Georgina Beyer (1957 - 2023) actress, sex worker, politician.

++Original version posted January 2013.

George Bertrand was a Maori of Te Ati Awa, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Raukawa, and Ngati Porou descent.  A second child was adopted out.  The father quickly disappeared, and the elder was at first raised on the mother's parents farm. He became George Beyer when his mother Noeline remarried in 1962 to Colin Beyer, a lawyer who later became a Securities Commissioner, and they moved to Wellington.

From 1969-71 George attended the all-boys Wellesley College where he was a few years behind Claudia McKay who was an activist with the trans group Agender (archive).

Noeline and Colin separated in 1971. Young Beyer began acting while at school, and left at 16 intending to be an actor.

A year later Georgina started living as female. She worked as a drag queen, stripper and prostitute in Wellington and in Sydney, Australia. At one point she was beaten and gang-raped. However she persevered and completed transition in 1984.

She acted on stage and in several television productions, and was nominated for best actress in the New Zealand Gofta Awards for her part in Jewel's Darl, 1985.

She moved to rural Carterton (map) and found work as a radio host and social worker. She was quite open about her gender history:

"Children would say to me, 'Are you that queer that's moved into town?' I would say 'Yes, I'm a transsexual. I used to be a man, but I'm a woman now.'"

Georgina was elected to a local school board, and lost in an attempt for the town council by only 14 votes. She was elected mayor in 1995, and then in 1999 ran as the Wairarapa Labour candidate for Parliament. As a left-wing Maori trans woman it was not expected that she would win in such a traditionally conservative district. However, her opponent's negative campaign strategy backfired, and Beyer won the seat. In her maiden speech she said:

"Mr. Speaker, I can't help but mention the number of firsts that are in this Parliament. Our first Rastafarian [Nándor Tánczos]… our first Polynesian woman… and yes, I have to say it, I guess, I am the first transsexual in New Zealand to be standing in this House of Parliament. This is a first not only in New Zealand, ladies and gentlemen, but also in the world. This is an historic moment. We need to acknowledge that this country of ours leads the way in so many aspects. We have led the way for women getting the vote. We have led the way in the past, and I hope we will do so again in the future in social policy and certainly in human rights."

In 2003 she helped to pass the Prostitution Reform Act, which made New Zealand laws on prostitution a liberal model. She opened her speech:

"Madam Speaker, I shall take the liberty of assuming that I am the only member of this House with first-hand knowledge of the sex industry".

In 2004 she was a proponent of the Civil Union Bill, which gave the rights of marriage to same-sex couples. She also attempted to introduce a private members Bill to add 'Gender Identity' to the Human Rights Act of 1993, but found herself alone when the acting Solicitor General opined that trans people were already covered by the Act, and the amendment was unnecessary. However she did persuade both the Solicitor General and the Attorney General to sign a statement to that effect, thereby putting that interpretation into law.

She has been a Justice of the Peace since 1997. She was also named Supreme Queer of the Year in 2000. In 2005, she stepped down as a representative for Wairarapa because of a conflict with her identity as a Maori with respect to the Seabed and foreshore legislation. She became a list Labour MP until 2007.

There had been a series of murders in Wairarapa in the early 2000s, and and she worked as a member of Violence-Free Wairarapa. Unlike other ex-MPs she was unable to get a position on any government boards despite Labour still being in power. She considered returning to show business, but without success.
 
Beyer was a Keynote speaker at the First International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Montreal, 2006, the Asia Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference in Melbourne, 2008, and at the Second International in Copenhagen, 2009, and at Egale Canada's Human Rights Trust in Toronto, 2010. A film based on her life, Girl, was made in 2008.

In 2010 there was talk of her running for mayor of Masterton, which lost her her job at a local jewellors. In 2011 she was living on unemployment benefits, and had been obliged to sell her house.

++

In 2013 Georgina was diagnosed with end stage renal failure, required dialysis four times a day, seven days a week.  Despite this she ran, albeit unsuccessfully, in the 2014 general election for the Mana Party in the Te Tai Tonga constituency.  However she was critical of Mana’s alliance with the Internet Party which was dominated by Kim Dotcom.

In 2017 She received a kidney transplant, and, no longer needing dialysis, was able to resume public appearances.

In 2020 Georgina was  appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to LGBTIQA+ rights.

Georgina Beyer died in a Hospice in Wellington in March 2023.

• Georgina Beyer with Cathy Casey. Change for the better: the story of Georgina Beyer. Auckland: Random House New Zealand, 163 pp 1999.
  
• Peter Wells & Annie Goldson (dir) Georgie Girl. With Georgina Beyer. NZ 2001.
  
• Matt & Andrej Koymasky. "Georgina Beyer". The Living Room, March 12^th 2004. Online.
  
• Ryan Brown-Haysom. “Beyer Beware”. Critic Magazine. 2005 www.critic.co.nz/showfeature.php?id=3329.
  
• Matt Akersten. "She'll be right - Georgina Beyer keeps it Kiwi". GayNZ, 23^rd November 2008. Online.
  
• Jack Barlow. "Former MP Georgina Beyer unemployed". Stuff, 17/12/2011. Online.
  
• Joseph Romanos."Georgina Beyer : From drag queen to Member of Parliament". New Zealand's Top 100 History-Makers. Wellington: Trio Books, 2012.
  
• “Georgina Beyer: First transsexual in the world to be elected deputy”. Trans.Ilga. Online.
  
• Danya Levy. "Boys' school with two 'old girls' ". Stuff, 22/03/2012. Online.
•   “New Zealand: World’s first trans MP suffering kidney failure”.  Pink News, May 05 2013.  Online. 
• David Herkt.  “Georgina Beyer: From boy to woman to warrior”.  NZ Herald, 12 Oct, 2018.  Online.
• Bess Manson. “Georgina Beyer is back and ready for some fighting talk”. Stuff, Oct 13 2018.  Online.
• “Trailblazing MP Georgina Beyer dies aged 65”. 1News, 6 Mar 2023.  Online.
•  “World’s first openly transgender MP, Georgina Beyer, dies in New Zealand aged 65”,  Australian Associated Press, 6 Mar 2023.  Online.

EN.WIKIPEDIA    IMDB   GLBTQ    TRANS.ILGA

Jackie Starr (1912 – 1986) performer

Jack Starr grew up on a farm in the US Midwest. His parents encouraged his desire to be an actor, and he studied voice, acting and classical ballet. His elder sister was dressing him in female clothing from age five.

By the age of 14 he was doing drag in mob-controlled speakeasies in Chicago: both solo and in the line of chorines. He played the drag circuit in the 1930s, and did a tour of South America, and of Europe. Jackie met a Prince who wanted to take her home.

“I was tempted but I’m glad I didn’t because he was killed in a coup and I’d have been killed too.”

