According to Dr Jacob Bloomfield, an honorary research fellow at the University of Kent who teaches gender studies, it was \u201ccommon\u201d for women to play male roles throughout the 17th century in France and Italy. \u00a0This form of theatre was known as the c<\/em>ommedia dell\u2019arte<\/em>, an improvised version of comedy. In Britain, meanwhile, Dr Bloomfield explains that women actors started to become more common by the 1660s, \u201cdisplacing the boy players who had commonly played women\u2019s roles in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods\u201d.<\/p>\n In the early 1700s, Susanna Centlivre \u2013 an actress, poet and playwright \u2013 was famed in England for performing in male costumes. Elsewhere in Europe, there are records of women performing as male characters on stage, including the actresses Euphrosyne L\u00f6f and Inga Aberg who performed in breeches roles \u2013 that is, in male clothing \u2013 in Stockholm, Sweden, in the 1790s.<\/p>\n In the US, Annie Hindle is widely considered to be one of the first popular male impersonators. Born in England in the 1840s, Hindle moved to New York City with her mother in 1868, where she began performing as a male impersonator, both solo and in minstrel shows \u2013 the latter being a racist entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Her last recorded stage appearance was in Ohio in 1904, the year of her death.<\/p>\n According to Dr Bloomfield, Hindle was well-known for a particular performance style. \u201cShe helped to popularise a theatrical masculine type that was commonly performed by 19th-century male impersonators [known as] the \u2018lion comique\u2019: a blustery, well-dressed, wealthy man \u2013 or ambitious social climber \u2013 who was somewhat sleazy, but ultimately charming,\u201d he explains. \u201cHindle, with her well-observed, exaggerated portrayals of a parody-able masculine type, would not be out of place at a drag king revue today.\u201d<\/p>\n In Victorian England, both male and female impersonators became increasingly popular, particularly in music halls, where audiences were entertained with singing, comedy and variety\u00a0 performances. Among them was Matilda Alice Powles, better known by her stage name Vesta Tilley, born in 1864 in Worcester. The second of 13 children, Tilley began performing in boys\u2019 clothes as a young child, encouraged by her father. After gaining popularity as a male impersonator in regional theatres, she began performing in London from the mid-1870s. She was later managed by her husband, Walter de Frece, a theatre impresario and later Conservative MP. During one such performance in 1912, it is alleged that the sight of Tilley wearing trousers disgusted Queen Mary so much that she buried her face into her programme.<\/p>\n A patriot, Tilley turned her efforts to enlisting soldiers at her shows during the First World War, reportedly<\/a> getting a whole battalion to sign up, known as \u2018The Vesta Tilley Platoon\u2019, during one week of performances in Hackney, London. She was popular among men, for her mocking of the upper classes, and also with women, as a symbol of female independence. Tilley gave her final performance at the Coliseum Theatre in London in 1920, later retiring with her husband to Monte Carlo before her death in 1952.<\/p>\n A rival of Tilley\u2019s was Winifred Emms, known by her stage name Hetty King, who also made a name for herself during this period. Born in 1883 in Cheshire, King began performing as a male impersonator in the early 1900s, including starring in Dick Whittington<\/em> at the Kennington Theatre. Hugely successful, King toured music halls in the UK and went on trips to perform in America from 1907. She was known for performing songs including I Want a <\/em>Gibson Girl<\/em>, When I Get Back To <\/em>Piccadilly<\/em> and, her most popular, Ship Ahoy! (All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor),<\/em> written by English writer Bennett Scott and his fellow lyricist AJ Mills. Similar to Tilley, King supported the war effort during both the First and Second World War, dressing as soldiers and sailors, and entertaining troops in Belgium and France. King died in 1972 in Wimbledon, London, aged 89.<\/p>\n King made considerable effort to perfect male mannerisms as part of her performances. \u201cShe would play a cowboy and would be able to roll a cigarette with one hand, a very masculine skill,\u201d explains Dr Stephen Farrier, a reader in theatre and performance at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.<\/p>\n Another male impersonator, Ella Shields, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1879. \u201cShields wore a top hat and tails, that kind of thing,\u201d says Dr Farrier. \u201cShe was a bit more famous in American vaudeville [a type of entertainment featuring burlesque comedy, dance and songs].\u201d Lured to England by a talent scout in the early 1900s, Shields became famous for her song Burlington Bertie from Bow<\/em>, which Farrier describes as being \u201cabout being poor and pretending to be rich\u201d and was also a parody of a song sung by Tilley called Burlington Bertie<\/em>.