ephemera with provenance

Yesterday, I received a new addition to my female impersonator ephemera collection: The Wonder Club matchbook you see on the right.

About a month ago, I received an e-mail out of the blue from Dennis, who wrote, "While doing a search on Google for 'The Wonder Club New Orleans,' your page came up. I noticed your interest in ephemera and since I was researching the Wonder Club because I have a matchbook from there I was going to offer on eBay I thought you might be interested in it and I wouldn't have to list it."

I was definitely interested and after exchanging e-mails, Dennis offered the matchbook cover gratis because it was not in the best condition. He also provided the following story about how he obtained it.

"I'm a collector of nautical/navy stuff and I won an old US Navy hat (the obsolete, brimless, Donald Duck type) on eBay a few years ago. I had put it away for a couple of years, but took it out recently to display it in my new apartment.

"As I was checking it and 'squaring it away,' I felt something in the headband. I figured out how to get it out without damaging the hat or the object. It was the matchbook! Some sailor had stashed this book of matches in his hat years ago and there it was until I found it last week.

"He (or someone) had written in pencil Lt.(?) Becht on the inside of the matchbook. You can see it in one of the pictures. This hat belonged to an enlisted man. There is no name written in the hat although there usually is."

"I know what I'm gonna say next might seem crazy or something, but here goes - I have no use for this item, but I hate to throw ANYTHING away. Due to its - not so great condition - and wanting someone who collects these types of items to have it, it's yours if you want it for free.

"This arrangement will satisfy my borderline craziness for refusing to throw anything away and at the same time, take it off my hands. Just tell me where to send it and I'll put it in the mail. All I ask is if you find out anything about the matchbook, Lt. Brecht or the club itself let me know."

What a great story!

Dennis, thank you so much for an interesting addition to my collection.

By the way, I estimate that the matchbook is from the 1940s or early 1950s. It features a photo of Mr. Billy Richard, "Gay Guy from Hollywood."

And, as usual, click on the image to magnify it.

lobby day

My next adventure out en femme will find me at our state capital lobbying state legislators to pass legislation to protect transgenders from discrimination.

Although discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression is pervasive, Connecticut has no explicit law protecting individuals from discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, education, housing, public accommodations, and credit. HB 6452, An Act Concerning Discrimination, would remedy this by adding the phrase “gender identity or expression” to Connecticut’s existing non-discrimination laws, prohibiting this discrimination, and making our state safe for all residents.

This bill gives Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) the authority to investigate complaints of discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression and order appropriate remedies if such discrimination is found. It applies the same rules, procedures, and remedies that apply to other types of prohibited discrimination.

Tuesday is Lobby Day. The day begins with a 10 AM meeting in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford where we will be prepped on how to lobby our state representatives. Thereafter, we will actually lobby our state senator and state representative (like the federal government, Connecticut has two legislative houses, but only one senator and one representative per district).

My state senator has been an opponent of bill in the past, but now that he has announced that he is running for Chris Dodd's seat in the US Senate, I wonder if his views have become more diverse, but I doubt it.

My state representative is a Democrat and will probably be more open-minded. When I e-mailed him about the bill in the past, he replied that he would give it a fair shake.

And so it goes.

out of the closet

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

the lost Lucy episode

Here is the script of a lost episode of I Love Lucy that never aired because Desi Arnaz thought it would ruin his manly Latin image. Reportedly, Lucille Ball had the only kinescope of that show and used it as blackmail whenever she thought Desi was philandering.

Click here to view the script.

To view the script, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can obtain for free from http://www.abode.com/.

bushy eyebrows making a comeback

(updated below)

Good news, femulators, thinly plucked eyebrows are giving way to a more natural fuller brow.

Read all about it here.

UPDATE: When I clean up my eyebrows, which I usually do before going out en femme, they look exactly like the brows sported by Keira Knightly in the photo above. I used to worry that my eyebrows weren't feminine enough... well, not anymore.

sweet sixteen

Sunday's The Roanoke (VA) Times had a blog about two local high school womanless beauty pageants and mentioned that the two schools "don't compete on the athletic fields -- different divisions, all that. But who's to say they can't compete right here in the field of cyberspace?"

(At the end of the blog, readers could vote for the best beauty pageant.)

Maybe The Roanoke Times blogger is onto something, i.e., high schools competing against each other in womanless beauty pageants.

I can see it now: tryouts to join the womanless team, junior and varsity womanless teams, a full schedule of womanless competitions between high schools with a tiered play-off system to find the state champions.

If the high school womanless team concept becomes popular, colleges and universities will also field womanless teams. Eventually, the NCAA will get involved to find a national champion and give a brand new meaning to the term "Sweet Sixteen."

another Saturday night photo

Here is another photo of me from my support group's banquet on Saturday night. In this photo (taken by my good friend Deja), I am performing in our annual follies. I think I am lipsynching Goldfinger here and not Money (That's What I Want) because when I did Money, I was much more animated.

Funny how the flash of the camera brings out my white bra. It was not visible in person, but shows up in the photos. Next time I wear that dress, I must remember to wear a black bra.