In Washington DC Jackie went out with senators. Later she moved to Greenwich Village, and tried acting and singing. She also did ballet, both as male and as female. She was one of only a few men in the US who could dance en pointe. She was a fill-in for the noted stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, and she also danced as a Rockette at the Radio City Music Hall (and was also married briefly to another Rockette).

In the late 1930s, Starr was one of the first artists to join the Jewel Box Review. Starr was one of only a few Jewel Box Revue artists to be dating a woman. He married a second woman, and they had a child.

Starr was in the merchant marine during WWII.

Jackie on the cover 

When the Garden of Allah in Seattle opened in late 1946, Starr was quickly signed up as the headliner. By this time Starr was in her mid-30s, and was regarded as past her peak, although she gave class to the show. She stayed for the full ten years of the club’s existence. She could make a striptease last twenty minutes, finishing in a g-string. Walter Winchel, the syndicated columnist called Jackie "the most beautiful man in America".

Bill Scott and his wife, known as Sister Faye, were street preachers, although most donations to their mission went to Faye’s heroin habit. Bill was devastated when she left town without him (she later died in a car accident, while high). Bill was both bisexual and homophobic, and also worked as a trucker.

He was in recoil from a sex-only affair with a gay man, when he found himself in the Garden of Allah and Jackie was on stage. They married. They had a formal wedding and reception, in the home of a friend who played the part of a minister. Performer Skippy LaRue was the maid of honor and a lesbian the best man. They partied till 9am, and afterwards the couple had a big fight.

However the marriage persisted. Jackie, as the woman, ran their daily affairs and the apartment, however sexually she was the top.

Jackie & Bill's wedding

Later Scott also married a woman who was supposed to inherit, with the idea of spending the money on Jackie. The inheritance never happened, and the second wife died. Scott moved back in with Jackie, and they ran a restaurant together.

Towards the end Scott had to have both legs amputated, and Jackie took care of him till he died in the late 1960s.

Jackie lived the last ten years of her life in a mobile home near the Seattle-Tacoma airport. She was as meticulous as ever in her appearance, and when she and her friends went to the Golden Crown drag bar in Seattle, the younger generation of drag performers would crowd around.

She died age 74.

• Don Paulson & and Roger Simpson. An Evening at the Garden of Allah: A Gay Cabaret in Seattle. Columbia University Press, 1996: 151-163.
• Mara Dauphin. “ ‘A Bit of Woman in Every Man’: Creating Queer Community in Female Impersonation”. Valley Humanities Review, Spring 2012. PDF.

_________________

Jackie Starr was a pre-eminent female impersonator 1930s-1950s, and yet there is - until now - no web page for her.  Queer Musical Heritage has a page but it only reproduces a few show bills; Lawrence Senelick's The Changing Room says not a word about her; likewise F Michael Moore's Drag! Male and Female Impersonators on Stage, Screen and Television.  

Bobbie MacKenzie (1948 – 1987) sex worker, activist

Bobby was born in a small fishing village in Scotland. At the age of nine he was put in a children’s home when his mother came down with Huntington’s Chorea, a genetic condition for which there is no cure. She died of the condition. Bobby left the home at 15, and found out that his elder brother had contracted the disease. Later he died also.

By 1970 Bobbi was in London, living mainly as female, a declared lesbian, and after discovering the newly established Gay Liberation Front, promptly joined, and attended the Women’s Group meetings. She made a living turning tricks on Park Lane.

At a women’s commune, Bobbi met the artist and film maker Mair Davies. Bobbi made a pass at Mair, but explained that she was transsexual and that they would have to wait until after her operation. Several of the women in the group made it clear that Bobbi was not welcome. Later Mair attended a gay event where Bobbi did a striptease and, because she was so feminine, the crowd gasped when she revealed her genitals. Mair went on a date with Bobbi, and they were kicked out of the pub after kissing.

Another friend was Bob Mellors, one of the founders of London GLF and who was also associated with Charlotte Bach who was writing a book arguing that the transsexual urge is the key to human evolution. Influenced by both women, Mellors became fascinated by transsexuality and wrote a couple of theoretical books on the subject.

At some point Bobbi went through a crisis and had her breasts removed. Bobbi started confusing Mair by wearing male clothing, usually leather trousers and a t-shirt, which she described as ‘drag’, also saying that she was ‘heterosexual’ – and as such fancied Mair. Mair even took Bobbi to her home in Wales where they met her husband. They last saw each other in 1976.

Bobbi regained her breasts, but this time by implants.

Bob Mellors starting visiting with Mair, but never mentioned that he also was a friend of Bobbi.

Bobbi was diagnosed with Huntington’s Chorea in 1978. She chose to end her life 1987 at the age of 38 by jumping from a high window. Her body was cremated by Social Services at Kensel Green Cemetary, and only her probation officer attended. Mair did not find out about her death until years later.  An open verdict was returned. As nobody claimed the ashes within twelve months they were scattered among the other graves as per standard practice.

• Lisa Power. No Bath But Plenty of Bubbles: An Oral History of the Gay Liberation Front 1970-3. Cassell, 1995: 244.
• Mair Davis. My Recollections of Bobby MacKenzie, 2006. http://maironline.com/bobby/index.htm. No Longer Available as such, but archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20080426221334/http://maironline.com/bobby/index.htm.
• Stuart Feather. Blowing the Lid: Gay Liberation, Sexual Revolution and Radical Queens. Zero Books, 2015: 319-21, 323, 332, 356, 368, 370.

Selena Robbins (193? - ) actress

Selena Robbins, now almost forgotten, had already completed transition when she became involved in the New York cinema-theater underground of the late 1960s.

Sexploitation auteur Andy Milligan cast her in his 1968 film, The Filthy Five. The plot features a boxer caught between two women, and Robbins’ stripper who has a three-some with two men. Robbins was featured prominently on the film’s poster.

McDonough p162

• Jimmy McDonough. The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan. A Cappella, 2001: 162-3, 166, 342.
  
• Andy Milligan (dir). The Filthy Five. With Fredric Forrest as Johnny Longo, Jackie Colton as Rose White and Selena Robbins as stripper. US 96 mins 1968. IMDB

IMDB

Vicky West (1935 - 2005) artist.

Dirk Luykx was born in New Jersey, the youngest of four boys, and wanted to be a girl since childhood. He went to Cornell University to do Civil Engineering. In 1955 he interrupted his studies to serve in the US Army. He was in Japan and Korea for three years, and then five years in the Army Reserves. He returned to Cornell and completed his engineering degree in 1961.

Dirk moved to California and worked in engineering design, city planning, and public works. He was also the art director of The Los Angeles Youth Theater. During this time Dirk as Vicky discovered and participated in Virginia Prince's Hose and Heel Club.

