*DRAG: FEMALE IMPERSONATOR JULIAN ELTINGE RARE 1910 PHOTO*

Description

An extraordinary original circa 1910 propmtional photographic postcard of the great early 20th century female impersonator Julian Eltinge in the play The Fascinating Widow. Light wear otherwise good. See Julian Eltinge's extraordinary biography below.
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From Wikipedia:
Julian Eltinge
(May 14, 1881 – March 7, 1941), born
William Julian Dalton
, was an American
stage
and film
actor
and
female impersonator
. After appearing in the
Boston
Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge garnered notice from other
producers
and made his first appearance on
Broadway
in 1904. As his star began to rise, he appeared in
vaudeville
and toured Europe and the
United States
, even giving a
command performance
before King
Edward VII
. Eltinge appeared in a series of
musical comedies
written specifically for his talents starting in 1910 with
The Fascinating Widow
, returning to vaudeville in 1918. His popularity soon earned him the moniker "Mr.
Lillian Russell
" for the popular
beauty
and musical comedy star.
Hollywood
beckoned Eltinge and in 1917 he appeared in his first
feature film
,
The Countess Charming
. This led to other films, including 1918's
The Isle of Love
with
Rudolph Valentino
and
Virginia Rappe
. By the time Eltinge arrived in Hollywood, he was considered one of the highest paid actors on the
American stage
; but with the arrival of the
Great Depression
and the death of vaudeville, Eltinge's star began to fade. He continued his show in nightclubs but found little success. He died in 1941 following a show at a
New York City
nightclub
.
Eltinge was born in
Newtonville, Massachusetts
to Julia Edna Baker and Michael Joseph Dalton.
[1]
It is believed that his father was a mining engineer and that early in his life he traveled out west with his father, ending up in
Butte, Montana
. In his early teens, Eltinge dressed in women's clothing and performed in saloons patronized by ranchers and miners. Upon discovering this in 1899, his father beat him and his mother sent him back to Boston, where the 17-year-old worked in dry goods as a salesman while studying dance.
The early film star
Pauline Frederick
and Eltinge were childhood friends. They met up again at boarding school in Boston when Eltinge was already making a name for himself on the vaudeville stage. He dared her to apply to one of the music halls, which was the start of her career on stage and in films.
[2]
Most sources cite his first female role originally having been at the age of ten with the Boston Cadets Review at the
Tremont Theater
in
Boston
. He is reported to have played the role so well that the next year the revue was written around him which led to minor roles elsewhere. But as to how he came to perform as a female a decade later with the Boston Cadets, sources differ. In some versions he was taking
cakewalk
lessons from a Mrs. Wyman's dance studio when he demonstrated to his teacher an incredible ability to emulate females. It is said to be Mrs. Wyman who encouraged William to study the art of female impersonation. Boys often play female roles in all-male theater groups.
Eltinge's first appearance on
Broadway
was in the
musical comedy
Mr. Wix of Wickham
which opened September 19, 1904 at the Bijou Theatre in
New York City
. The show was produced by
E. E. Rice
and included music by
Jerome Kern
among others.
[
citation needed
]
During this time Eltinge began performing in
vaudeville
. Unlike many of the female impersonation acts that existed at that time, like
Bert Savoy
, Eltinge did not present a caricature of women but presented the illusion of actually being a woman. He toured simply as "Eltinge" which left his
sex
unknown and his act included singing, dancing and quick costume changes in a variety of female roles, including a
Gibson Girl
-like role called "The Sampson Girl". At the conclusion of his performances, he would remove his
wig
, revealing his true nature to the surprise of the often unknowing audience.
[
citation needed
]
In 1906 Eltinge made his
London
debut at the Palace Theater. While in
London
, Eltinge gave a performance for
King Edward VII
, who later presented him with a white
bulldog
. The next year, Eltinge made his New York debut at the Alhambra Theater to critical acclaim. From 1908-09, he toured with Cohan and Harris
Minstrels
.
[
citation needed
]
By 1910, Eltinge had reached the height of his fame. Sime Silverman, Editor of
Variety
, called him "as great a performer as there is today".
[3]
The Fascinating Widow
and beyond
In 1911, Eltinge opened one of his most famous shows,
The Fascinating Widow
, at New York's Liberty Theater. In it he played Hal Blake who disguises himself as "Mrs. Monte" in a
Charley's Aunt
-like plot. The show only ran 56 performances in New York, but toured the nation successfully for several years.
The success of this show led producer
A. H. Woods
to give Eltinge one of the entertainment industry's highest honors, having a theatre named for him. A year to the day that
The Fascinating Widow
opened, Woods opened the
Eltinge Theatre
on New York's
42nd Street
designed by noted theater
architect
Thomas W. Lamb
. Eltinge himself never performed in his namesake building. After serving as a legitimate theater for many years, it became a notorious
burlesque
house and was shut down during a "public morality" campaign in 1943, before becoming a
cinema
the next year. The theater is now part of the AMC Empire 25 cineplex having been lifted and moved in its entirety down the block from its original location.
Following on the success of
The Fascinating Widow
, Eltinge performed in two other comedies that had similar success,
The Crinoline Girl
which opened in 1914 and
Cousin Lucy
(with music by Kern) the next year.
In 1914 Eltinge starred in
silent picture
versions of
The Crinoline Girl
followed by
Cousin Lucy
the next year. According to Anthony Slide's
The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville
, he also had a
cameo role
in a film entitled
How Molly Malone Made Good
in 1915. Eltinge's first real screen success came in 1917 in
The Countess Charming
. His role in the film was again a double role with him playing both a male and said male in female garb.
Settling in
Hollywood
, Eltinge made three
films
in 1917 and also in 1918. During this time he wrote and produced a vaudeville group called "The Julian Eltinge Players". With this group he returned to the vaudeville stage appearing at New York's
Palace Theatre
in 1918, where he was paid one of the highest salaries in show business: ,500 a week. The next year he returned again in a new vaudeville review with sets by the
French
designer
Erté
.
By 1920, Eltinge was very wealthy and was living in one of the most lavish mansions in
Southern California
,
Villa Capistrano
. He appeared with
Rudolf Valentino
in the 1920 film
An Adventuress
(released as
The Isle of Love
in the U.S.). After filming, Eltinge continued touring onstage and did so until 1927. He also made two films,
Madame Behave
and
The Fascinating Widow
, in 1925.
Personal life
Eltinge on a voyage to Japan with a woman (vaudeville actress Laurette Bullivant) he identified to the photographer as his wife, c. 1920.
Despite the graceful femininity he exhibited on stage, Eltinge used a supermasculine facade in public to combat the rumours of his
homosexuality
. This sexual duality led to
Dorothy Parker
's creation of the term "ambisextrous" to describe him.
[4]
Eltinge may have been a gay man,
[5]
as
Milton Berle
and many others who worked with him believed. Actress
Ruth Gordon
stated in a
New York Times
article that he was "as virile as anybody virile."
[6]
There is no existing record of a lover of either sex, though stories did abound.
Eltinge was one of many show business figures to be hit hard by the 1929 stock market crash. By the 1930s, the female impersonations that he had built his career on had begun to lose popularity, as did vaudeville in general. Eltinge resorted to performing in
nightclubs
. Crackdowns on cross-dressing in public – an attempt to curb homosexual activity – prevented Eltinge from performing in costume.
On February 25, 1941, Eltinge fell ill while performing at
Billy Rose
's
Diamond Horseshoe
nightclub.
[7]
He was taken home and died in his apartment ten days later on March 7. His death certificate lists the cause of death as a cerebral hemmorhage.