Pansy Craze

Pansy Craze
late-1920s–mid-1930s
Painting of "pansy" performer Karyl Norman, titled The Creole Fashion Plate (1923)
Location
Leader(s)Gene Malin
Karyl Norman
Ray Bourbon
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The Pansy Craze was a period of increased LGBT visibility in American popular culture from the late-1920s until the mid-1930s.[1][2] During the "craze," drag queens — known as "pansy performers" — experienced a surge in underground popularity, especially in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The exact dates of the movement are debated, with a range from the late 1920s until 1935.[1][3][4]

The term "pansy craze" was first coined by the historian George Chauncey in his 1994 book Gay New York.[3][5][6][7]

The Craze

New York's first drag balls were held in Harlem's Hamilton Lodge in 1869.[8][2][9]

In the 1920s, female impersonators were hired to perform at cabarets and speakeasies in many major cities, including New York, Paris, London, Berlin, and San Francisco.[2][10] The target audience was straight, which gave the performers broader social acceptance.[11]

Gene Malin — known as the "Queen of the Pansy Craze" — achieved relative mainstream success, appearing in both Hollywood films and Broadway shows.[2][12] Malin worked primarily in New York City in the early-1930s; however, his career was cut short when he died in an automobile accident at the age of 25.

Other stars during the Pansy Craze included Karyl Norman and Ray Bourbon, as well as the gay pianist and singer Bruz Fletcher, who gained fame in Los Angeles during the Pansy Craze.[10][13][14]

End of the era

Beginning in late-1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, American Roman Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This led to legal restrictions in the public visibility of homosexuality through the Hays Code. Police simultaneously began strict crackdowns on the public presence of homosexuals during the Great Depression, as calls for politicians to "clean up" downtown nightlife came from progressive reformers.[15]

Legacy

Some scholars have argued that the Pansy Craze broadened the range of acceptable behaviors for men, even though restrictions on gender conformity and LGBT visibility were tightened after this period.[16] In later decades, drag queens such as Divine and Rupaul again starred in Hollywood films, and performers such as Jinkx Monsoon appeared on Broadway.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Imig, Nate (June 6, 2022). "Tracing the roots of Wisconsin's drag history, dating back to the 1880s". Radio Milwaukee. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  2. ^ a b c d Bullock, Darryl W. (2017-09-14). "Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife". The Guardian. ISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  3. ^ a b Halley, Catherine (2020-01-29). "Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  4. ^ "Pansy Craze". PBS LearningMedia. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  5. ^ Cohen, Lizabeth; Chauncey, George (September 1997). "Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940". The Journal of American History. 84 (2): 685. doi:10.2307/2952659. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 2952659.
  6. ^ "The Work of George Chauncey, LGBTQ Historian and Kluge Prize Honoree September 27, 2022 By Neely Tucker". Yonkers Tribune. 2022-09-28. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  7. ^ Heap, Chad (2008-11-15). Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940. University of Chicago Press. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-226-32245-2.
  8. ^ Stabbe, Oliver (2016-03-30). "Queens and queers: The rise of drag ball culture in the 1920s". National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  9. ^ Fleeson, Lucinda (June 27, 2007). "The Gay '30s". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  10. ^ a b "The Pansy Craze: When gay nightlife in Los Angeles really kicked off". KCRW. 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  11. ^ Pruitt, Sarah (12 June 2019). "How Gay Culture Blossomed During the Roaring Twenties". History. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  12. ^ "Jean Malin: Queen of the pansies | American Masters | PBS". American Masters. 2021-09-03. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  13. ^ Grey, Charlie (18 October 2022). "Listen: This campy star of the '30s Pansy Craze was gloriously shady and super gay". Queerty. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  14. ^ "Bruz Fletcher: Remembering a Gay Voice". www.tyleralpern.com. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  15. ^ Fleeson, Lucinda. "The Gay '30s". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  16. ^ McCracken, Allison (2015). Real men don't sing : crooning in American culture. Durham: Duke University Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8223-5917-3. OCLC 894746159.
  17. ^ Street, Mikelle (2 February 2023). "Jinkx Monsoon Was Always Destined to Make Broadway History". W Magazine. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Further reading