Preferring art to engineering, Dirk returned to New York, and studied Fine Arts and Graphic Design at Cooper Union. In 1967, while still a student, Dirk was hired by publisher Henry N. Abrams, Inc. where he continued to work until retirement. In addition to the books listed below, Dirk later worked on behalf of the publisher on Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings, The Art of Walt Disney, Windows at Tiffany’s, The History of Modern Art, Impressionism.

At this time Vicky was living with a woman, but also investigated the homophile  Mattachine Society. Here he met Lee Brewster who had been organizing drag balls as fund raisers, and also Chris Moore, the Jewel Box Revue performer. When Lee grew tired of the Mattachine Society's disinterest in drag issues, and founded the Queens Liberation Front, Vicky was a founding member.

Lee initiated a newsletter which evolved into Drag magazine with Vicky doing the covers and illustrating stories in the magazine. The first issue credited Dirk for the cover, but from the second issue, Vicky was listed as Art Director. Initially the cover illustrations were Vicky's versions of herself in different situations, but then she started doing other people. “I was hoping for another Vogue – images of transvestites enjoying themselves, trying on clothes. All the expression was positive.”

Drag Magazine also evolved into Lee's Mardi Gras store. Vicky was often to be found there, but always as Dirk. After a while, Lee became bored with editing the magazine and Bebe Scarpinato took over.

At Mardi Gras 1978 in New Orleans, Vicky was with a Lee's Mardi Gras contingent when she met cis photographer Mariette Pathy Allen who was impressed by her posture: “who focused straight back at me. As I peered through the camera lens, I had the feeling that I was looking at neither a man nor a woman but at the essence of a human being”. As it turned out they lived 20 blocks apart in New York. Together they went to parties at Lew Brewster's Mardi Gras Boutique, to various clubs that put on drag shows, and to Fantasia Fair in Provincetown.

In the early 1980s, Vicky was an extra in a film, maybe New York Nights, 1984, in a scene in a drag bar with International Chrysis.

Vicky was featured in Mariette's 1989 book, which was brave of her in that Dirk was still working at Henry N. Abrams. Like Bebe Scarpinato, Vicky sometimes did a striptease on stage. Vicky's female lover became uptight about the parties, imagining all sorts of sex, and after ten years they separated.

Later, in the AIDS-ridden 1980s, Vicky lived with gay lovers. “With the AIDS epidemic, guys are doing drag as something else to do.” “I'm not political, but I very much admire those who are, and I believe that transvestites should be proud and should be honored for what they've accomplished.”

When he retired from Henry N. Abrams, Inc in 2000, Dirk Luykx was the Executive Art Director. Dirk died at age 70 of cardiovascular disease, and was interred at the US Military's Arlington National Cemetery.

The Winter 2006/7 issue of Transgender Tapestry was largely dedicated to Vicky with several reminiscences and reproductions of her art: “to remain completely faithful to her work, we decided to print this tribute issue of Tapestry in black and white. We didn’t want the rich subtlety of Vicky’s charcoal sketches to be drowned out in a cacophony of color.”

• Marc Edmund Jones, with charts and diagrams by Dirk Luykx. How to Learn Astrology. Sabian, 1970. Webpage.
  
• Drag, 1,1, 1971. editor: Lee G Brewster, Cover: Dirk. Online. 
• Drag, 1,2, 1971. editor: Lee G Brewster, Art Director: Vicky West. Online. 
• Darlene Geis, Margaret Donovan & Dirk Luykx. Walt Disney's Treasury of Children's Classics. Henry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1978.
  
• Lory Frank, Darlene Geis & Dirk Luykx. Walt Disney's EPCOT Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow. Harry N Abrams, 1982.
  
• Anne Edwards, with design by Dirk Luykx and photographs by Louise Kerz. The Demilles: An American Family. Harry N Abrams, 1988.
  
• Mariette Pathy Allen. Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them. New York: Dutton, 1989: no pagination – Introduction and penultimate profile.
  
• Cena Williams. “Vicky West – An Icon is No More”. Transgender Tapestry, 110, Fall 2006: 25. Online
  
• Mariette Pathy Allen. Vicky West: Full Circle” Transgender Tapestry, 111, Winter 2006/7: 25-9. Online.
  
• Veronica Vera interviews Bebe Scarpe about the late Vicky West. “Forever Mardi Gras”. Transgender Tapestry, 111, Winter 2006/7: 32-43. ibid
  
• Mariette Pathy Allen. “Momentum: A Photo Essay of the Transgender Community in the United States Over 30 Years, 1978–2007”. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 4,4, December 2007: 92. Online at: http://www.deanspade.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pathyallen.pdf.

Le Carrousel and Madame Arthur: Part III: 1962 and after

Part I: before 1945. 75, rue des Martyres et 40, rue Pierre Fontaine
Bibliography
Part II: 1945 – 1961 40, rue du Colisée  et Juan-les-Pins
Part III: 1962 and after, 22, rue Vavin, and Korte Leidsedwarsstraat nr. 45

Part III: 1962 and after, 22, rue Vavin (map) and Korte Leidsedwarsstraat nr. 45 (map)

Le Carrousel reopened less than a year later at 22, rue Vavin, which is a prestigious address between Montparnasse and the Jardin de Luxembourg, but it was a smaller place and with an orchestra of only four musicians.

Police regulations were less enforced, and artists were allowed to mingle with the customers. There was no longer space for organized acts such as had been done before. There were now several numbers interrupted by dancing, but no finale. The costumes were less impressive, and striptease acts were introduced, and eventually became the majority of the program. This approach was successful, but 15 years later it was becoming tired.

Madame Arthur, Amsterdam by Jon Lister

In 1961 Monsieur Marcel had opened a Madame Arthur at Korte Leidsedwarsstraat nr. 45 in Amsterdam.  Rita del Ora and Capucine were among the performers who went from Paris to Amsterdam, but local talent such as Colette Berends were also recruited.

Ouizman also opened a lesbian/FTM cabaret, Elle et Lui, next door on rue Vavin, where even the waiters dressed as men, and women stripped for a female audience. They had a common backstage with Le Carrousel.  Le Carrousel artists appeared at Elle et Lui , but rarely the opposite, except that star male impersonator Micky Mercer played both clubs. 

The general practice was that a performer started at Madame Arthur where Madame Germaine made the selection, and only the best performers moved on to the Le Carrousel. An exception was Manon (Jacquie Sarduy) who worked at Madame Arthur from 1959, but had a bad reputation at Le Carrousel, and did not work there until meeting Monsieur Marcel personally in 1969.  Exceptions were also made for foreign performers who arrived with a reputation.

The exchange of artists between Madame Arthur and Le Carrousel, and the proximity of Elle et Lui, enabled a community that shared advice and support, and exchanged addresses of doctors and electrolysists. Hormones were available in pharmacies without a prescription at that time. Although of course there were also jealousies and rivalries among the performers.

