Female Impersonators in Early 20th Century Hawaiʻi
by Wendy Tolleson
Female impersonators have been part of culture and the arts for centuries, from a 10th century Dan in Chinese opera and an Onogata in 15th century Japanese Kabuki to women disguised as men in 16th century Shakespearean plays and early 20th century American vaudeville.
Although people sometimes use the term “female impersonator” interchangeably with “drag queen,” these terms are not the same. Drag is an art form associated with queer identity, whereas female impersonation can come from a wide range of gender performance and affiliations.
One of the more famous was Mei Lanfang, a Chinese cisgender male actor who performed women’s roles in the Beijing Chinese Opera. He became famous for changing its operatic style from strident Mongolian severity to the more classical form by bringing back natural female movements and traditional songs, which he sang in a soft falsetto. He popularized Peking Opera in America in the 1920s through performances in San Francisco, Japan and at the World’s Fair, which led to a two-week tour in 1930 through the nation, including a stop in Honolulu. The show’s success in New York required a move to a larger theater, and positive audience response lengthened the tour to five weeks. He received honorary degrees from the University of California and Pomona College, and made friends with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin.
Article, Honolulu Star-Bulltein, 6/19/30, Photo, Public Domain
Though he was exotic, Lanfang was not the first to captivate the American audience. Impersonators appeared in vaudeville, in movies, theaters, nightclubs and cabarets, performing not only comedy but also as glamorously gowned artists singing blues and popular songs of the era.
Between 1900 and the late 1920s, Hawaiʻi hosted touring vaudeville shows that included impersonators. One popular act that played to large audiences in Hawaiʻi was Alabama-based Wilbur’s Black Birds jazz quartet and minstrel revue. Their impersonator was La Buster, an African American who delighted an audience in the 1,000-seat States Theater in Honolulu in 1928 with a show featuring him and two male chorus girls singing and dancing. The Honolulu Star Bulletin lauded the act, reporting “There is a dance specialty by La Buster that fools the audience. Just when you are in the midst of hearty applause for the work of this “graceful girl” off comes her wig and you find out she is man!”
Another impersonator regularly booked into the 1,600 seat Liberty Theater was Julian Eltinge, famous across the U. S. for his comedic style. Then, as vaudeville waned, and the country went to war, an amateur style of impersonation replaced that of the skilled performer. In Hawaii, these were local men who were members of societies such as the Elks and Rotary Club who did sketch and stand-up comedy, usually dressed in outlandish female garb.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 8/18/28
Then in the late 1940s, professional acts reappeared in Honolulu performing not just dance and comedy, but also singing blues, torch, swing and jazz music often accompanied by Black musicians who came to play after their regular nightly gig at the dance halls was over. They appeared in bottle clubs, a new type of drinking establishment that sprang up to serve a local clientele now free of the confinement and stresses of war, and out looking for a good time. Bottle clubs were after hours venues usually found in restaurants, where patrons brought their own liquor, paid a nominal fee of between a dollar to ten dollars at the door, with the place providing food and low cost “set ups”—glasses, ice, and corkscrews. Because they were considered private they did not fall under the regulations of the City and County Liquor Commission, whose rules set closing times, types of liquor served, and the type of entertainment licensed bars and taverns could offer.
The bottle club Blue Note advertised “Talent Galore” and 500-seat Club Gayety’s show featured local impersonator Mae Lin as the original “Gayety’s Sweetheart” performing with six other “chorus girls”, while The Talk O’ the Town in A’ala featured “The Most Beautiful Boys in the Islands” with impersonators so in demand that while booking mainland acts these nightspots ran “Help Wanted” ads to audition local performers for appearances.
Hawai’i Herald-Tribune, 4/7/50
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 11/24/50
Licensed establishments were finding it hard to compete with the low costs and late closing hours. Their private status also exempted them from Rule 16, an ordinance passed in 1950 that gave the Commission the power to shape the moral framework for adult entertainment in venues by prohibiting what they deemed as “lewd and obscene”. Poorly defined and often challenged, nonetheless the ban was not lifted until fifteen years later. Taking the stand that “men must perform as men” Commission Chairman Dr. William K. Holt wrote to licensees:
“All licensees are hereby notified that the …. performances by female impersonators on licensed premises, whether such performances be by paid employees or voluntary talent, will subject licensees concerned to summary revocation of their entertainment permits.”
Then bar owners and the Liquor Commission engaged in a back-and-forth tug of war to extend their hours, with the city finally relenting in 1955, issuing cabaret licenses that allowed longer hours, and dancing. But Rule 16 and a growing outcry by the bar owners and the public against female impersonators signaled the demise of the shows.
The last production at the Blue Note was in 1956 and featured mainland and local performers of diverse genders and ethnicities, including local transgender people Orchid Kainoa and Miss Leona (“The Polynesian Bombshell”), Mr. Lani Harper (“Hawaii’s Foremost Female Impersonator”), Mr. Leslie Haru (“Direct from Japan”), Mr. Sheila Gibson (“The Exotic Apache”), Mr. Ely Taylor (“the Male Venus De Milo”) and Mr. Kara Montez (“The Boy with the Most Feminine body”) despite their brief span of years entertaining in Hawaii female impersonators pioneered an evolution resulting in wide ranging ethnic and gender-fluid interpretations of the art form seen today.
Honolulu Advertiser, 4/7/56
Header image, Hawai’i News Now