Drag Kings, Male Impersonators, Mashers of the Victorian Era

Adam All presents a whistle-stop tour of 4 of his favourite Male Impersonators of the 1850's-1930's.
There are far too many absolute legends to mention so I narrowed it down a little. Please do go and investigate the music hall era for a plethora of incredible performers all but forgotten today.
Drag Kings are and should be part of our discussion on LGBTQIA+ history, because we've been instrumental in the progression of queer expression, freedom and drag.
Music all copyright free
Clip from film Victor/Victoria (1982) starring Julie Andrews, James Garner and Robert Patterson.

[@JBayol-vr2lq]

This is brillant and precious ~ Victor and Victoria was actually such a révélation as a kid! Thanks for thé beautiful archive work 💖

[@rotbarrt2182]

music is way too loud :/

[@f8ofk8]

I will never forget Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo in drag. ❤❤❤❤❤

[@finchthebird]

Love the subject matter, but agreed the music needs to be mixed down quite a bit. Love you Love Drag Kings tho

[@twinsgardening896]

I would just recommend lowering the volume (and intrusiveness) of the music for next time, I could hardly understand a word you were saying :( do you know why they were called "mashers"? I actually found this video because I'm trying to do research about Victorian England stuff surrounding the whole "hatpin panic". I didn't realize it intersected with Queer history, which is both delightful and suspicious because all the other things I saw referencing "mashers" were just saying they were random dangerous people running around in the street harassing people.....so now I have to figure out if they were claiming the crossdressers and other queer people were going around attacking people, or if the Queer people were conflated with the people attacking people like bigots do today.................. and all of this is research so I can make a summary of Edwin Abbot Abbot's book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, for people who are too lazy to read the book or its 2024 translation.