<\/p>\n Male impersonators of this time often did not associate with the LGBT+ community as modern drag kings do today, says Farrier. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to say that drag kings are like male impersonators. But it was a different time and so, therefore, different identity positions were available,\u201d explains Farrier. \u201cLots of the key male impersonators were reportedly very careful to manage how they stimulated desires in audiences so that it was socially acceptable, particularly desire from female audiences. Hetty King, for instance, would be quite awful to women who wrote her kind of love letters and wanted to get to know her.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite this, Farrier draws some parallels between drag kings of today and male impersonators of the past. \u201cBoth current kings and male impersonators of the Victorian stage really questioned ideas around masculinity, particularly things like competence and who gets to occupy masculine spaces in our culture,\u201d he says. \u201cThe current kings do that often with sex appeal, but Hetty King, for instance, would do it in terms of what I refer to as a drunk toff, you know, singing a song because he\u2019s getting married in the morning, and he\u2019s going to lose his freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n There are also limitations to the current understanding of drag history, explains Dr Amy Tooth Murphy, a lecturer in Oral History at Royal Holloway, University of London. \u201cThis is very much an under-examined area among historians,\u201d she says. \u201cDrag has suddenly become very popular in mainstream culture, just over the last few years. It certainly has a very long and important history in queer culture but, like a great deal of queer history and queer culture, it has been overlooked or not deemed \u2018important enough\u2019 or \u2018appropriate\u2019 for academic study. Luckily, that\u2019s changing now and I predict we\u2019ll see a lot more on drag and male impersonation to add to a small but highly significant existing body of work.\u201d<\/p>\n It was in 1920s America that male impersonators became more associated with LGBT+ culture. Born in Philadelphia, blues singer Gladys Bentley, known for her masculine attire, was a major figure during a cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s in New York City, which saw an outpouring of culture, theatre, and music by black artists. Though it was not legal at that time, Bentley \u2018married\u2019 at least one woman, and was open about her lesbian relationships, though she later claimed to be \u2018cured\u2019 of her sexuality by hormone therapy.<\/p>\n Also in New York, Storm\u00e9 DeLarverie (1920\u20132014) was a drag king performer at the Jewel Box Revue, a touring drag cabaret that catered to a mainstream crowd, from 1955 through to 1969, the year of the Stonewall uprising, which paved the way for modern LGBT+ rights movement. DeLarverie is believed by some to have thrown the \u2018first punch\u2019 that precipitated the Stonewall Riots<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOften seen cutting a debonair figure in a tuxedo or elegant suit, both on and offstage, DeLarverie as she appeared in her Jewel Box days has been compared to actor and singer Harry Belafonte,\u201d says Dr Bloomfield. \u201cDeLarverie\u2019s dashing masculine looks and baritone signing tended to misdirect spectators until she revealed her \u2018true\u2019 sex at the end of the show.\u201d<\/p>\nThe first famous male impersonator<\/h3>\n
![\""Drawing\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/KJ0KEB-a99a7db.jpg?quality=90&resize=329%2C413"\" "\\"\"Performer\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> It is alleged that the sight of Vesta Tilley wearing trousers disgusted Queen Mary so much that she buried her face into her programme <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
![\""Portrait\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-515957678-366f771.jpg?quality=90&resize=289%2C413"\" "\\"\"Vesta\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""Hetty\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-3403232-74fc5fa.jpg?quality=90&resize=265%2C413"\" "\\"\"c1930:\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""Ella\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-3293489-24be4b5.jpg?quality=90&resize=307%2C413"\" "\\"\"c1920:\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>An early LGBT+ movement?<\/h3>\n
![\""Actress\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-3434856-1e59347.jpg?quality=90&resize=264%2C413"\" "\\"\"c1925:\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Male impersonators of this time often did not associate with the LGBT+ community as modern drag kings do today <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
![\""Gladys\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-1342352754-0cd92f0.jpg?quality=90&resize=327%2C413"\" "\\"\"Blues\\"")
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