They also shared information with some customers: Renée Richards visited Le Carrousel in the mid 1960s and requested to speak with Bambi:

"She was touched, but she played her role without apology and with a clear sense of style. When I explained that I wanted to have the operation, she didn't bat an eyelash in spite of my unpromising appearance. On the contrary, she was supportive. After looking me up and down she commented that my body seemed plastic enough to accept the change and provide me with an acceptable vehicle in which to live out my life as a woman. This was encouraging since she had been through the experience and her word stood for something. At least I felt that I was talking to someone who knew some­thing. She provided me with the names of people who could provide the hormones for the long process of chemical prepara­tion necessary before surgery could be possible. She stressed the necessity of electrolysis ... . Finally, she confirmed that the necessary surgery was being done regularly at a facility in Casa­blanca. Our conversation lasted for about twenty minutes and was packed with information. I was left with the feeling that it was all within reach, that it could be done if I wanted it badly enough." (Second Serve: 148)

Le Carrousel also toured five continents, bringing an inconceivable example to countries where transgender surgery was not at all available.

Coccinelle, Bambi and Capucine were in various French and Italian movies in the 1960s, most noticably Alessandro Blasetti's Europa di notte, 1959, which includes a segment of Coccinelle performing at Le Carrousel.

Europa di notte led to Le Carrousel being invited to do a Japanese tour in 1963, and again in 1964 and 1965. The discussions in the Japanese media where the performers were referred to as "buru boi" (blue boys) led to a break with traditional Japanese female impersonation, kabuki and gei boi, and Japanese Buru boi started taking hormones and considering surgery. The atmosphere is captured in Taiwanese author Wu Jiwen's "Rose is the past tense of rise" where Seikei, working as a gei boi in an Osaka bar, sees the Carrousel show and then visits a member of the troupe in her hotel room where she is given Dr Burou's card, and commits to gender transformation.

Unfortunately in 1966 Sonne Teal and four other members of the Le Carrousel Japanese tour died in a freak accident flying over Mount Fujiyama.

In the 1970s international stars such as Rogéria (who had met Coccinelle when she was on tour in Rio de Janeiro) and Yeda Brown were contracted to appear at Le Carrousel.

Le Carrousel closed in 1985 when Marcel Ouizman retired.

Madame Arthur closed as such in 1994, but re-opened under different management. It shared the address with Le Divan du Monde, which features world music. A recent listing for Madame Arthur from ParisInfo was “Spectacle de transformistes (Mylène Farmer, Betty Boop...) dîner-spectacle à 20h30 = 85€, 125€ et 195€ (boissons comprises) spectacle seul : 36€ (avec une consommation)”. It has recently closed, and the entrance is covered with fly-posting and grafitti.

The original Carrousel de Paris at 40, rue Pierre Fontaine is still in business, although may be closing soon.

40, rue du Colisée is now a jeweller's.

22, rue Vavin is now a real estate agency.

Korte Leidsedwarsstraat nr. 45, Amsterdam is now the Heineken Music Hall.

Bambi writes: On ne peut nommer tout le monde. Je n’y parviens même pas dans mon livre «Carrousel, ou J’inventais ma Vie 3». A partial list of the performers is:

Coccinelle (Jacqueline Dufresnoy), April Ashley, Bambi (Marie-Pierre Pruvot), Peki d'Oslo (Amanda Lear), Guilda, Sonne Teal, Holly White, Rogéria, Les Lee, Zaza, Bettina, Rita del Oro, Capucine, Fetiche, Dolly, Caprice, Karina, Miriame, Wanda Paris, Hulla, Fifi Pervenche, Violetta, Rubis, Kiki Moustic, Zarah, Pussy Katt, Dominot, Yeda Brown, Colette Berends, Poppy Cooper, Tommy Osborne, Tobi Marsh, Manon (Jacquie Sarduy), Chery Parker, Gina Ginn, Ricky Renée, Barbara Buick, Chantal Chambord, Wanda, Claude Carol, Lucrèce, Lola Chanel, Zambella, Tanya, Rita del Ora, Micky Mercer, Nanny (Aaïcha Bergamin), Wanda Paris, Fifi Pervenche.
___________________________________________________________

Major films featuring Le Carrousel/Madame Arthur performers:

• Vittorio Sala (dir). Costa Azzurra. With Alberto Sordi as Alberto, and Bambi in one of the four tales. Italy/France 84 mins 1959.
• Federico Fellini (dir) La Dolce Vita. With Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg and Dominot.  Italy/France 174 mins 1960.
• Alessandro Blasetti (dir) Europa di notte, 1959, which includes a segment of Coccinelle performing at Le Carrousel.  Italy/France 102 mins 1962. 
• Vittorio Sala (dir).  I don giovanni della Costa Azzurra.  With Curd Jurgens, Coccinelle and  Capucine.  Italy 98 mins 1962.  
• Norman Panama (dir).  The Road to Hong Kong.   With Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Joan Collins and an uncredited cameo by April Ashley.    UK 91 mins 1962
• Mino Loy (dir). 90 notti in giro per il mondo. Scr: Guido Castaldo & Nico Rienzi, narrated by Nico Rienzi, documenting Bambi’s show, amongst others. Italy 88 mins 1963. 
• Antonio Margheriti (dir)  Il pelo nel mondo.   With Coccinelle.  Italy 1964.   
• Enrique carreras (dir)  Los viciosos. With Coccinelle. Argentina  1964. 
• Day of a stripper.   With Bambi.  US 1964.
• Jacques Baratier (dir).  La Poupée. With Sonne Teal as Marion Moren / La Poupée.  Italy/France 95 mins 1962.   
• Pedro Olea (dir)    Días de viejo color.  With Coccinelle.  Spain 1968.
• Adolfo Arrieta (dir).  Les intrigues de Sylvia Couski.  With Hélène Hazéra, Jacquie Sarduy.  France 90 mins 1975.
• Adolfo Arrieta (dir).  Tam Tam. with Jacquie Sarduy.  France 85 mins 1976.
• José Jara (dir).  El Transexual. With Eva Robin's, Yeda Brown.  Inspired by the story of Lorena Capelli who died of peritonitis after an illegal sex change (the only kind in Spain at that time). Spain 1977. 
• Michiel van Erp (dir).  I Am a Woman Now.  With April Ashley, Marie-Pierre Pruvot, Colette Berends, Jean Lessenich, Corinne van Tongerloo. Netherlands 80 mins 2011. 
• Clara Vuillermoz (dir).  Le sexe de mon identité.   With Bambi, Maxime Foerster.  France  52 mins 2012.
• Sébastien Lifshitz (dir).  Bambi.  With Bambi.  France 58 mins 2013.   

The incidents recounted by Kirk (England) and McLelland (Japan) are not found in either Foerster or Bambi.

Accounts of the 1966 air crash usually mention Sonne Teale, but I could not find the names of the others.

The teenage me got to Paris in 1964 on a school trip. However at that time, I had never heard of Le Carrousel or Madame Arthur, and for some reason the teachers did not suggest it. Perhaps just as well in that I don't think that I could have afforded a visit.

