David de Alba is interviewed about his career as an impersonator of Judy Garland and other female performers. He became known as the Cuban Legend while appearing at the famous Finocchio’s nightclub in San Francisco. After the interview with Ninon De Vere De Rosa scroll down to watch the entire “If I can Turn Back Time” concert.
David de Alba, the Cuban Legend who performed at the world famous Finocchio Club in the 1970s and ’80s brought his show to the Winchester Theatre at the Dondero Cultural Centre in Las Vegas on April 1, 2023. The show was called, If I Can Turn Back Time. David did several musical numbers with anecdotes and stories from his childhood through to the present day. Here are the musical highlights from the show. The full show will premier here on his YouTube channel later this year.
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.
The Cuban Legend, David de Alba, has a video wishing us all happy holidays.
David de Alba was born and raised in Cuba until his family moved to Chicago in the mid 1960s. A hairdresser who noticed de Alba’s similarity in facial structure to the star Judy Garland made him up to look just like her. Soon David was doing shows at female impersonation clubs singing Garland’s songs, not lip syncing to a record. Read this interview with The Cuban Legend conducted by Shelley Anne Baker.
What’s in the transgender news today? A trans woman nurse is the clinical program director of The Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. Hobby Lobby violated the law when they denied a trans woman employee use of the women’s restroom. A new show Amazon features a non-binary character. A “cross dresser” in Jamaica draws a crowd on the street. A man who murdered his trans girlfriend gets 50 years in prison. YouTube is not doing enough to stop deadnaming. Longtime sports figure Jack Brennan comes out as a crossdresser. A court ruling says Catholic doctors do not have to provide gender confirming treatments against their “deeply held religious beliefs”. Remains found in a 1000-year-old grave may be the body of a nonbinary person. Laura Jane Grace will rock the Four Seasons. There’s all that and more waiting for you in TWIT!
In the dusty halls of the TGForum Archives there are to be found many pictures of the female impersonators of days gone by. In the 1990s TGF editor Cindy Martin put together photos to create pictorials of those long ago stars. Here are just a few.
In the 1990s Brittany Rose was TGForum’s comic book expert. She revealed the numerous times that male protagonists adopted female disguise (looking at you Jimmy Olsen) in or to defeat villains. And when male villains used female disguise as part of their nefarious plots to take over the world. Or at least steal a lot of money. This Retro Rerun is from June of 1998 and is about the amazing way that latex masks can completely transform a man into a beautiful woman. Key thing to know, they can’t. Except in the comic book world.
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 Livingston dressed in drag when he starred in the 1944 film Goodnight Sweetheart. The film […]
Today we take a look at female impersonation in Japanese cinema. The following films used men to portray female characters. Unlike many movies made in the USA the “man in a dress” was not meant to get laughs. The actors were honestly portraying female characters. Tamasaburo Bando “Yasha-ga-ike” (“Demon Pond,” ) 1979 is a foreign […]
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.
This edition of our Drag in Cinema blog is a bit different. Rather than showcasing cisgender male actors donning drag in the interest of the film’s plot the films featured today all star professional drag queens. Among them; Panti Bliss, Bianca Del Rio, and Jinkx Monsoon.
TransTainment digs into the news from the world of entertainment and the arts to find the transgender artists, actors, and musicians who are working to add their joy to our world. Today there’s news about Daniela Vega, star of A Fantastic Woman, the winner of the Miss Intercontinental pageant, what Justin Vivian Bond has been up to during the pandemic, and more. Don’t miss out on the latest in transtainment!
The New Drag In Cinema feature kicks off with coverage of few films from the 1970s that were not covered in the old Drag In Cinema column. From well known iconic films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the original French production of La Cage aux Folles, to lesser known films that featured drag, even a Soviet made-for-TV movie based on Charlie’s Aunt, you’ll find the today in our new Drag In Cinema column.
