At some point last year (I wrote it down as 25/11/11 but I can't seem to find it) BBC Radio4's Woman's Hour mentioned a Victorian stage performance I had never heard of before - Drag Kings! It's fairly self explanatory what this involves (women performing dressed as men if you are really struggling) and I have heard of women in Japan dressing up as young businessmen and going to clubs but I had never considered uptight Victorian's society's reaction to ladies cross-dressing!
To get you in the mood, have a listen of this - not directly related but I am loving The Correspondants at the moment so there!
May I present to you... Vesta Tilley (aka Matilda Alice Powles)!
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| What a dapper chap! |
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| Yes, I am just linking the pics from her Wiki page but check out the Beetle Jewellery! |
Ella Shields is another male impersonator who wrote this parody of one of Vesta Tilley's most popular songs:
A third male impersonator of the time that I would like to hear more about Miss Hettie King who was actually on BBC's Desert Island Discs programme on 14th April 1969 but it is not available to listen at the moment which is sad...
A third male impersonator of the time that I would like to hear more about Miss Hettie King who was actually on BBC's Desert Island Discs programme on 14th April 1969 but it is not available to listen at the moment which is sad...
Slightly off topic and going a bit further back in time... tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the death of Elizabeth Siddal, the flame-haired Pre-Raphaelite beauty.
This looks like it might be a pretty cool blog in general but this is a nice detailed post about Miss Siddal...
That's all for now!
xxx
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