Bebe Scarpinato (1951 - 2019) activist, teacher, performer

In the early 1970s, Bebe Scarpi(nato) had graduated from Queens College, New York (which she denied choosing for its name) where she'd founded a Gay Community organization.

She became active in the Gay Activist Alliance, where she met Sylvia Rivera. Sylvia felt that GAA was not radical enough, but never actually left the organization. It was Bebe who ensured that Sylvia's dues were paid up.

Scarpi was also in the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, was director of the Queens Liberation Front (QLF), was on the originating board of the National Gay Task Force and was active in planning the fourth Christopher Street Liberation Day (which later became the New York Pride March).

However there were problems with many gay activists:

"You don't have to embrace stereotypes in order to be gay so it was looked at as an anachronistic method of trying to be gay and in the truly liberated society there would be no cross gender identity. You could be a feminine man, but you wouldn't opt to dress and act like a woman." (Cohen p108).

In November 1971, the androgynously-dressed Bebe was called to testify before the New York City Council's General Welfare committee. The Gay Activist reported:

" 'Bebe' Scarpi, a transvestite in male attire, gave testimony on the minority group, he pointed out that transvestites used the men's room because they 'd been warned they would be subject to arrest if they entered the ladies room. And even transvestites had to heed the call of nature. Bebe, a student at Queens College, gave what amounted to a short course on the lifestyle and problems of transvestites with such charm, ready wit and intelligence, that even the Councilmen appeared beguiled. … Chairman Sharison seemed unable to comprehend that some transvestites were heterosexual. He wanted to know whether Bebe believed transvestites would be protected by Intro 475. 'Only as a homosexual, not as a transvestite', Bebe explained, and perhaps the councilman would care to enact legislation protecting the transvestite." (Quoted in Cohen p 150)

At a third hearing in December, policemen were posted outside the ladies rooms to prevent 'transvestites' from using them. Bebe, definitely not androgynous that day, asked the policeman what he was doing, and then went in and did her business. On the way out she commented to the policeman that he had not checked her. The New York Mattachine Times complained that transvestites were jeopardizing the bill with their restroom behavior.

In 1973 the committee was still blocked in its attempt to pass a bill to ban discrimination against homosexuals in employment, housing and public accommodation. To get it passed, an amendment was proposed that nothing in the definition of sexual orientation “shall be construed to bear upon the standards of attire or dress code". Bebe, as QLF director, was put in the uncomfortable position of submitting to this wording or seeing the bill fail.

For the Christopher Street Liberation Day in June 1973, Bebe went to the 82 Club and got the showgirls, in full regalia to march behind an 82 Club banner.

In 1974 Bebe attended a feminist conference where Jill Johnston, mother of two and author of Lesbian Nation, had proposed that mothers neglect to care for male babies. Bebe, from the question line, accused Johnston of being a neo-fascist and dictating to women as well as to men. At this point Bebe was recognized from earlier encounters.

Scarpie was the Editor of Drag Magazine, and an associate for 20 years of Lee Brewster's.

In addition she started a career as a high school teacher. When she was not teaching she worked as a stripper.

"Stripping is such a liberating experience; I would strongly recommend everyone to try it".

It was commented that she looked like a middle-class lady. Bebe is the first known trans woman to become a school principal.

"I've never identified myself as transgender. I prefer drag queen. I've always been a 'she' and always will be." (quoted by Lee)

• Don Doodwin et al. "A Time and a Place: Opinion". New York Mattachine Times, December 1971: 1.
  
• Phil Katz. "Intro 475: Round 2". Gay Activist, 1,8, 1972: 4, 18.
  
• Bebe Scarpi. "A Tiffany of Weekends". TV-TS Tapestry, 40 1983.
  
• Martin B Duberman. Stonewall. Dutton, 1993. Plume, 1994: 235, 251, 296n11, 298n29, 308n44.
  
• Jim Clifford, Martin Duberman, Luvenia Pinson, Bebe Scarpi, Martha Shelley & Allen Young. "Reminiscenses of pre-Stonewall Greenwich Village". In Martin Duberman (ed). A Queer World. NYU Press, 1997: 331-340.
  
• Bebe Scarpinato & Rusty Moore. "Mourning the Loss of Sylvia Rivera, NYC-based Activist". IFGE, via Gain, February 21, 2002. www.ifge.org/news/2002/feb/SylviaRivera.html.
  
• Hyein Lee. "Culture shock makes us cringe, then change". http://media.www.nyunews.com/media/storage/paper869/news/2007/11/12/Features/Culture.Shock.Makes.Us.Cringe.Then.Change-3094112.shtml Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/transgender-news/tkau8KZ9HYo.
  
• Cristan Williams. "1974: TERFs and Trans Folk". Ehipassiko, 2012/08/31. www.cristanwilliams.com/b/2012/08/31/1974-radfems-and-trans-folk.
  
• Stephen L. Cohen. The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail. Routledge, 2007: 56, 95-6, 108, 109, 115-8, 125, 128, 135, 142, 149-150, 152, 154, 155-6, 160, 180, 196.
  
• Lillian Faderman. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle. Simon & Shuster, 2015: 262-3.
  

Dahlia McGowan (195?–) performer

There were two members of the Cockettes, the early 1970s San Francisco psychedelic drag troupe, who completed the journey to womanhood. We have already discussed Bobbi Cameron.

The other was Dahlia McGowan who looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor. She won a scholarship to study acting at the American Conservatory Theater. Bambi Lake describes her as funny and sweet.

After surgery she worked as a stripper in the sailor bars in San Diego.

In the 1980s Dahlia married, but her husband died in a bike accident.

Later she returned to Hawai'i to live with her mother.

• Bambi Lake with Alvin Orloff. The Unsinkable Bambi Lake: A Fairy Tale Containing the Dish on Cockettes, Punks, and Angels. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 1996: 48-9.
  

Jennifer Fox (193?–?) performer

Jennifer Fox, a Las Vegas stripper and showgirl, was preparing for genital surgery in 1968. She was advertised as “The Myra Breckinridge of Burlesque” and “Isn’t He or Isn’t She?"

Surgery over, Fox opened at the Gay 90s Club in North Las Vegas on October 5, 1970. The advertisements were sensational and exploited Jennifer’s surgery—which was a marketing ploy Fox herself approved: "I didn't let the public know about it at first. I continued to build my name as a stripper. ... We decided to advertise [my surgery] as a special attraction. And it worked. It's been good for business."


Two years later, Jennifer opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in Circus Circus in Ann Corio’s Best of Burlesque.

• Dennis McBride. "Las Vegas Transgender". OutHistory, 2010. http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/las-vegas/articles/trans.
  

Burlesk    Burlesk     DivaHollywood

*Not the 2020s film director.

Sandra Day (1939 – 2010) bookseller, performer.

