pantos.” These “entertainments” can be found across England during the Christmas holiday season where well-known male actors have great fun impersonating ‘evil queens’ and ‘nasty sisters’.

American Drag Balls

The first person known to describe himself as “the queen of drag” was William Dorsey Swann, an African American, born enslaved in Hancock, Maryland, who in the 1880s started hosting drag balls in Washington, DC attended by other men who were formerly enslaved, and often raided by the police.

Minstrel Shows

Development of the drag queen in the United States was influenced by the development of the blackface minstrel show. Originally the white performers would only mock African American men, but as time went on, they found it amusing to mock African American femininity as well. They performed in comedic skits, dances, and “wench” songs.

Vaudeville 

The broad comedic stylings of the minstrel shows helped develop the vaudeville shows of the late 1800s to the early 1900s. With the United States shifting demographics, including the shift from farms to cities, Great Migration of African Americans, and an influx of immigrants, vaudeville’s broad comedy and music expanded the audience from minstrelsy.

With vaudeville becoming more popular, it allowed female impersonators to become popular as well. Many female impersonators started with low comedy in vaudeville and worked their way up to perform as the prima donna. They were known to perform song and dance routines with multiple outfit changes.

Female Impersonators

At this time being a female impersonator was seen as something for the straight white male, and any deviation was punished. Connection with sex work and homosexuality eventually led to the decline of vaudeville during the Progressive Era. Both the minstrelsy and vaudeville eras of female impersonation led to an association with music, dance, and comedy that still lasts today

JULIAN ELTINGE/The Widow’s Might (1918)

(Above – Vintage original 41 x 27” (104 x 69 cm.) one sheet poster, USA. Julian Eltinge, dir: William De Mille; Paramount. On linen, with some touchups in blank margins and along old fold lines, very good+. View Poster)

(May 14, 1881 – March 7, 1941), born William Julian Dalton, was an American stage and film actor and female impersonator. As his star began to rise, he appeared in vaudeville and toured Europe and the United States, even giving a command performance before King Edward VII. Eltinge appeared in a series of musical comedies written specifically for his talents starting in 1910 with The Fascinating Widow. 

The success of The Fascinating Widow led producer A. H. Woods to give Eltinge one of the entertainment industry’s highest honors, having a theatre named for him. A year to the day that The Fascinating Widow opened, Woods opened the Eltinge Theatre on New York’s 42nd Street. 

Hollywood beckoned Eltinge and in 1917 he appeared in his first feature film, The Countess Charming. This led to other films, including 1918’s The Isle of Love with Rudolph Valentino and Virginia Rappe. By the time Eltinge arrived in Hollywood, he was considered one of the highest paid actors on the American stage.

Night Clubs

In the early to mid-1900s, female impersonation had become tied to the LGBT community and thus criminality, so it had to change forms and locations. It moved from being popular mainstream entertainment to something done only at night in disreputable areas, such as San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

Here female impersonation started to evolve into what we today know as drag and drag queens. Drag queens first came to prominence in these clubs. People went to these nightclubs to play with the boundaries of gender and sexuality and it became a place for the LGBT community, especially gay men, to feel accepted.

As LGBT culture has slowly become more accepted in American society, drag has also become more acceptable in today’s society and now, with RuPaul and RuPaul’s Drag Race, it has become an international sensation. 

––Wikipedia

CRAIG RUSSELL / A Man and His Women (1977)

Craig Russel l A Man and His Women | Walter Reuben
Vintage original 22 x 14″ (56 x 36 cm.) theatre window card poster, USA.
This is a poster for an off-Broadway stage show which highlighted his talents.

Canadian Russell Craig Eadie, who preferred to go by his stage name of Craig Russell, made a career for himself impersonating a wide range of female artists. His diverse repertoire included Carol Channing, Bette Davis, Mae West, Shirley Bassey and even Anita Bryant.

LES ETOILES (CA. 1977)

Les Etoile | Record Store Poster
Paris: RCA, [ca. 1977]. Vintage original 23 x 15″ (59 x 38 cm.) record store poster, France. Near Fine.

