mattbaume
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Bonus video! Meet Barbette, the world's most famous drag queen trapeze artist
🕑 Added 2023-08-27 18:16:03 +0000 UTCHello there!
For this week's bonus video, WOW do I have an incredible person to introduce you to: Barbette, who born in a little Texas town in 1899 and rose to become the high-wire drag queen toast of Paris, Broadway, and motion pictures. Celebrated by Jean Cocteau, Barbette's real name was Vander Clyde (or maybe Vander Clyde Broadway?) and he left home at 14 to join the circus as a female impersonator. In the late 1950s, Billy Wilder hired him to teach Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon how to do drag for Some Like it Hot, which lasted only a few days before Barbette gave up in exasperation with them and flew back to Paris. But that was not the end of Barbette's silver screen career! Just an absolutely amazing person.
And keep your eyes peeled for bonus vids coming your way soon about two more fascinating folks: Orry-Kelly, who dressed some of the most famous women of the 20th century (and undressed a few of the most famous men); and also Joani Hannon, a drummer who ran an underground lesbian bar in LA in the 1950s with help from her gay brother.
Also! I want to show you more from the fascinating research that an archivist with the Academy dug up for me -- the censors' notes for Some Like it Hot, cataloguing as much of the objectionable material as they could find! What's most remarkable, I think, is what they DON'T include.
I'll have a great big Some Like it Hot video for you next Sunday, so stay tuned for that! Patrons at $10+ levels get ad-free access.
Oh! And also! I'll be recording another Q&A/feedback video in the next day or two, so if you have questions for me or clips to show me, please send them along!
Here's a link to the 1969 New Yorker article about Barbette: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/09/27/an-angel-a-flower-a-bird
Comments
Artemus
nobody crushed like Cocteau
pam plemouse
I wonder if 'seduction' may have been a euphemism?