After a childhood in Ebeltoft, Jutland, and training as a bookseller in Copenhagen, Sandra Day transitioned in 1969, and has since performed in Copenhagen nightclubs as a stripper and whip queen, and also as a singer and actress.

Sandra was cast as a transvestite in the 1978 film, Lille Spejl, and was featured in the 2004 television documentary Danmarks Marquis: Marcel de Sade.

In the last year of her life she recorded an album: Sing – don't cry.

• Thomas Aagaard.Skovmand. Sandra Day: fra bondeknøs til piskedronning. [København]: Verdens Mindste Forlag, 2007.
  
• Ole Jakobsen Huld. "71-årig transseksuel udgiver debutalbum". Kultur, 18.Aug.2010. www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/2010/08/18/152332.htm.
  
• "Sandra Day er død". Panbladet, 15.december 2010. http://panbladet.dk/2010/12/15/sandra-day-er-d%C3%B8d.
  

DA.WIKIPEDIA    IMDB

Logan Carter (1954 – 1988) model, performer.

Robert Logan Carter was raised in Florida by his great-grandmother and then his grand-mother after his mother committed suicide when he was 3 months old. At 11 he discovered Marilyn Monroe. He neglected his school work:

"I wasn't meant to study arithmetic, and I wasn't meant to study history. I was meant to be a blonde!".

He ran away at 13 and became a kept boy, boy hooker and transy hooker in Hollywood. In 1971, booked on prostitution charges, he fled back to Tampa. He débuted in Florida’s nightclubs as Roxanne Russell, working with Paul Wegman. He won the 1974 Miss Florida title.

Off-stage he was masculine. As did British impersonator David Dale, Logan made Charles Aznavor’s ‘What Makes a Man a Man?’ his theme song, in which he stripped as female, and ended up as male. Filmmaker Derek Calderwood recorded the act as a 6-minute film, which later became a tool for classroom debates on what is gender.

Logan shot to fame as a drag performer, and also as a male model. In Manhattan, photographers would stop him on sight asking him to pose. In male clothes he posed for a punk-rock store. Italy’s Harper’s Bazaar and Mode International ran an avant-garde spread of Logan as both male and female.

His lover was Jack Nichols (1938 - 2005) gay activist and author of Men’s Liberation, 1975.

Logan performed regularly at La Cage, in Hollywood. He was on the cover of The Advocate.

He had a small trans parts in Second Serve, 1968, Down On Us, 1984, and Love Streams, 1984. He played a wife on Repo Man, 1984, and a hooker in Hollywood Vice Squad, 1986. In 1985 he, and several other impersonators, did part of their stage act in the film Dream Boys Review.
 
Logan died of Aids at 33.

• Derek Calderwood (dir). Gender. With Logan Carter. US 6 mins 1978.
  
• Howard Schwartz & John Moriaty (dir). Dream Boys Revue. Hosted by Lyle Waggoner & Ruth Buzzi, with Logan Carter and other female impersonators. US 74 mins 1985.
  
• Jack Nichols. “Logan Carter Remembered: Starting as Florida Teen, He Danced Across International Stages”. Badpuppy Gay Today. 19 May 1997. http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/people/051997pe.htm.
  
• James T. Sears. Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South. Rutgers University Press 421 pp 2001: 41-7, 73-5, 84-5,128-130, 154-6, 160-2, 287, 309.
  
• J. Louis Campbell. Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: "Have You Heard My Message?". New York: Harrington Park Press, 2007: 156-170, 176, 189, 191, 237
  

IMDB.

Kim Christy (1950 - ) performer, editor, adult film producer

Kim was raised in the Bronx, New York. By age 14 he was going out in semi-drag. He took up with the young Billy Schumacher (later to become International Chrysis). They were photographed fooling around outside the Astor in Manhattan when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were staying there, and the picture appeared in a Life Magazine article on teenage delinquents.

The photograph in Life Magazine: Kim with back to camera, Chrysis at front

Kim and Chrysis each left home and shared a tiny apartment in the area that later became New York's SoHo. They met sex magazine pioneer and editor of Exotique magazine, Lenny Burtman who arranged photo-shoots and other favors. Kim had a boyfriend who worked with her to soften her Bronx accent. She got to know New York female impersonators such as Tammy Novak, and performed at Club 82 as a stripper and as a showgirl. Her song was the theme music from A Man and a Woman. She toured North America as a female impersonator.


Kim and Chrysis had uncredited roles in the chorus line in the 1967 contest that became the film, The Queen. In 1968 a photograph of Kim and Chrysis appeared in Female Mimics. By 1969 Kim was being kept by an oil tycoon.

Kim with her mother

She also starting doing photography for Eros Publishing Company, which published Eros, Mode Avantgarde, Hooker and Exposé. When Female Mimics was relaunched in 1973, the first issue featured Kim winning a Los Angeles beauty contest. In 1979 Kim became editor of Female Mimics,which was owned by Jennifer Jordan, one of Lenny Burtman's ex-wives, and the name was changed to International Female Mimics. The transsexual content was increased and eventually explicit photographs were introduced. Kim also became editor of Exotique, a revival of Burtman's pioneering fetish magazine from the 1950s.

Also in 1979 Kim was in Los Angeles doing a photo-shoot when he discovered Sulka in the audience. The next year he put her in the film Dream Lovers, and then after her surgery, in The Transformation of Sulka, 1981, and Sulka's Wedding, 1983. He became a major producer of she-male and fetish porn – spanning 8mm, VHS and DVD. He also made straight porn.

In FMI, 11,1, 1980

++Kim had reverted to male as Ken Olsen.  He met and married a woman. Their marriage has lasted: they now have grandchildren.

In 1998 Kim/Ken won an award as Best Fetish Producer. The same year he edited the original run of Exotique in book form. In 2001 he edited The Christy Report, a historical survey of sex and fetish images. He was inducted into Adult Video News (AVN) Hall Of Fame in 2004, the first transgender person to be so.

“I am married to my wife. I am with her. Something I learned from all my years working with clients all over the world: Men and women can both be very fluid in their sexuality. Plus things like certain sexual scenarios can engage a person deeply for a time. Sometimes it’s same-sex activity. Some people stay attracted to one gender or another all their lives. I was with men — when I lived as a woman — who never would have called themselves gay, but they were not unhappy about my extra parts at all. Like I said, back then we did not name things so much. I never thought of any of the things I did as who I was. They were things I liked. Things I did.”

*Not the horse exhibitor.  Not Ken Olsen the sound engineer.

• James Mills.  "The Detective:  a good cop fights for law but the deck is stacked against him". Life, 3 Dec 1965: 90d-132.  http://bit.ly/1cJ6A0B.
• "These are the twins - Kim and Bobbie".  Final section in George Alpert. The Queens. New York: Da Capo Press, 1975. 
• "Kim Christy".   Guys in Drag, 1,4,1977: 3-4.
• "Meet your Editor: 'Kim Christy's' Personal Photo Album".  Female Mimics International, 11,1, Winter 1980: 6-11.  Online.   
• Kim Christy (ed). Letters to Kim Christy. North Hollywood, Calif: Leoram Productions, 1986.
  
