Watching Crossdreesers And Drag Performers On TV As A Child

I was born mid 70s in the uk and vividly remember the times i saw crossdressing on the telly,

The two ronnies would dress up as women a lot and had one act called "the worm has turned" where the women had taken over the world and swopped places with the men meaning they changed men's names to women's roles complete roll reversal men were now houswifes and dressed as such. The whole thing was made to be like an underground task force to regain there manhood from the women, this i always thought no way stay as you are id love it .

I have said in another post  watching  “are you being served” were Mr Humphries “the very much gay character” is asked to see to a customer, he replies i’m far to busy right now and gets a reply of the gentleman in question would like to try on a dress,  Mr Humphries then shouts I’M FREE and bolts for the changing rooms Ill never forget the feeling i got watching this

All so the lumberjack song who can forget that and many more.

Although these were very exiting and left a good feeling it all so in many ways had the bad effect of what was happening was a JOKE that its entertainment for others and you will be laughed at and be a joke if you do this.

All so the act of dressing up in the past much more then today tho i feel theirs still a way to go on this, is linked solidly with being gay and back then it was most welcomed and very much sought after as entertainment on tv as Tung in cheek innuendo humour from comics and game hosts, but not for public real life. The act of being gay was against the law in the uk till 1976 and that was only part the whole of the uk and Ireland didn't drop the law till 1982. even the actual game hosts, comic actors and comedians of the time were afraid of being themselves in there of screen life and you would never see them with what would be considered a partner in public.

I'm glade to say the difference today and back then is huge in many ways and today it is a lot  more normalized MOSTLY on the transgender side, I do see it more being all or nothing at the moment but getting there as everything ells in life.

Not just on TV, but real life also.  I can recall first seeing CDs on the city street in real life and being fascinated.  Knowing immediately that it was something I wanted to do myself.

I can't recall who was the first CD I saw in entertainment.  However, the Crying Game movie in the 1990s left a strong impression.  Dill the CD lived openly, dated men, and was very sexy.  That left a strong imprint - I wanted her lifestyle for myself.

I remember watching Three's Company, and one episode Jack was all dressed up like an old lady to compete in a cookie baking contest; the other episode was Larry dressed up like an old lady pretending to be Furley's ex wife.

I used to watch Three's Company with my parents, as they enjoyed watching the silliness of Jack.  When those episodes came on, I felt awkward inside as deep down I know that I loved wearing women's clothing, but outwardly I just laughed and giggled with the show.

That was the extent of watching crossdressing as a kid.

I saw a photo of Danny la Rue in an Australian magazine in the 60's and it blew my mind. He was not in one of his gorgeous elaborate show gowns, merely a one piece swimsuit and he looked stunning. I kept that photo under the back seat of my 1955 Morris Minor for ages, as I did not want anyone to know that I had it in my possession.

Back then we also had Carlotta and the Sydney Drag Shows such as Les Girls and I was fascinated by them too!! My foggy brain is telling me that once my job involved interstate business trips, I think I went to see the show. By then it would have been the mid70's.

Off topic a bit, but what really got me going was the old upper class  all boys private school tradition  of the 50's and 60's where the annual school production had boys playing female roles.

I've been jealous of any male  who got to play Lady Penelope or Lady Bracken in the "Importance of Being Earnest" ever since!! .

I'm also fairly sure that right around the world these days, there are "eminent males" in their professions, with old photo albums at home showing them in their feminine finery!!

Happy  (theatrical) dressing

Caty

Thank you for sharing your lovely memories with us. It’s fun to hear about others having the same secrets and thoughts!

The first time I saw a boy wear a dress in a tv sitcom when I was pre-school age.... 4 or 5. circa 1950 (oldey times) was the catalyst for my trying on my first feminine garment. Was hooked ever since. At first I didn't realize the impact it had on me, but I dreamt about being in that dress that night and as soon as I woke up, I headed for my mother s lingerie drawer (hmmm how did I happen to know where THAT was???) She and my grandmother caught me... had a good laugh at my expense and confirmed with me that I was engaging in something I shouldn't. That experience made me reluctant to share my feminine side with anyone and I became a real sneaky kid..... lol.  That was one of the few dreams I've ever had that I remember so vividly.

I remember that Milton Berele used to dress up like a woman on his show occasionally.... but he was more of  a caricature of a woman and I wasn't that fond of watching him in drag.

