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Casa Susanna

28 Posts
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Posts: 85
Lady
Topic starter
(@insideout)
Trusted Member     Ontario, Canada
Joined: 4 years ago

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

 

 

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27 Replies
Posts: 191
Guest
(@Anonymous 75369)
Estimable Member
Joined: 3 years ago

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.

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Posts: 1619
Duchess
(@alison-anderson)
Noble Member     Middlesex county, New Jersey, United States of America
Joined: 6 years ago

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.

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Posts: 191
Guest
(@Anonymous 75369)
Estimable Member
Joined: 3 years ago

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.

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Posts: 305
Duchess
(@2bmadeline)
Reputable Member     Walla Walla, Washington, United States of America
Joined: 2 years ago
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Posts: 1914
Baroness
(@ryanpaul)
Famed Member     Outer Eastern Suburbs Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Joined: 7 years ago

Bother!! bother!! bother!!

cant download it here in Oz.

Caty.

 

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Posts: 305
Duchess
(@2bmadeline)
Reputable Member     Walla Walla, Washington, United States of America
Joined: 2 years ago

30 day free trial for a VPN, with instructions on how to watch PBS in OZ:

https://www.streamingrant.com/au/channels/pbs/

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Posts: 748
Lady
(@michaela2001)
Noble Member     Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States of America
Joined: 8 years ago

You might try YouTube, I found it just now.

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Posts: 748
Lady
(@michaela2001)
Noble Member     Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States of America
Joined: 8 years ago

It's on YouTube.

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Posts: 898
Lady
(@robyn99)
Noble Member     Texas, United States of America
Joined: 6 years ago

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

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Posts: 191
Guest
(@Anonymous 75369)
Estimable Member
Joined: 3 years ago

Thank you for sharing this. I was finally able to watch it,

Heartbreaking, yet beautiful and inspiring.

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Posts: 928
Lady
(@wandaovahear)
Prominent Member     Washington, United States of America
Joined: 2 years ago

Also available from the PBS/WGBH American Experience site

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Posts: 20
Lady
(@katiemoonie)
Eminent Member     Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States of America
Joined: 2 years ago

Thank you for sharing this. I've seen the previews on Youtube, but will now get to watch the whole thing!

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Posts: 2951
Hostess
(@ab123)
Famed Member     Surrey, United Kingdom
Joined: 4 years ago

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.

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Posts: 208
Lady
(@target)
Estimable Member     MPLS, Minnesota, United States of America
Joined: 3 years ago

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.

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