Drag in Cinema & TV
As we get deeper into the 2000s it started to be harder to find drag in modern films. So we are expanding the range of this column to include television series. Who is the first man in a dress?
Robert Livingstone playing a widow?
Robert Livingston dressed in drag when he starred in the 1944 film Goodnight Sweetheart. The film is billed as a comedy/drama and we only know a little about the plot. A big-city reporter moves to a tiny town to begin running the newspaper he half-owns. His hard hitting reporting style doesn’t make him very popular; especially when he begins causing trouble for the incumbent mayor’s opposition. The candidate’s pretty niece teaches the arrogant journalist a valuable lesson. Not much more is known about the plot or why the arrogant journalist adopts feminine attire. Perhaps it’s part of him learning a lesson from the candidate’s niece. All we have is a photo of Livingston, known more for tough guy roles in westerns, looking mysterious en femme.
McCarthy as Kris Fisher (L) with co-star.
Kris Fisher was only permanent crossdressing character in a British soap opera. She appeared in the British Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, played by Gerard McCarthy. The character first appeared on-screen in September 2006 and left in August 2010 after McCarthy quit the show. McCarthy is pictured in the accompanying photo with Bronagh Waugh who portrayed Cheryl Brady.
Carlson as Zoe.
In American soaps Jeffrey Carlson dragged up for All My Children. His first appearance on the show was in August 2006 as a male British rock star named Zarf. In late November of 2006, he returned to the role and as the storyline evolved viewers learned that Zarf was a transgender woman named Zoe, who also happened to be a lesbian. The character and storyline earned the show a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Daily Drama in 2007.
Maria José
The Spanish actor, Francisco León Barrios, better known as Paco León, won the affection of many people thanks to his role in a telenovela with a soap opera type plot titled La Casa de las Flores, (The House of Flowers) a series in which he played the character of ‘María José. The show depicts a dysfunctional upper-class Mexican family that owns a prestigious florist shop and a struggling cabaret, both called ‘The House of Flowers’. Maria José is a transgender woman who has been banished from her family. She is also a lawyer and when catastrophe strikes her ex-wife calls her to help. The series was praised for its depiction of LGBT characters.
Boy Meets World is a sitcom that debuted in 1993 featuring the adventures of a young schoolboy named Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his best friend Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong). At school, they aren’t very popular with girls and have bullies always giving them grief. You’d wonder why they might decide to dress up as girls in a few of the episodes. Wearing a wig and a dress to school is not likely to endear them to the bullies or the girls.
Cory as dowdy waitress and hot new girl Shawn.
In an episode titled Chick Like Me Cory is inspired by one of his teachers telling the students about the book Black Like Me which was written by a white man who had his skin darkened and passed as Black so he could write about the experience. Cory decides to dress as a girl and go to school to see if he is treated differently and write about it for the student paper. You can get the whole plot of the episode from the Boy Meets Wiki. Somehow Cory’s friend Shawn also adopts drag and does get treated with more attention from the other students. Could Shawn be prettier than Cory’s heartthrob Topanga?
Drag features other characters in drag in other episodes, like Fraternity Row and What a Drag.
Here is a clip from Chick Like Me.
The New Mike Hammer featured female impersonation a couple of times. The show ran from 1984 to 1989. On November 12 of 1986 an episode titled Mistress for the Prosecution was broadcast. Hammer’s lawyer pal Lawrence Barrington picks up a beautiful woman and she drugs him and takes compromising photos. When demands arrive from a blackmailer Barrington asks Hammer to find out who is behind it all. The mystery deepens when it turns out that the beautiful woman is a female impersonator. Try as we might we can’t find out what actor played the beautiful FI. If you have a clue use the comment area and let us know.
We do know who played the drag character in the first movie featuring Keach as Mike Hammer titled Murder Me Murder You in 1983. (The pilot for the series.) The lady was Michael A Andrews, one of the best female impersonators in the eighties. The character was Isadora Shepperton. She takes over an all female courier service that was started by the now deceased former lover of Mike’s. Here is the scene in which the overtly sexist Hammer meets Ms. Shepperton.
That’s all for this post. See you next month with more drag on film and video.
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Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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