Ms. Bob Davis, MFA, founder & director of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive in Vallejo, CA, served two terms on the GLBT Historical Society board of directors.
November 20 is the Transgender Day of Remembrance and Ms. Bob Davis writes story of how it came to be. It began as one person’s quest to preserve transgender history and to memorialize those who died by violence year after year. Now it is observed far and wide as transgender people fall victim to violence.
Our Retro Rerun today is an interview conducted for TGForum and LadyLike magazine in 1996 with a noted female impersonator of the ’60s and ’70s, Pudgy Roberts. Ms Bob & Carol Kleinmaier conducted the interview over two days and cover Pudgy’s life from when he was a child dressing up and walking around his neighborhood to his long career in drag clubs and burlesque.
Digging into the TGForum Archives we found a post from 1997 by Ms Bob & Carol Kleinmaier on the early 20th century female impersonator Julian Eltinge. He appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway and in movies, both silent and the talkies. There hasn’t been a female impersonator as popular or famous until the arrival of RuPaul on the drag scene. Julian Eltinge, The Crinoline Girl is our Retro Rerun and is illustrated with photos that did not appear in the original post.
Ms Bob Davis digs into the history of the recently closed transgender friendly San Francisco nightclub, Divas. It was a favorite spot for members of the transgender community to hang out, take in some drag performances and mingle with other segments of the greater queer community. From it’s beginning in one spot to the fight with local residents to move to a much larger venue nearby Ms. Bob dishes the history of Divas.
In light of Ms. Bob Davis’s current effort to preserve trans history by turning her massive collection of trans photos, memorabilia and books into an archive that will be available to the public we present a re-run from April of 1998. It is a review of a rare book, a detective story with science fiction overtones that was published in 1907, and features moving the consciousness of a man into the body of a woman. It’s also a satire of the type of detectives stories written at that time.
From time to time we dip back into the TGF Archives and bring back an article from the good old days. Today we re-run a piece by TGF contributors Ms. Bob and Carol Kleinmaier that originally appeared on TGForum back in the 1990s. Crosssdressers have always enjoyed having their pictures taken. Meet some of them who posed en femme for photos back in the 1920s and ’30s.
This is the sixth in our TGF Rerun series examining how we classy transgendered folks were portrayed in cheap tabloids and men’s magazines. Men were the target audience for these publications, and their yellowed yellow journalism tells us how we looked to some guys in the years between 1949 and 1977.
TGF Rerun: This is the 5th in our series from the late ’90s examining how TG folks were portrayed in cheap tabloids, the progenitors of the supermarket sensational press, and risqué men’s magazines; an innocent genre of porn which was more naughty than raunchy.
This is the fourth installment of our TGF Rerun series examining how TGs were portrayed in cheap tabloids in past decades. Men were the target audience for these publications, and their yellowed yellow journalism tells us how we looked to some guys in the years between 1949 and 1977. This installment ran in TGF in 1998.
This is the third installment of our series examining how we classy transgendered folks were portrayed in cheap tabloids, the progenitors of today’s supermarket sensational press, and risqué men’s magazines; an innocent genre of porn which was more naughty than raunchy.
Today we bring you Part Two of our TGF Rerun — Tabloids & Men’s Soft Core Mags. Ms Bob did extensive research into how TGs were presented in those magazines between 1949 and 1977. In Part Two she shows how TGs were linked to the commies.
Our TGF Rerun is Ms. Bob’s exploration of how TGs were treated in the tabloid press between 1949 and 1977. This series, ran in the late 1990s on TGForum. In this first installment Ms. Bob covers the coverage of crossdressing in public in the tabloids and men’s magazines of the day.
This TGF Rerun, which first appeared on TGForum back in the 1990s. Ms. Bob puts on her fedora hat and trenchcoat to follow the clues in the mystery of The Bigwood Twins. Little is known of this female impersonation duo from the 1920s. Ms. Bob stalks them through time and tries to shed light on this mysterious duo.
We continue our TGF Rerun of the series of articles done by Ms. Bob back in the 1990s on “Female Mimics Magazine.” In part three Ms. Bob covers the early 1970s and the changes the magazine, and the impersonation scene went through.
Last month we brought you a TGF Rerun of Ms. Bob’s first installment of her series on Female Mimics magazine. She covered the early 1960s issues of that magazine. Today we bring you Part 2 covering the late ’60s and early ’70s.
In the early 1960s a magazine devoted to female impersonators called Female Mimics appeared. It featured photos of and stories about professional impersonators, coverage of drag balls, and photos of “amateur impersonators.” In this TGF Rerun Ms. Bob takes us back to those days.
By the end of the 20th century drag performances had become mainstream. Films and Broadway shows featuring drag were not considered shocking. But did you know that drag was mainstream at the beginning of the 20th century? Meet Julian Eltinge.
