With all the time I have spent scouring old yearbooks looking for incidences of “civilian” femulation, I have been thinking about other ephemeral items from the past relating to crossdressing and feminization. Specifically, I thought it might be an interesting feature in your blog to have readers submit memories of long-lost items they may have seen or heard in their younger years, whether print, photo, media or whatever, that made an impression long before our modern age of Internet saturation.
I have three examples from my youth that will provide an idea of the kinds of items I’m talking about. All three made quite an impression on me in my adolescence/teen years, and I would love to be able to see them again!
- An episode of the game show To Tell the Truth circa early 70’s, featured a young man as a guest contestant who, as a joke, had been dressed up by some female friends and entered in a local beauty contest. To their amused surprise, he actually won! The guy and the two “imposters” trying to fool the TTTT panel were all nicely femulated for their appearance on the show. (Note: The Game Show Network has shown some old TTTT episodes, but I do not get GSN,and have no idea whether this episode has ever been rebroadcast. If it does show up, somebody needs to put it on YouTube!)
- A filmed humorous “human interest” item used as filler on a circa mid-70’s newscast (whether network or local, I do not recall) concerning a beauty school hairstyling competition in which they recruited several long-haired males to act as models. There were brief clips of them getting rolled, dried and teased, as well as the quite elaborate finished feminine ‘dos. It appeared like both the stylists and their somewhat embarrassed subjects had a lot of fun!
- This last item appeared in a Sunday newspaper magazine supplement (similar to Parade) in the mid-70’s or thereabouts. Similar to the first item, but this involved a photo contest rather than an in-person pageant. In Britain, a local newspaper sponsored a mail-in beauty contest. Some fun-loving young birds took a male mate, did his hair and makeup like a woman (no clothing involved, as these were headshots only) and submitted his photo under the fake name of “Eileen Hussy.” I recall that his hair was not terribly long, but was sufficient to create a nice feminine teased “bubble” style. While he did not win, he was among the finalists, and the article featured a reprinted excerpt showing “Eileen’s” pic among all the female competitors.
So there you have some of my distant memories of “femulating ephemera.” I’d love to hear those of other readers!
Looks fine, but I am amused by your characterizing me as a "young" lady! Reminded me of an incident from about 10 years ago, when I was still actively femulating in public. At the library, I was in a narrow aisle when I heard the voice of someone needing to get by say "Excuse me, young lady." This then mid-40's crossdresser was thinking "Wow! Passing is one thing, but YOUNG lady - what a compliment!"
ReplyDeleteThen I looked up to see the source of the voice. It was a little old man who appeared to be about 90 years old. My mother would have been a "young lady" to him! (LOL)
I've been looking for an article in either Life or Look magazine from the middle '60's that had pics and the stories of two m-f transexuals. It caused me to screem at my mother, "I want to be a girl!" I was 14.
ReplyDeleteOne memorable piece was in Playboy. I believe it was Christopher Morley and a female model. They started out dressed as an English couple headed to a tea. She ad a devilish look on her and soon bean to disrobe as did he. She ten pace her hat on him , they laugh and te next panels show tem ex changing all articles of clothing and she us lipstick on him. The last panel shows her in his suit with a bowler hat. He has on re heels, is adjusting thigh highs, a chiffon print dress dates his newly femme form and he's made up, his long blonde hair peeking out from under a garden style hat. A vivid memory from 40 years ago!
ReplyDeleteI had a copy of that Playboy hidden in my bedroom for a very very long time.
DeleteDear Stana and Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI remember reading a feature article in either LOOK or LIFE magazine (around 1953 or so) about Christine Jorgensen's return to USA after her SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery). As I recall, the featured photo was of her walking away from the commercial airliner she deplaned from. She was wearing a dressy winter coat over a very beautiful cocktail dress with the skirt flaring widely over multiple full petticoats. In 1953, I was 8, and that was approximately the age my crossdressing urges started. I was absolutely THRILLED reading that article and seeing the included photos, including one of Christine in male mode as a soldier.
I would love to find and procure a copy of that issue, but in previous internet searches, I have never found any references to that article. If any of you Stana-elles know where I can buy the Christine Jorgensen LIFE or LOOK magazine issue (circa 1953), please email me at:
rinfp@yahoo.com
Thank You, girls,
Love,
Sheila.