• Kim Christy (ed). The complete reprint of Exotique: the first 36 issues, 1951-1957. Köln: Taschen, 1998.
  
• Kim Christy & John Quinn. The Christy Report. Taschen, 2001. Review.
  
• Christopher Harrity. "Kim Christy's Lost World". The Advocate, February 12 2011.http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/photography/2011/02/12/kim-christys-lost-world.
  
• Ms Bob. "Female Mimics Magazine — Part 1, The Early Years". TG Forum, Jan 16, 2012. www.tgforum.com/wordpress/index.php/female-mimics-magazine-part-1-the-early-years.
  
• Jim Beaux. "Leonard Burtman, 1921 – 1994", "Jennifer Jordan 1938 - ????", "Kim Christy" The Transsexual Erotica Archive of Magazines and Films, May 2013. http://www.hungdevils.com/index.php?/topic/18134-the-transsexual-erotica-archive-of-magazines-and-films-we-need-your-help/page-2.
  
• www.kimchristy.com.
  

IMDB   IAFD
________________________________________________________

The Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) entry on Kim is a bit dubious.   See Jim Beaux’ comments.  The image supposedly of Kim is actually of Carnal Candy in a 1984 film.  It lists Kim’s years active as performer: 1984-2001 – except that Kim never performed in any adult films.

Ms Bob wrote a 3-part history of Female Mimics for TG Forum.  Bob lists Kim as appearing in the magazine, but says nothing at all about Kim becoming the editor.

I couldn’t find any photographs of Kim after the early 1970s. 

In the Advocate  article, Kim says that her aunt and then her mother recognized her in the Life Magazine photograph.  As she has her back turned, how could they be sure?

Gayle Sherman (1940 - 2019) performer.

Original September 2010; revised September 2013.  My original version was based simply on a reading of Gayle's autobiography.   Since then more information has emerged, particularly in the Chicago Whispers book and on Queer Music Heritage.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Gary Paradis, from Ohio, was raised by an aunt after both parents died in a car crash. At age 16, Gary went to live with relatives in New York, and based on appearance alone was able to get a job, using the name Gayle Sherman, in the chorus line at the Jewel Box Revue.

Later she worked at the 82 Club and then at a small club in Toledo featuring 4 strippers and 2 female impersonators, but the club did not say which was which. A customer fell in love with Gayle, and then killed himself in a car accident when he finally realized that that she was one of the female impersonators.

Gayle moved to Chicago and became a star at the Nite Life, Chicago's longest-running drag bar (early 1940s – 1981). She was mentored by Tony Midnite. Nightlife magazine ran with a cover photograph of Gayle in July 1963 advertising the show at the Nite Life with Vicki Marlane. She was said to be a twin for Sophia Loren.

In 1963 the National Insider ran a 4-part series on her life that was reprinted as a Novel paperback the next year. 

Gayle replaced Tony at the Blue Dahlia, a straight club. She was able to charge $100 just to

accompany business men on dates and no more. On her own time she dated women. She was working off the books and therefore could not have a bank account. She always paid cash, even when on one occasion she bought $2,400 of furniture.

After surgery Gayle was not allowed to work any more as a female impersonator, and so changed her name to Brandy Alexander and became a stripper. With implants her breast measurement was 48" (122 cm) and she performed as Alexandra 'The Great 48'.  She often worked between films in porn cinemas, but when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley pulled their licenses, she got a gig in Hawai'i, and was featured in Confidential Magazine three years later.

She retired from performing at age 48.

She became a cosmetologist.

Gayle died in 2019 at age 79.

*Not Gayle Sherman the 1990s stuntwoman, nor the harpist, nor the wife of Pastor Paul Sherman.

Not the Brandy Alexander of New York, also a drag performer, and mentioned on p157-8 of Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On.

• Gayle Sherman. "I Want to be a Woman". National Insider, 3,17, Oct 27, 1963. Reprinted in I Want to be a Woman!: The True Autobiography of Female Impersonator Gayle Sherman. Chicago: Novel Books 1964. 
•  Joanne Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States.  Harvard University Press. 363 pp 2002: 184, 199, 323, 325.
• Sukie de la Croix. " Talking to Viki St. John about the 1960s Part 6". Windy City Media, 2001-01-10. www.windycitymediagroup.com/m/APParticle.php?AID=24378&i=22&s=News.
• Sukie de la Croix. "Whispers". Windy City Times, 2001-04-04 and 2001-04-25. www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=32850.    www.windycitytimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=24912.
• St. Sukie De la Croix. Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012: 240-2.

 BURLESK    QUEER MUSIC HERITAGE
__________________________________________________________

Gayle’s autobiography is only 36 pages long.  She was not even 20 when she wrote it.  The book also contains a similarly short account by a British trans man, and an essay ‘As the Experts See It’, by the then ubiquitous hack writer Carlson Wade, which will strike modern readers as particularly badly informed.  The next year, 1965, Novel Books put out a similar collection, I Was Male: two autobiographical accounts by trans women, one in regret, and an ‘expert’ essay by Carlson Wade and George Griffith.

I obtained I Want to be a Woman through interlibrary loan.  The copy is stamped IFGE on the title page and the side, although it is now owned by a university library.

Joanne Meyerowitz (How Sex Changed:184) mentions Gayle merely to quote her as an example of transsexual separation: ‘I wasn’t then and I’m not now a transvestite. I don’t get sexual pleasure out of dressing as a woman.’   This has been repeated (e.g. Robert Hill, ‘As a man I exist; as a woman I live’: 141).  Whatever Gayle’s opinions may have been later in life, it is a bit much for academics to build generalizations on casual comments by persons hardly out of teenage.

Not to question Gayle’s narrative, but the tale of a parviscient punter at a drag revue who falls in love with a drag performer and comes to a bad end is an old tale.  The classic telling is Honoré de Balzac’s Sarrasine, 1830.  This of course was over-analyzed to death by Roland Barth in S/Z, 1970.

$2,400 in the mid 1960s would be $17,000 today.   To pay that amount in cash today would probably initiate a criminal investigation.

Thank you  Morgan Stevens.

Poppy Cooper (192?–1988) bus conductor, performer

Cooper was working as a bus conductor in Preston, Lancashire in the late 1940s, where he was generally known as a pansy.

On a trip to Morecambe, he was able to catch Forces Showboat – The All-Male Revue at the Alhambra Theatre. "I thought that it was fabulous. The girls were so glamorous and the dresses looked gorgeous. In fact the costumes were a load of tat close to, but the lights were so wonderful in those days." He went backstage to see if there was a chance of a job.

