In my opinion, Lavern Cummings was the most beautiful femulator of the 20th Century. And I was shocked to learn from Heather that Lavern died in Las Vegas after being hit by a car while trying to cross Charleston Boulevard in a crosswalk last week. The former Finocchio's star was 90 years old.
En femme, Lavern was absolutely gorgeous in a natural way as opposed to a drag queen way. Audiences were convinced that Lavern was female until he dropped his voice from soprano to baritone in the middle of a song.
There are countless images of Lavern on the Internet. Below are a few of my favorite.
God bless you, Paul Lavern Cummings.
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Wearing Arafeel dress, H&M bag and Embis shoes (Source: Cookbook.nu)
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| Beautiful Lavern Cummings |
Laverne elevated drag to an art form. No cheesy makeup or clothing just classic woman with a wonderful voice. It was hard to believe she was male when you saw her pics and performances
ReplyDeleteYou are right, she is very beautiful, what a perfect profile!
ReplyDeleteThe irony of this tragedy is that located one block east of the intersection of Charleston and Decatur is the Flex nightclub. One of the regular Saturday night shows at Flex is the "What a Drag" show by the Queens of Las Vegas. I had the pleasure of seeing them on one of their road shows last weekend in Pahrump, NV.
ReplyDeletePeace to you Lavern. You'll be fondly remembered by many.
Very sad news. She was beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIt does bring a question to mind. These days, is there a designation between Female Impersonation and Drag? (asking for a friend!)(giggle)
Hi Julie and Stana,
DeleteI think the difference between Drag and Female Impersonation has always had these meanings:
Drag - exaggerated, theatrical, and sometimes outrageous female presentation incorporating “overdone” clothing and makeup (especially eyebrows and eyelids);
Female Impersonation: very realistic female presentation incorporating realistic womenswear and makeup ... the goal is for the impersonator to look and act as much like a cisgender woman as possible ... this is probably what most of we femulators aspire to.
Love,
Sheila
Thanks Sheila. That's what I thought, but wasn't sure female impersonation was still a theatrical thing.
DeleteP. S. - If I wore that Arafeel dress, I'd be afraid of moving for fear that I'd flash my panties!
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'.
i actually wrote a song about ms cummings (called "he's in love with lavern") a year or two back , which i had hoped paul himself might hear as i knew he was still alive at the time. sadly though it has still yet to be recorded/performed live (which if and when that happens, i am hoping will be accompanied by some kind of slide show or dylan-style throwing-away pics of lavern as part of my own drag/female impersonator show), so when it finally gets done it will sadly have to serve as a posthumous tribute to what was one of the greatest female impersonators ever, and certainly an inspiration to me
ReplyDeletebtw: as far as i'm concerned today's drag queens are just garish and uncouth freaks, with none of the feminine style that lavern and her peers had!