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I just watched the documentary called "Casa Susanna" tonight on PBS with my wife.
It was a wonderful documentary about cross-dressing clubs.
I had heard of this place in upstate New York back when I was a teenager in the early 70's.
I was already struggling with my natural desires and drives to dress so I was attracted to these shadowy stories, hoping they could be true.
I had read about it this place in one of those 25 cent tabloids that were printed in all black and white.
I remember the first time hearing about Casa Susanna in that pulp tabloid article back in 1974. The story presented the place as a weird fetish club and invitingly perverted.
The article was written to titillate as well as fascinate and yet simultaneously give the reader a sense of superiority over these poor hapless "men in dresses".
I mean, exactly who did they think read those cheap tabloids in the 60's and 70's anyway?
They knew exactly who they were writing for... it was for people like me, for people like us who were living in the shadows at risk of being shamed by society for being who they were.
There was history of cross dressing going back to the 1940's with real interviews of trans women who lived through this era and are now in their 80's.
I might say that I "urge" you to see this documentary.
I had tears through most of it, I felt my life long pains of being who I am and I felt the emotions of those people who went to Casa Susanna in the Catskills just to be who they were and be safe.
There was mention of the "cafeteria riots" in San Francisco in 1966 where "transvestites" were being harassed by police on a regular basis. They had enough and fought back, hence the riots part of the story.
I felt the emotional connection to everything being talked about and presented.
I felt like these are the people who went before us and to an extent blazed a trail of what is only beginning to be acceptance. This documentary made me so incredibly grateful for my wife who accepts me and embraces Kristine fully, I have a best friend who accepts Kristine as well.
I am grateful for them and I appreciate what I/we have today. I am grateful for those who went before us to get us to this place.
We are not "there" yet but there is hope.
I am still in an emotional state as I type this out, again... if you can find it please watch it.|
Its called "Casa Susanna" and it was a real place for real people.
See it if you can.
Hugs and love XX
Sounds very interesting. I did a brief search to see if I could stream it somewhere but turned up nothing. If anyone finds it please post.
Update…never mind. I found it.
I saw the Harvey Fierstein show Casa Valentina on Broadway 8 or 9 years ago which was based on Casa Susabnna. I did find a link to the show you are talking about and would like to find some time to watch it.
Remember that these people had to take their film to the local drug store to get developed and printed. There were no digital cameras, no home computers to extract them, no Photoshop to crop or play with lighting. Crossdressing was illegal at the time so they were taking a real chance. When you think about all this, you can see how important it was to them to risk everything just to have photos taken, and how lucky we are that some of those photos survived.
If anyone finds any sources for the program please let us know I can't find it.
As for the place itself, all I'll say is if it had been in easy reach for me I would have been a regular there, it looks absolutely fantastic.
Bother!! bother!! bother!!
cant download it here in Oz.
Caty.
30 day free trial for a VPN, with instructions on how to watch PBS in OZ:
You might try YouTube, I found it just now.
It's on YouTube.
So it aired on PBS last night but I didnt get to see it. I just checked and google says it is now available on Amazon Prime Video and Google Play Movies and TV.
I just watched it. Its is a remarkable story. I highly recommend it.
- Robyn
Thank you for sharing this. I was finally able to watch it,
Heartbreaking, yet beautiful and inspiring.
Thank you for sharing this. I've seen the previews on Youtube, but will now get to watch the whole thing!
I saw here in the U.K. some months ago, it was a lovely documentary, quite different to the reports of years ago. Shows how times have changed.
If I wasn’t such a wuss I would have asked my wife to watch it with me and started the process of having the talk. I look forward to watching.