@Clare Woods - yes, I remember the Two Ronnies and their frequent cross dressing - and especially The Worm That Turned.

I  would have been 15, and had recently made the full realisation that I really wanted to cross dress and also that there was no-one I could possibly share this information with.

I also recall Danny LaRue, Dick Emery, Dame Edna Everage, Hinge & Brackett, some of Kenny Everett's characters - and, more recently, the children's entertainer, Justin Fletcher, who lives locally to me (I've practically sat next to him in our local Costa!). He has a range of female characters, quite ordinary ones, like a weather girl - and we all know how fab some of them look, right?

My favourite movie is a kids movie, from a book by the prolific author, David Walliams. It's called "The Boy in a Dress", and it's a beautiful, sensitive tale of cross dressing.

Love Laura

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Hi Laura.I was the same as you when I was 15 I cluldn't share my interest in crossressing to anyone.I remember reading an article abojt a crossdressers beuty competition and was bllwn away by all these glamerous 'girls' some of them just a yesr younger than me.I must check out Julian Fletcher.Know what you mean about weather girls they afe quintissential female role models these days.I have seen The Boy In The Dress it's an excellent tv film.

Away from the media and moving to real life I recall being on holiday in Devon in the UK in 1970 with my parents.The caravan site clubhouse put on different entertainment every evening.One night there was a competition where the men dressed as women and the women dressed as men.I suspect tha most of the particpants were husbands and wives or partner.One that stood out was a young lad,he could only have been in his late teens if not youngerI think he had somebody with him dressed as a boy.Not sure if it was bis girlfriend,friend or sister..The lad looked fantastic as a girl..Needless to say I was curious and very envious.I pretended to my mkther that I would never want to dress up as a girl.Couldn't been further from the truth.I was just ten.

Hi Roberta

Justin Fletcher is an entertainer for very young children - I still have one child at the right age (4 - 6), hence I have to sit through his programmes... I find him a little painful, but to each their own!

Love Laura

I have just recalled a late seventies BBC Play For Today called Even Soloman.It was about a young man abbout twenty who desired a sex change.I was nineteen at the time and watched it in front of my parents with a mixture of fascination and discomfort.I don't remember much in the way of media fuss about this play.Not like the recent ITV three part series called Butterfly,concerning a twelve year old identifying ax trans.

Nowadays of course we see young crossdressers on tv all the time.A year ago a fifteen year old lad called Lewis went on the daytime ITV show This Morning.He talked about the bruhaha surrounding his desire to perform in drag at his school.The school said it was ilegal but that turned out not to be the case.He was allowed to do it as long as it was resoectable.It was and it was a success.

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Just had a look at the clip.He is annoying.Thanks very much for posting Laura.

Another female impersonatior act that I watched in the UK as a teenager was Hinge And Bracket.For those not familiar Hinge And Bracket were two sixtyspinster ladies who sang light opera.I watched these two not because they were a drag act but purely for their comic value. I think their appeal went across the board and not confined to an LGBT audience.Very funny charecterisations and George Logan and Patrick Fyffe who played Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket were both very talented musically.However,they also had a backround in drag.Similarly,seeing The Two Ronnies,Benny Hill , Stanley Baxter and Dick Emery didn't fascinate me from a crossdressing point of view,I was a big fan of their comedy.Same with Monty Python,the screeching women characters the Python tea  called The Peppepots  were  hysterically funny grotesque characters

Oh my god - I love this thread, because I can relate completely. However, let me provide the U.S. perspective...

The various daytime talk shows in the 1980s would regularly feature crossdressers and drag performers. Starting with Donahue, but continuing with Geraldo, Jenny Jones, Sally Jesse Raphael, all of them had this as a topic. Sometimes it was regular, unknown crossdressers talking about their lives, and sometimes it was actual "performers." I would be fascinated by these, but also was terrified of getting to caught being too fascinated by them! I distinctly remember one time seeing Grae Phillips on Jenny Jones and my head just about exploded:

I also loved it whenever a sitcom had a character go in drag. Earliest one I can think of was Silver Spoons, where Ricky Schroeder had to dress up as Jason Bateman's date (and I don't even remember the reason):

Speaking of Jack Tripper, there was cop show called Hooper (I think) that John Ritter was in, where he dressed up as a CD hooker undercover. I still remember they were talking to a CD who had beaten up and was going to the hospital, and him saying "Please take all this stuff off of me. I have a family and they don't know..." 🙁

I could probably go on...memories!

Lexi