Early Drag Queens pt. 1

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This series will cover the moral panics and cultural crazes that have long followed the controversial art form once called "female impersonation." For part one of our two part series, we'll start back in the 1800s to look at the earliest drag balls put on by formerly enslaved men as well as the police raids that made front page news. We'll learn about a famous Vaudeville star known for his hyper-feminine on-stage and hyper-masculine off-stage personas. We'll explore a time when gay was in, the 1930s Pansy Craze, and the political crackdown that inevitably followed. And finally, we'll cover the smash-hit drag musicals put on by the manly soldiers of WWII and the closeted GIs who may have woven in a secret campy code. Throughout, we'll start to analyze how the culture reacted to female impersonation based on the changing events of the decades, bestowing on these performers both massive success and frightening suppression, usually depending on who was performing and what their intentions were. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Tell us your teenage tale on our Urban Legends Hotline! American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Research Assistant: Riley Swedelius-Smith Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler Voice Acting by Will Rogers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, urban legends, conspiracy
0:10.7	theories, hoaxes, and crazes, examine the forces that shape our culture, and tell the
0:17.8	stories that create the realities we share, and sometimes the realities we don't.
0:25.4	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith, and this is American hysteria.
0:31.8	I see pictures of you, Mr. Atkins, and you are dressed just like a lady.
0:36.6	Yes, but don't forget, I always had a cigar in my mouth.
0:40.2	My father, all the time, be a boy, what a disappointment.
0:44.0	A girl, my mother cried.
0:46.6	The corporal behind the desk would look up and you'd know, and he'd say, well, good
0:51.8	morning.
0:52.8	Why things of police department are entirely too lenient with these vicious exhibitions
0:58.1	of sex?
0:59.4	I don't see what Batman's our youngster today.
1:13.5	The modern drag queen, as we know her, has become an American archetype, towering over
1:22.5	us in six-inch heels, hair high enough to touch the great blue firmament above, with
1:32.2	serulean eyeshadow to match.
1:36.7	To some, she is a beacon, to others, a beast, but to all, she commands our attention, and
1:47.4	means much more than she means to.
1:52.1	After mining, or overhauling, the psychic conceptions of gender and sexuality, so central
2:01.3	to our staunch sense of stability and national security.
2:08.5	But before the Stonewall protests for queer rights of 1969, kicked open the closet door
2:17.3	and pushed aside a line of faux fur coats to reveal the otherworldly colors of gay
	...

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