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

me last night

updated below

That's me last night at my support group's banquet. I will have a full report here for you later.

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

UPDATE: Last night, I attended my support group's annual banquet.

There were 49 people in attendance, all dressed in beautiful evening gowns and cocktail dresses. I wore the vintage ballerina dress with my curly auburn hair as you can see in the accompanying photo.

I was amazed how many people did not recognize me because of my auburn hair. Even my good friend Diana L did not recognize me until I spoke.

I sat at the head table with our after-dinner speaker, Ann Stanback, from Love Makes A Family, and her spouse, Charlotte Kinlock. Charlotte mentioned she was from Waterbury, which is also my home town. Turns out we attended the same grammar school, but were two years apart and lived two streets away from each other. We did not know each other as kids, but we both knew a lot of the same people in the old neighborhood. As they say, "Small world!"

The hotel was rocking Saturday night. In the past, our banquet was usually the only event at the hotel, but last night there were other groups having events, too, and the place was crawling with civilians.

Diana L mentioned to me that one of the civilians approached her and asked about our group. She was surprised that we were crossdressers because she could not tell that there were males among our "ladies." That was a nice complement for our group!

A lot of civilians checked us out throughout the evening, maybe because we were dressed to kill when compared to the civilians or maybe because they had never seen so many beautiful crossdressers before. In either case, the civilians were civilized and there were no unpleasant comments or looks. In fact, some of the civilians were downright friendly.

During the "follies" portion of the evening, I lipsynced two songs, one right after the other. First, I did Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey, then I did Money (That's All I Want) by Josie and the Pussycats. I thought my Goldfinger was just ok, but one woman complimented my Goldfinger performance, so I guess was better than I thought.

I really got into Money (That's All I Want). It is one of my favorite rock songs and this version really rocked. The audience seemed to enjoy my performance. I noticed lots of people taking photos during my performance, so I must have done something right.

The banquets provide an opportunity to see old friends and make some new ones. Last night was no different. It was a very nice evening out en femme and ended too soon.

(I am very tired from staying out later than usual last night/this morning, so I apologize if the above thoughts are random and incoherent, but I wanted to document them before I forgot them. Tomorrow, when I am better rested, I may add some thoughts to my banquet story if I have anything more to say.)

poker face

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

going vintage

Colleen e-mailed me yesterday to ask what I planned to wear to my support group's banquet tomorrow.

After going back and forth with Patty, my fashion consultant, this week, we decided that I should go vintage.

I have a dress that I bought almost 15 years ago that I have never worn out. The style of the dress invokes Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn in the early 1960s. Why I never wore it out is a story that I will keep to myself, but I am glad that I finally decided to wear it because it is a real knock-out.

When Patty saw it, she thought it won my dress competition hands-down when compared to the other dresses I was considering. Patty suggested my accessories; so I am all set for my big night out and all I have to do now is wait for it.

new ephemera

I added this newly-acquired Finocchio's mailing souvenir (circa 1960) to my female impersonator ephemera collection. You can view it and the rest of my collection on my ephemera Web page.

FYI, Finocchio's was a popular nightclub in San Francisco featuring female impersonators during the second half of the last century.

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

two tall additions

Jayne e-mailed me with two additions to our Famous Females of Height list:

Marti Caine, a UK actress and entertainer, whose height rounds up to 5' 8".

Melina Kanakaredes (right), a US actress, who appears on CSI:NY and is 5' 9" tall.

femulate elsewhere

A new list titled "Femulate Elsewhere" appears in the left sidebar of this blog. It is an attempt to list links to other blogs, forums, Web sites, etc., where this blog or this blogger has been mentioned recently.

I depend on Google Alerts for the mentions. Although Google Alerts is very good, it is not perfect and may miss something. So, if you are aware of a Femulate mention elsewhere that is not on the list, let me know about it so I can add it.

womanless pageant par excellence redux

Last week, I blogged about the Haleyville, Alabama high school 2007-2008 "Senior's Cutest" womanless pageant.

Today, I found a set of photos from another Haleyville "Senior's Cutest" womanless pageant.

This set of photos is not dated, but I assume it predates the 2007-2008 set because there are no links to this set on the Haleyville (Alabama) City Schools Web site. My guess is that when their Webmaster posted the 2007-2008 set of photos, he/she did not delete the older set of photos. His/her omission is our gain.

In my humble opinion, this newfound crop of "girls" is not as good as the 2007-2008 crop, but there are some cuties in this bunch and all the photos are worth viewing.

why can't a transwoman be played by a man?

I read here that actresses will play transwomen in an upcoming film titled K-11. Not long ago, I read that Nicole Kidman will play a transwoman in another upcoming film titled The Danish Girl.

This is a pet peeve of mine and I have complained about this before, so here I go again: Why does the movie industry prefer to cast women in the roles of transwomen?

Ideally, transwomen should play transwomen, but since there is a dearth of transwomen film actresses, the next best choice is to have male actors playing transwomen. Women playing transwomen should be the last choice.

