Following up on my last post on drag balls in US and UK history (“An 18th century drag ball in London” @ History is made at night), here’s another repost from the always excellent History is made at night – Mona’s San Francisco: 1940s lesbian club Source: San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project ‘She Even Chewed [...]
“An 18th century drag ball in London” @ History is made at night
One of the most popular posts on Pop Culture Transgressions is Queering Pop Music Studies, which discusses my research and writing on the history of transgendered entertainers in African American music. Drag balls were a significant feature of that history that existed since at least the 1880s. (see, “Gender Crossings: A Neglected History in African American Music”). [...]
Blues Singer Petite Swanson — Crossing the Gender Line in 1940s Chicago
One of my research interests is the largely forgotten history of transgendered performers in American popular music. I thank Ray Astbury for bringing Petite Swanson to my attention, a blues singer in Chicago who recorded four sides for the Sunbeam record company in 1947 (Billboard reported her signing by Sunbeam in March 1947). At the time, Swanson [...]
Sissy Bounce — an anomaly or just another transgendered musical tradition
Unexpectedly, when I was doing research on the history of a former blues nightclub district in North Richmond, California, I stumbled upon a facet of that history I had not anticipated: the participant of cross-gendered performers and club-goers. And, in mainstream venues. It flew in the face of all my presumptions of the role of [...]
Queering Pop Music Studies
I had a female impersonator for years named Jean LaRue. I didn’t tell you about that. She was out of Oakland. I don’t know if she is living or dead. She was with me for years. Name was Jean LaRue. (August 14, 1998 Interview of Clarence ‘Little Red’ Tenpenny). “Little Red” was one of my [...]