Promotional poster for the Brazilian singing duo LES ETOILES, which consisted of Rolando Faria and Luiz Antonio, who made a splash in Europe performing in full drag.

DRAG QUEENS FROM OUTER SPACE (CA. 1986)

Drag Queens From Outer Space | Walter Reuben
New York]: Theater for the Ever Expanding Universe, [ca. 1986].
Vintage original 34 x 22″ (86 x 56 cm.) theatre poster, USA. Unfolded, scattered stains and creases, Very Good.

Poster designed by Mel Byars for New York City stage production of DRAG QUEENS FROM OUTER SPACE by Sky Gilbert. Gilbert is a preeminent name in LGBTQ theater, and an enormous influence on Canadian theater. This play followed Gilbert’s equally successful DRAG QUEENS ON TRIAL (1985).

GLAMOUR, GLORY AND GOLD: THE LIFE & LEGEND OF NOLA NOONAN, GODDESS & STAR (1968)

GLAMOUR, GLORY AND GOLD: THE LIFE & LEGEND OF NOLA NOONAN, GODDESS & STAR (1968) | Walter Reuben
[New York]: Playwrights’ Workshop, [1968]. Vintage original 24 x 16″ (61 x 41 cm.) poster, unfolded, Fine.

Very scarce poster (the OCLC records no known copy) for a 1968 run of the first play written by and starring Andy Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis. This play had had its world premiere a year before, also at the Playwright’s Workshop, and an entirely different poster was created for this 1968 revival.

Jackie performed as both a man and a woman throughout her career. While performing in drag, Curtis would typically wear lipstick, glitter, bright red hair, ripped dresses, and stockings. Curtis pioneered this combination of trashy and glamour, a style that has prompted assertions that Curtis inspired the glitter rock or glam rock movement of the 1970s. 

Drag, drag artist, Drag Queens, famous American drag performer, female impersonator, RuPaul

Four Early 20th Century LGBTQ Notables

The four gifted LGBTQ individuals featured in this month’s blog made significant contributions in their respective fields during the first half of the 20th Century.

Dorothy Arzner, a Lesbian, was, from 1927 until her retirement from feature film directing in 1943, the only female feature film director working in Hollywood for the better part of her career.

Julian Eltinge, an American stage and film actor and female impersonator was a star in vaudeville, on Broadway (where a theater was named after him) and became one of the highest paid actors in silent films. 

George Francis Peduzzi, known professionally as Karyl Norman, was also a female impersonator who was popular in vaudeville, nightclubs, on Broadway  and throughout Europe in the 1920s and 30s.

Anna Sosenko. was best known as a songwriter of “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup,” which she wrote for Hildegarde — the incomparable Hildegarde, which was the name that  Walter Winchell gave her. For 20 years Sosenko, was Hildegarde’s manager and companion and was responsible for turning the “luscious, hazel-eyed Milwaukee blonde who sings the way Garbo looks” into the chanteuse Eleanor Roosevelt  nicknamed the “First Lady of the Supper Clubs.” 

drag artist, Drag Queens, female film director, female impersonator, film director

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6 PLAYS & PERFORMERS IN THE HISTORY OF LGBTQ THEATER

June is Pride Month celebrating our LGBTQ community and its history. In its honor, WalterFilm.com presents six posters of performers and plays that reflect LGBTQ’s diversity and creativity. From Dame Judith Anderson, doyenne of the classical American stage, fulfilling her long-held desire to, at the age of seventy-three, play the title role in Hamlet, to Charles Ludlam’s first playwriting venture, Big Hotel, that became the unofficial manifesto of his Ridiculous Theater Company’s artistic creed, we are to pleased to highlight their courage and contribution.


famous American drag performer, famous American transgender performer, female impersonator, homosexuality in theater, LGBTQ plays, queer plays, queer theater history, queer theatre makers, Ridiculous Theatrical Company

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