Are you ready for some delicious dishes straight from the kitchen of Dina’s Diner? Today’s Specials are sure to please! First Dina serves up a 13-year-old who puts a different spin on the youth drag queen scene. This young drag queen is a cisgender girl! The next entree served with a side of laughs is devoted to playwright and actor Charles Busch. Then Dina offers a palate refresher in the form of BroadwayCon and the fans who wear fishnets. Then it’s on to two delectable desserts. One is the modern advances in beauty technology that allows J.Lo at 50 to be so hot, and the other is the way your bangs can define what kind of woman you are. Don’t miss all the tasty treats down at Dina’s Diner!
TransTainment fills you in on happenings in the arts and entertainment involving transgender actors, drag queens, and transgender driven stories and songs. Today we look at a new play by Charles Busch, learn about a new film starring Jazz Jennings, are introduced to the person who was the USA’s first drag queen, learn about Billy Porter’s appearance on Sesame Street, and discuss RuPaul’s appearance on SNL. TransTainment is the TWIT of showbiz and the arts!
While our chef Dina Amberle is always serving comfort food down at Dina’s Diner, she’s not afraid to experiment with different ingredients. No matter what she whips up it’s always sure to please. Today she takes a collection of old-time ladies garments, combines them with an 87-year-old Parisian female impersonator, sprinkles in the attraction of “homely girls,” adds a dollop of the fashion mask craze and tops it off with the delightful spice of young men in drag for “womanless beauty pageants” or YouTube transformation videos. Check out this flavorful specialty of the house down at Dina’s Diner.
Katherine Diaz reports on a “cross night show” in her hometown, Bogota, Columbia. What’s she attends is a female impersonation show called Zapatilla Dorada. Such shows are regular events in the LGBT friendly parts of Bogota and are considered a part of the nightlife when people on the LGBT spectrum want to party, or as they say in Columbia, “rumba.” Read Katherine’s report in both English and Spanish and view her accompanying video in this edition of Princesas de la Noche.
Classic female impersonator Paul Lavern Cummings passed away in Las Vegas, Nevada in March of 2018 after being severely injured in an auto accident. Back in 1999 TGForum ran an interview with Cummings that was conducted by TGF contributor Ken Spaulding. Since it’s been almost a year since Cummings’ death we dip back into the TGForum Archives and bring you that 1999 interview.
Katherine Diaz is exploring the world of drag “transformsitas” in her city of Bogota, Columbia. one thing has led to another and she went from a lone crossdresser to becoming a glamorous drag performer who appears on stage in various venues around the city. Her acceptance by the performers has allowed her to learn about many aspects of drag. Today she blogs about her experiences and as always provides a video.
A few months ago David de Alba sat down in front of a camera and talked about his life as a female impersonator. The filmmakers sent David a link to a rough cut of all the footage that was shot that day in his home in Las Vegas. Now you can view the interview right here on TGForum. A must for David de Alba fans.
2018 for a big year of change for our Columbian correspondent Katherine Diaz. She enrolled in a course to improve her crossdressing skills and through that course she was noticed by a leading impersonator in Bogota who took her under her wing. Katherine modeled fashions on the runway for the city’s leading transformation boutique, competed in a drag contest and started performing an act in local clubs. In today’s blog and vlog she catches you up on what she has experienced in 2018.
For the past few months our Correspondent in Columbia, Katherine Diaz, has been studying the art of female impersonation and drag. I Spanish as drag performer is a transformista. Katherine’s blog today announces that after she has been performing for awhile in smaller venues she has been accepted as a performer in the Glardones León Dorado on December 6. In December Katherine’s blog will be about how the competition went and she will have a video.
Katherine Diaz is our correspondent in Bogota, Columbia. She has reported in the past on the crossdressing and drag scene in that city. Today she writes about a sort of training academy for drag performance artists that she has aligned herself with. She also has a video showing her participation. This post is also a first in that we present her text translated from the Spanish. Enjoy your excursion deeper into the drag scene in Bogota!
Katherine Diza is caught up in the whirl of her new adventure performing onstage with a group of drag performers in Bogota. Today she writes more about the excitement of performance and how good it feels to get praise from her new fans. And of course she has a video to go along with her blog.
There are dozens of interviews with The Cuban Legend, David de Alba that have been conducted in English. David’s cousin Mario Jimenez came to visit David in Las Vegas and conducted the following interview in Spanish.
