Research Question:
How Can I Best Examine the Life and Career of Forgotten Early 20th Century Female Impersonator, Julian Eltinge?
Modes of Inquiry:
1) Archival Research at New York Library of Performing Arts, Harry Ransom Center, Private Collections, Library of Congress
2) Using Michael Chekhov Technique to explore Image and Psycho-Physical Character Exploration through archival photographs of Eltinge in performance, in "private moments", and in public.
Product:
A Solo Performance Piece, the script drawn entirely from quotes attributed to Eltinge, and the recreation of Vaudeville and Broadway songs and dances based on photographs, descriptions in reviews, and original script notations.
Discoveries:
The Chekhov work led to a reassessing of the fluidity of Eltinge's sexual and gender persona on and offstage. His "public relations" persona vs. his "onstage performance as a woman" vs. his "private life" as both the actor "Julian Eltinge" and the man "Bill Dalton". This resulted in the story examining four distinct "Julian's" and how each persona was crafted by him as a performance. Leaving the larger question by the end of the show--Did Julian ever really know who the "real" Julian was?
Framing Devices:
So much of what is known about Julian comes from scrapbooks in various archives. One amazing resource was Alison Barnet, the great grand daughter of Robert Barnet who discovered Julian in Boston in 1898. She had recently discovered a box of the scripts and scores to the very first shows in which Julian had ever appeared which had been written by Barnet. She graciously sent me some of the songs--one of which was called Put It In the Scrapbook. The lyrics seemed to presciently comment on Eltinge's own performing legacy--
"Since I have been in public life I watch the daily press
And when I see a mention of my name
I know tis but a tribute to my wonderful success
But I save that little clipping just the same!
I put it in the scrapbook
Put it in the scrapbook with the rest,
Though I know I’ll never heed it
and of course, I’ll never read it.
I put it in the scrapbook with the rest."
With this song , I knew that the scrapbook would be the framing device that allowed us to enter Julian's memories and thoughts.
How Can I Best Examine the Life and Career of Forgotten Early 20th Century Female Impersonator, Julian Eltinge?
Modes of Inquiry:
1) Archival Research at New York Library of Performing Arts, Harry Ransom Center, Private Collections, Library of Congress
2) Using Michael Chekhov Technique to explore Image and Psycho-Physical Character Exploration through archival photographs of Eltinge in performance, in "private moments", and in public.
Product:
A Solo Performance Piece, the script drawn entirely from quotes attributed to Eltinge, and the recreation of Vaudeville and Broadway songs and dances based on photographs, descriptions in reviews, and original script notations.
Discoveries:
The Chekhov work led to a reassessing of the fluidity of Eltinge's sexual and gender persona on and offstage. His "public relations" persona vs. his "onstage performance as a woman" vs. his "private life" as both the actor "Julian Eltinge" and the man "Bill Dalton". This resulted in the story examining four distinct "Julian's" and how each persona was crafted by him as a performance. Leaving the larger question by the end of the show--Did Julian ever really know who the "real" Julian was?
Framing Devices:
So much of what is known about Julian comes from scrapbooks in various archives. One amazing resource was Alison Barnet, the great grand daughter of Robert Barnet who discovered Julian in Boston in 1898. She had recently discovered a box of the scripts and scores to the very first shows in which Julian had ever appeared which had been written by Barnet. She graciously sent me some of the songs--one of which was called Put It In the Scrapbook. The lyrics seemed to presciently comment on Eltinge's own performing legacy--
"Since I have been in public life I watch the daily press
And when I see a mention of my name
I know tis but a tribute to my wonderful success
But I save that little clipping just the same!
I put it in the scrapbook
Put it in the scrapbook with the rest,
Though I know I’ll never heed it
and of course, I’ll never read it.
I put it in the scrapbook with the rest."
With this song , I knew that the scrapbook would be the framing device that allowed us to enter Julian's memories and thoughts.
"Gowns! Gowns! I wear Gowns on the Stage Because they are my Work , but when my Work is Done, I hate Them!!"-----Julian Eltinge
Put It In the Scrapbook represents over 10 years of research, conception, workshopping, writing, rewriting, rehearsing, and performance. This piece represents truly original and innovative creative work drawn from historical research, queer and gender studies, and the acting techniques of Michael Chekhov. It has provided a uniquely satisfying scholarly and artistic journey where I have been able to revitalize for modern audiences the fascinating life of this "forgotten legend".
My journey with Julian Eltinge began in 1980 when, as an undergraduate theatre student, I was cast as the iconic Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Because I was also in the process of coming out as a gay man at the same time; I now look back on how I approached that performance by straddling the liminal space between actor, role, gender, and sexuality. In hindsight, I clearly can see the nascent themes that would return 28 years later when I was writing Put It In the Scapbook and exploring “performance” in terms of the construction of “art” and “self”.