Males playing transwomen are more realistic than females playing transwomen. Compare the average transwoman to the average female film actress and there is a noticeable discrepancy. On the other hand, compare the average transwoman to the average male film actor and the discrepancy is not so much.

Sure, Nicole Kidman is tall, but except for height, how many transwomen resemble Ms. Kidman?

(When I complained about this before, I got Felicity Huffman in Transamerica thrown back at me as an example of a successful portrayal of a transwoman by an actress. I agree that Ms. Huffman was excellent in that role and the audience was able to buy into her being a male-to-female transsexual, but I think that Ms. Huffman's success was an exception.)

In those instances where male actors play transwomen, the males have done a very credible job. I offer two films that in my humble opinion are probably the best examples of males playing transwomen:

Soldier's Girl, a true story in which actor Lee Pace's portrayal of transwoman Calpernia Addams was excellent.

Transfixed, a fictional account about transsexuals in Belgium doing what T-girls have to do in order to get by. Robinson Stévenin (above) leads a cast of males playing transwomen and they all do an excellent job. (This is a foreign film, but it is well worth watching with English sub-titles.)

And so it goes.

Lenore Aubert, statuesque femme fatale

When I was a kid, channel 5, WNEW, out of NYC always showed Abbott and Costello films midday on Sundays and I often watched them. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein was probably my favorite.

When the USPS delivered the Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein DVD from Blockbuster yesterday, I decided to watch it midday on Sunday (today). I have not seen the film in ages and it was a treat.

During the film, I noticed that Lenore Aubert, who played Dracula's co-conspirator, Dr. Sandra Mornay, was taller than some of the males in the film, so being a follower of tall women, I looked her up and it turns out that she was 5 feet 7-1/2 inches tall.

Rounding her height out to the nearest inch, she is 5 feet 8 in my book, so I added her to my Famous Females of Height list.

That is Ms. Aubert in the photo above early on in the film (click on the photo to magnify it). Don't you love her outfit?

cross-packing

As usual, click on the image to magnify it.

trans event of the year next Saturday

The local trans event of the year is next Saturday when my support group has its annual banquet and awards dinner. This is a glamorous event with 50 or so ladies in attendance all dressed to kill in evening gowns and cocktail dresses.

The evening includes dinner, speeches, awards, dancing, and entertainment.

I usually participate in the entertainment portion of the program lipsynching to some obscure tune from the distant past. Last year, I lipsynched to a relatively unknown Leslie Gore song called "Sometimes I Wish I Were A Boy," an unrequited love song sung by a boy dressed as a girl singing about a girl who wished that she could occasionally be a boy. Talk about gender-bending!

This year, my gender-bending will be limited to lipsynching to a song that is usually sung by male performers.

I usually wear cocktail dresses to the banquet and this year probably will be no different. I am 75% sure of what I am going to wear, but with a week to go, you never know what old treasure I might find in my closet.

And needless to say, a full report with photos will appear here. (The accompanying photo shows me dressed up for last year's banquet.)

By the way, if you are in the area, there is still time to make plans to attend the banquet. Go here for more information.

womanless pageant par excellence

I have received e-mails asking about the photos I used to illustrate my recent posts (specifically here and here) about womanless pageants.

Readers remarked about the quality of the femulation displayed in those photos. For example, Janet wrote, "If these are men they certainly don't look like amateurs. They seem very comfortable en femme. When I search Google, I come up with pictures and stories of men 'goofing around' in women's clothes, not like the ones you've shown. I'd sure like to know more about those gorgeous 'females.'"

The photos I used all came from the same source, which I found via Google searching with various combinations of the words "womanless," "woman-less," "pageant," and "beauty."

The source is the Haleyville (Alabama) City Schools Web site with one Web page documenting the womanless beauty pageant, the "Senior's Cuties Cutest," put on by the senior class of 2007-2008.

View the photos and I am sure they will impress you as they did I with the effort the students put into their femulations. This is not your average collection of guys in gowns; most of the guys are very passable, if not downright pretty.

The guys are dressed to kill in gorgeous properly-sized evening gowns, high heels, jewelry, top notch wigs, and beautiful makeup. There probably is some interesting foundation garments under there too in order to achieve the shape-shifting displayed by some of their girlish figures. And they look like they are really enjoying their time en femme! Do guys normally hug like that?

So, congratulations to the Haleyville Senior Class of 2007-2008 for their excellent femulation!

(By the way, this reminds me of an old Playboy magazine Dink Siegel cartoon in which two farmers hiding behind a boulder observe aliens disembarking from their flying saucer. The aliens are all raven-haired, long-legged, well-endowed, and absolutely gorgeous scantily-clad Amazons. One farmer remarks to the other, "This is nothing--wait till you see the women!")

Connecticut transgender activists work for equal rights protection

From today's Hartford Courant, "Transgender activists are making their fourth attempt this year to gain equal rights protection under the state's anti-discrimination laws. A public hearing starts today at 10 a.m. before the Judiciary Committee on a bill that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression."

Read the rest of the story here. My good friend Diana is quoted near the end of the article.