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I know this has come up before but worth doing again.When you were a child were you fascinated by seeing crossdressers or drag performers on tv? The first one I remember my side of the pond in the UK was the popular female impersonater Danny La Rue on tv in the mid sixties.He was so glamerous I had never seen anything like it.I used to watch him with a mix of envy and unease with my parents watching in the same room.His outfits were to die for.Has glamerous as he was an integral part of his act was letting the audience in on the fact that he was a man in drag.He would wink at them and say ‘Wotcha mate” in a masculine voice.Seeing young kids in drag was rare on UK in the sixties and seventies.I did see a young kid play an adult woman in an Australian adventure series of the sixties called The Magic Boomerang which msde me a little envious.What really msde me jealous was reading an issue of a D.C Jimmy Olsen comic and seeing a story where he as a reporter he went incognito as a chorus girl.He was rather convincing and it’s been imprinted on my memory some fifty years later.
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
oh girl, same for me! I recall often seeing them on those same shows when I was a young teen and just being enthralled. I wanted so badly to be just like them and also dared not get caught being fascinated by them! haha
I recall taping an episode once with CDs (I think it was Maury’s show) and then hiding the tape but watching it over and over and over again.
As a child, back in the 60’s and 70’s, I used to sit and watch the drag performers here in the U.K. These were odd times as drag artists were revered and openly accepted in society. Unfortunately crossdressers weren’t.
It was on our little black and white telly I sat ogle eyed loving the glamour of the gowns worn. Even the films of the time at the cinema had me wanting to wear the dresses worn by the ladies. My admiration did stir those feelings to dress that were already there. I always enjoyed watching the variety shows and sat in awe of the beautiful gowns and dresses the women wore. The fact that there were Drag artists that could look as glamorous made me realise that men can wear womens clothes. I knew then that I would prefer to dress as a girl than a boy.
I was lucky as a child as I had access to clothes to wear and, on occasions, I could dress openly in play. My mother liked the theatre and dressed me up as well. I am sure that if I were to have aspired to being a drag artist I would have full approval of my mother!
Although I loved the glamour and gowns I liked to wear every day clothes and be an ordinary girl. Sadly it wasn’t to be as it wasn’t a good time to admit you were a crossdresser. All I could do is dream.
Many years later that dream came true…
I remember Hinge and Bracket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5nlTZGCL_g
Not drag queens at all but rather elegant elderly ladies which appeals to an elderly girl like me. I think they must have been influential although at the time I didn’t’t realise it.
HRxI remember being shooed out of the living room when I was a little kid. It was the early 70’s and a night I’ll never forget. The whole family was watching the Ed Sullivan show. Jim Bailey came on and impersonated Judy Garland with “The Man That Got Away”. I was fixated for about a minute before my parents noticed and rushed me and my sister to bed. I’d already tried on a bra at that point. About a year later I started dressing every chance I got.
I think my first TV exposure to crossdressers was Flip Wilson’s Geraldine character. Then came Monty Python and Busom Buddies. But these all treated dressing as a woman as something to be laughed at. For a young person trying to figure out the why and how I was, I really didn’t think I was someone to be laughed at, even though it was accepted as okay to dress. Very confusing to say the least.
Then came the talk shows. Donahue, Geraldo, Maury and others started showing the human side of what I was experiencing, along with some of the drag stuff and even having the audience try to figure out which ones were men, like it was a game show.
Yes, I watched them all. Enlightened by some of it, PO’d by some of it too. But I survived, and slowly began to figure it out and began to accept that I wasn’t deranged or mentally ill. I met Vincent about that time in my life then too, and his influence on me was astounding, and I really began to accept who I was and who I was becoming.
When I was really little it made me super uncomfortable, probably because I was just figuring out that I wanted to do it! Around someone – I think one of my parents suggested me dressing as a girl for some reason – a school event or maybe Halloween and my grandmother told this story about a boy she knew doing that and getting arrested. At the time I didn’t realise how different the 40s were so that scared me a lot!
Later on though, after trying some things on I was addicted, but would not want to be in the same room as my family while that was on. I would change the channel any time a man was in drag, even when they started playing Flip Wilson re-runs. However, whenever I was home sick I would scour all the daytime talk shows for it like crazy. It all started with a Jerry Springer called “Men Who Work as Women,” and I have had that fantasy ever since. I watched everything I could as long as no one was around.
I remember when I was 12 though watching something on E! about a place in Vegas called Club Makeup which had a lot of crossdressing. This would have been 1999 and terms weren’t given the spotlight they are today so let’s just say there was a musician who was biologically male but seemed to present as a woman all the time. That really appealed to me so it was uncomfortable to watch that with my parents. A lot of the other aspects weren’t as much my thing, but I really envied that person and was attracted to the whole thing.
Now I still love it but I avoid it with my wife now that she knows. Haven’t even watched much Drag Race since then, but our interest in that always comes and goes.
I’m sort of getting on in years, so I distinctly remember Milton Berle (Uncle Miltie) in drag. He was followed by Flip Wilson as Geraldine, then Bosom Buddies. I would only watch these if someone else had the TV on, and then show as much nonchalance as possible, pretending to be almost bored. Far be it from me to let on that I was fascinated by it, trying to watch intently to see how they were handling it, how they were dressed, make-up, hair styles. A real trick to appear bored yet inwardly heart rate increasing.
The show I did watch a little more intently was ‘Kids In The Hall’ the Canadian originated ensemble comedy. All five guys would cross-dress at times, but Bruce McCulloch was by far my favorite. Scott was openly gay but when he or the others dressed, you could tell they were doing that Berle impression (basically greatly exaggerated mannerisms) , but not Bruce, he went way further and I loved it.
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