Most importantly, my research for Bracknell brought me my first glimpse of Julian Eltinge, a squat looking fellow who became a theatrical sensation as a female impersonator in the early 20th century by transforming himself into glorious Gibson Girl creations. Shortly thereafter, one of my professors gave me a crumbling theatre program he had discovered while renovating an old vaudeville house in Cleveland, Ohio. It was for Eltinge’s signature show, The Fascinating Widow and when look at closely, it served as both a program for the show and a brilliant marketing tool of Magazine and Beauty Hints for Women. For , amazingly, it seemed Eltinge sold his own line of beauty products so women could look "as beautiful as Julian Eltinge." I still have and treasure it. Throughout my many years working in professional theatre I played a number of female roles ranging from the serious to the camp. Each time, I was always brought back to Bill Dalton (Julian’s real name) and continue to be fascinated by the stage persona of Julian Eltinge.
All but forgotten today, Eltinge was at one time the highest paid performer in the United States earning the prestige of having his own Broadway theatre built and named for him. It still stands today off of 42nd St in New York City as the AMC Empire MoviePlex---a picture is below.) An international sensation, he went to Hollywood and became a star of early silent film. Throughout all this time he maintained a secretive personal life (spurring rumours of his homosexuality), but his public persona never waivered; that of a real man’s man who was more comfortable in a pair of overalls than a gown and who would clock you for calling him a “sissy”. Eventually, with the advent of sound and the strict codes of gender behavior following WWII, his style of performance grew out of favor with the general public and, following great losses in the stock market crash in 1929, he fell into a life of alcoholism and virtual obscurity.
In recent years, leading theorists in women’s and performance studies rediscovered Julian through their examinations of early 20th century assumptions about gender and sexuality in performance. Indeed, it is this complex layering of identity that makes Bill Dalton’s story so fascinating to me. Eltinge seemed to be performing several identities at all times in his life, and the pure human theatricality of those presentations interested me. At first, I decided to write a screenplay about him and began my initial research. I soon discovered that even though he is clearly one of the most colorful characters in American Theatre History there had been no books or plays written about him. Sadly, most of the the prints of his movies have been lost My first draft of a screenplay felt wrong. The story was about “performing identity” and seemed more at home in a theatrical setting. So I rethought it as a one man show for myself; allowing me to combine a long wished for desire to perform a solo show with the chance to further explore my own growth as an actor using the Michael Chekhov Technique—an intense psycho-physical process that leads to strongly delineated and unique characters. All I needed was a framework for the narrative structure of the play. This came from a commonly cited story regarding one of Eltinge’s last performances.
As the story goes, following WWII , female impersonation had fallen out of mainstream favor and was deeply associated with perversion. Eltinge, once the “queen” of Broadway and Hollywood was now destitute and forgotten and forced to perform at The Rendezvous, a notorious hangout for homosexuals in 1940’s Los Angeles. Due to a recently passed ordinance meant to crack down on “undesirables”; he was unable to dress as a woman in public or risk arrest. Even after appearing in court to plead his case he was denied. Desperate to fulfill the contract; he appeared on stage holding his costumes on a rack while describing the characters he had once played. Herb Sterne, a critic from Script Magazine, was in the audience that night and described it as being pathetic.
Initially this story seemed tragic to me. Here was a man whose fame was built on creating beautiful illusion but whose art was now considered a crime. I felt there was also something artistically heroic about his actions in finding a way to be a survivor in a time of significant cultural change; finding a way to live up to his contract, get paid, and still preserve his artistic integrity as a legendary female impersonator. I decided that the play’s action would be based on this incident at the Rendezvous and the circumstances would allow Eltinge’s character to reflect upon his life, reliving the highs and lows of his career.
In my continued research I discovered that most of what we know about him is inferred from articles and clippings in a few old scrapbooks kept in theatre archives. In one of these articles “How I Portray a Woman” from a 1918 Theatre Magazine, Eltinge writes the “model script” for most of the interviews he will give throughout the rest of his career. In it, he describes how he prepares to embody a woman on stage, the physical characteristics he must take on, the psychological aspects he must consider, the vocal technique he uses, and of course, the transformation through makeup and costume that must occur. After reading over 200 versions of the same article spanning his 40 year career it became clear to me that much of Eltinge’s life was scripted and artificial. It also felt like a perfect match for working with the Michael Chekhov Technique. Developing this piece I had to really explore the dynamic between four different personas; the very private Bill Dalton , the man’s man when he is not “Julian Eltinge”, the very public Julian Eltinge who is “the world’s highest paid sex simulator”, and the performer Julian Eltinge as both the male and female characters he plays. The collision of these persona was a constant in Eltinge’s life. In fact, Eltinge’s agent often staged bar fights involving Julian to remind the public that he wasn’t an effeminate degenerate but a masculine artist. The play became a fascinating investigation in gender studies through a historical lens and the fluidity of Eltinge’s sexual persona both on and offstage illuminates the presentation of self and gender at the beginning of the 20th century.