"In those days I had quite a lot of blonde hair with a big quiff, and I reminded them of a queen who had just left because Loren shouted, 'Darling, we've got another Lucretia here – come and varder this one' ". 

Poppy was told to come back tomorrow with a wig and drag, and went down the market to make the needed purchases.

Men in Frocks p17

The going wage was £6 or £7 a week and half of that went on draughty digs where they sometimes had to share four-to-a-bed. However such shows were the only place at that time that a male-bodied person could dress female.

By the mid-1950s, the all-male revues had run their course and no longer attracted audiences.  Poppy popped over to Paris and was employed at Le Carrousel.

"There was more freedom there and you could go out onto the streets in drag if you wanted to, or go out with men to a restaurant after the show. …. French, Belgiums, Germans – they loved the travesti. The English seem different."

Poppy completed her transition to being a woman in the 1970s, and later did a striptease act using the name Tuxedo.

++When she retired from the stage, she set up home in south-west London with a lover who stayed with her till the end.   She passed away in her sleep.

• Kris Kirk & Ed Heath. Men in Frocks. London: GMP, 1984: 13, 15-7, 19-20, 24, 27,29-31.
• "Obituary - Poppy Cooper".  Glad Rag, 40, 1988.
  
• Paul Baker & Jo Stanley. Hello Sailor!: The Hidden History of Gay Life at Sea. London: Longman, 2003: 37,85.
  

Barbara Lemay (1932 - 1993) hootch dancer.

Sammy Hoover was born in West Virginia, and at 16 joined a carnival. He was too pretty to just sell hotdogs, and was put in the girlie show.

Hoover became Barbara Lemay, and performed as Glamazon. She became a star hootch dancer. Once a man died of a heart attack during her show. His mortician came to see the woman who could send a man to his death with a smile and an erection. She also worked as a stripper and in burlesque, and as a go-go dancer.

In her 60s she was still stripping at a gay club in Los Angeles, when Rico Martinez made a documentary about her life.

*Not the mezzo-soprano, nor the wrestler, nor the album by RuPaul.

• • Rico Martinez (dir). Glamazon: A Different Kind of Girl, with Barbara Lemay. US 83 mins 1993.
  • ChrisStraayer. Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-Orientations in Film and Video. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996: 259-60. 

Tony Sinclair (192?–2017) performer, costumier

Tony Morrison grew up in Cincinnati, where one of his friends was Robin Price, who also became a professional female impersonator. As a teenager Tony made a living as a female stripper. He joined the Jewel Box Revue as Tony Sinclair when it played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s, and toured with them for over a year. He then played at the Jewel Box Theater in Kansas City.

He arrived in Oklahoma in the late 1950s, where it is rumored that he lived and worked as a woman before becoming known as a female impersonator. Tony put on the Les Girls Revue at the Inferno club with female dancers. He quickly made a reputation for wardrobe design and sewing, and made specialized costumes for strippers and showgirls including Dallas legend Candy Barr. He also borrowed outfits from Payton-Marcus department store where he worked during the day.  In his own performances he was often taken as a woman until he took off his wig at the end of the act. He was also still working as a female stripper.

Tony’s male persona was one of the few out gay men in Oklahoma City in the 1960s. He never hid his sexual orientation nor his love of drag. He was active in the gay community, and was an early role model.

Les Girls Revue toured Oklahoma and Texas, and was considered locally as a rival to the Jewel Box Revue. Once they were doing a sold-out show in Fort Worth during a local election, and the Texas Rangers, the Texas Liquor Board etc raided and arrested the entire cast.

In 1969 as advertising for a new straight nightclub, Tony was photographed reclining on a chair under the theme “unusual floor shows”. The staff at the Daily Oklahoman didn’t get the joke and ran the advertisement in the women’s section.

In the 1970s Tony ran his own club. He was still performing in the 2000s.

*Not Toni Morrison the novelist. Not the footballer, nor the spokesman for Tanqueray gin.

• Pat Record. "City Drag Queen Struts His Stuff". The Oklahoman, Aug 19, 1984. www.newsok.com/article/2078461.
• David de Alba interviews Robin Price. www.david-de-alba.com/Price.htm.
• Ginger Lamar “About Tony Sinclair”. www.gingerlamar.com/speaks/b.html.
• Aaron Lee Bachhofer. The Emergence and Evolution of the Gay and Bisexual Male Subculture in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1998-2005. PhD University of Central Oklahoma, 2006: 136-143, 145, 147, 187, 191, 283.

Claudia Wonder (1954 – 2010) activist, performer, writer.

Marco Antonio Abram was raised in São Paulo. She knew as a teenager that she was trans, and as Claudia began performing in nightclubs and in experimental theatre and several pornochanchada films. She also appeared as a model in men's magazines. She was regularly arrested as the police frequently raided the gay clubs. In addition, she trained as a hairdresser and makeup artist.

In 1980 she was the lyricist and singer in the punk band, Jardins das Delícias. She became an AIDS activist, and to tackle prejudice against AIDS, she developed the show, O Vomito do Mito, which she regularly staged at the legendary club, Madame Satã, in which she stripped naked in a bath full of fake blood. She and many other artists protested against the then military dictatorship which ended in 1985.

In 1988 she moved to Switzerland and stayed for eleven years, working both in clubs and as a makeup artist.

On return to São Paulo she put out two major CDs: Melopéia and Sonetos do poeta Glauco Mattoso. She also recorded electronic music and FunkyDisco. She was honoured by leading the São Paulo gay pride parade, and at the Festival Mix Brasil de Cinema e Vídeo da Diversidade Sexual. She co-ordinated Flor do Asfalto, a study group of gender identity, and wrote for G Magazine.
 
In 2008 she published Olhares de Claudia Wonder – Crônicas e Outras Histórias. In 2009 the documentary of her life, Meu Amigo Claudia, was made by Dácio Pinheiro, and premiered at the Frameline Lesbian and Gay Festival in San Francisco.

Claudia died in 2010, of cryptococcosis, brought on by AIDS.

• Claudia Wonder. Olhares de Claudia Wonder – Crônicas e Outras Histórias. Edições GLS, 2008.
• Dácio Pinheiro (dir). Meu Amigo Claudia. With Claudia Wonder. Brazil 86 mins 2009.
• skruff. "Brasil’s Claudia Wonder Dies at 55". Jonty Skrufff's Blog. Nov 26, 2010. http://skrufff.com/2010/11/brasils-claudia-wonder-dies-at-55.
• scruff. "Claudia Wonder: Sao Paulo’s First Queen Of Club Culture (R.I.P.) (interview)". Jonty Skrufff's Blog, Dec 1, 2010. http://skrufff.com/2010/12/claudia-wonder-sao-paulos-first-queen-of-club-culture-r-i-p.

PT.Wikipedia      http://meublog.meuamigoclaudia.com.br.