Sheila, You might check http://www.christinejorgensen.org/ There is a list of publications she appeared in and also a lot of other information.
DeleteJanet
Dear Janet,
DeleteThank You for your info.
Love,
Sheila.
For those looking for material from LIFE, Google Books has a large archive:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books/about/LIFE.html?id=N0EEAAAAMBAJ
Dear Starla,
DeleteThank You for the link.
Love,
Sheila.
I remember a story from Playboy called "the Kleinfelter Syndrome" or something like that. It was about a virus that was causing men to transform into women.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a National Lampoon story about a guy who decided to go out as a woman to write a story about his experiences. He did it a la "Black Like Me" and had some work done, including *huge* breasts. The story was called "Stacked Like Me."
I used to watch Truth or Consequences, merely because they'd occasionally do things like separate two couples, dress up the husbands, put them in the audience and give each wife a photo of the other's (now in drag) husband and see which could find the audience member the quickest. They'd think that was the event, but the real event was watching the wives identify who the other woman returned with.
And I also watched The Newlywed Game merely because they'd ask questions like "what's the sexiest article of your wife's clothing you've ever worn?"
On The Newlywed Game, a couple of times they specifically asked husbands "Have you ever tried on one of your wife's bras?"
DeleteFor me, It was always the tabloid Weekly World News. They had some great femulatation articles, such as this one about a lucky guy who received a sex change by mistake: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZO0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=sex+change+by+mistake&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pftIUfyzKMTtygGEv4DACA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=sex%20change%20by%20mistake&f=false
ReplyDeleteOr this possibly true one about a man who enters a Miss Lovely Legs competition and almost wins: http://books.google.com/books?id=D_EDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT34&dq=man+beauty+contest+south+africa&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DfxIUbTSN4GF2gXw34CYCQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA
There was also a great article about a man whose wife secretly feeds him estrogen, but unfortunately there were no pictures.
After a search of Life magazines, the search continues else where. It wasn't in Life. .......sigh .....This is very important for me to find as it made clear that I could become a girl. I knew nothing of Christine and thought I was the only person in the world that was 'like me'. ...If any help is attemped, you can email me at Stephanie@ezsurfin.com
ReplyDeleteThere were several TV shows which had men dressed as women.. remember Milton Berle & Flip Wilson (aka Geraldine).. but there were other times when I saw drag on TV. Ed Sullivan had female impersonator T. C. Jones on the show singing "just like a lady".. the college theatrical troups (Harvard's Hasty Puddings, Princeton Triangles, Penn's Mask & Wig) were on shows where they performed and all the parts were males or males dressed as women including the dancing kickline. TV shows like "I've Got A Secret" had males cops who were dressed as women for decoy work and their wives. There was 1 show called "Masquerade Party" where the guests were dressed in elaborate costumes and the panel had to guess who they were underneath. I remember the black NY Yankee catcher, Elston Howard, dressed as a woman eating something and the trigger clue was he/she was "behind the plate" (catcher .. behind the plate).. I also remember when Jack Benny guested on the "Burns and Allen" show and Jack was dressed as Gracie Allen in a skit. Looked pretty good too. Huggs, Jan
ReplyDeleteWay back when I was a little kid, 5 or 6 years old, I saw a comedic ice skating performance by a guy in drag on the Mickey Mouse Club! I remember being amazed and wanting to have an outfit like his. I didn't realize that it was a guy (Olympic skater Willie Kall) in drag until he removed his wig at one point. You can see a video of it currently on Youtube, search for Mickey Mouse Club: "Ronnie Robertson and Willie Kall" . Watching the video now, I'm amazed that I was fooled into thinking that he was actually a female.
ReplyDeleteAnd when I was a bit older, maybe 12 or so (1963-ish), I'd gone to have dinner with my parents and younger brother at a nearby restaurant and on the way out as we were walking past a booth with 2 couples eating dinner, I realized that the girls were both males dressed very nicely as women. My parents rushed us past them and never said a word about it. I was about to explode and wanted to ask about them, but knew from experience that I would have been in trouble for bringing it up, as in the past, my dad had made it very clear to me that discussing anything like that would have unpleasant results for me.