Re: [ARSCLIST] Julian Eltinge information]

[Randal Baier <rbaier@xxxxxxxxx>]

I received this message from a colleague of mine who does research of cross dressing. I looked through the New York Stage listings and didn't see any Eltinge recordings there either, but the second para. notes Paul Charosh. Perhaps some of you on the list know of his collection?

Randal Baier 

... sure I know about him--just the most famous drag queen of the early 20th C. I believe there are some early movies of his still around somewhere, but it is unlikely that he recorded. Most popular singers in this country did not record, especially if they came out of the vaudeville tradition, because they worried about the technology replacing them. The recordings that exist were made when they toured to England, most often in musical comedies. Once the talkies became more established and movies were a really viable option then the suspicion about recording seems to have abated, but Eltinge was just a little early for that. His career was curtailed by some anti-cross-dressing ordinances in Los Angeles, and when he attempted to come back in New York a few years later in the 1940s, he died. Apparently his death was caused by internal injuries that had been caused by prolonged tight lacing of his corsets to achieve a female shape--his doctors warned him not to.


Have you checked the Music from the New York Stage recordings? I don't have mine handy, but if there are recordings of Julian Eltinge anywhere, they are on these. The only other person who might have them is Paul Charosh, whose collection was used by that series.