Through my work as an Associate Professor of Performance at the University of Georgia I have spent the last ten years combing through archives and collections researching and writing this piece. I have been fortunate to be awarded a number of small research grants to aid in that process. In the Fall of 2005: I received $2500 from Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) for travel/expenses involved in archival research to New York City Library of Performing Arts, the hiring of a musical director, and the help of Michael Chekhov Master Teacher Lionel Walsh who, working with director Kristin Kundert-Gibbs led me through a series of improvisational exercises to flesh out the character and script. Spring 2006: I received $3000 M. G. Michael Award for Outstanding Scholarship to cover research, script completion, workshop expenses. This allowed me to attend the Chekhov Workshop and Conference in Ontario Canada and continue to pay for costs associated with research. Spring 2006: I received $4500 from the UGA Center for Humanities and Arts to collaborate with a media specialist to design media sequences for a workshop production of the piece. Fall 2006-07: I began year long process of workshopping the script with Director, Choreographer, Music Director, Media Specialist, and Movement Coach. Spring 2007: Received $1000 Grant from ICE for purchase of projection screen. Filmed test video segments, animation sequences and created test media sequences.
A workshop production was presented in August 2007 with minimal sets and costumes and “dummy” media.
Following that performance the play underwent major rewriting and rethinking. Characters were cut. Entirely new media sequences were filmed. The play that has emerged is a multimedia solo performance piece. A first re-creation of any of Eltinge's performances since he did them over 100 years ago. The play combines theatre history, media, song and dance, and audacious characterizations; making it not only a unique theatrical experience, but also an important contribution to our knowledge of theatre performance. The play traces his career from his first performance impersonating a young girl as a teenager for the Boston Cadet Academy through his years of international fame to his eventual decline into debt and obscurity.
I play 20+ characters throughout the narrative, sometimes playing “opposite myself” through the projection of new and archival video, animation, and other media.
The show then went on to be presented in-session at ATHE in August 2009 where I again received great critique and feedback. The show then underwent another set of script changes to shorten it a length of under 60 minutes so as to be considered for Fringe Festivals. It has been performed at the New Orleans Fringe in October 2009, the SETC Fringe in March 2011, the Chicago Fringe in August 2012.
Following the Chicago performance, after receiving feedback from potential producers, the title of the show has been changed to ManActress. This is an actual term that was used to describe Eltinge by critics of the time and it was felt it better prepared audiences for what the show is about.
Put It In the Scrapbook represents over 10 years of research, conception, workshopping, writing, rewriting, rehearsing, and performance. This piece represents truly original and innovative creative work drawn from historical research, queer and gender studies, and the acting techniques of Michael Chekhov. It has provided a uniquely satisfying scholarly and artistic journey where I have been able to revitalize for modern audiences the fascinating life of this "forgotten legend".
My journey with Julian Eltinge began in 1980 when, as an undergraduate theatre student, I was cast as the iconic Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Because I was also in the process of coming out as a gay man at the same time; I now look back on how I approached that performance by straddling the liminal space between actor, role, gender, and sexuality. In hindsight, I clearly can see the nascent themes that would return 28 years later when I was writing Put It In the Scapbook and exploring “performance” in terms of the construction of “art” and “self”.
Most importantly, my research for Bracknell brought me my first glimpse of Julian Eltinge, a squat looking fellow who became a theatrical sensation as a female impersonator in the early 20th century by transforming himself into glorious Gibson Girl creations. Shortly thereafter, one of my professors gave me a crumbling theatre program he had discovered while renovating an old vaudeville house in Cleveland, Ohio. It was for Eltinge’s signature show, The Fascinating Widow and when look at closely, it served as both a program for the show and a brilliant marketing tool of Magazine and Beauty Hints for Women. For , amazingly, it seemed Eltinge sold his own line of beauty products so women could look "as beautiful as Julian Eltinge." I still have and treasure it. Throughout my many years working in professional theatre I played a number of female roles ranging from the serious to the camp. Each time, I was always brought back to Bill Dalton (Julian’s real name) and continue to be fascinated by the stage persona of Julian Eltinge.
All but forgotten today, Eltinge was at one time the highest paid performer in the United States earning the prestige of having his own Broadway theatre built and named for him. It still stands today off of 42nd St in New York City as the AMC Empire MoviePlex---a picture is below.) An international sensation, he went to Hollywood and became a star of early silent film. Throughout all this time he maintained a secretive personal life (spurring rumours of his homosexuality), but his public persona never waivered; that of a real man’s man who was more comfortable in a pair of overalls than a gown and who would clock you for calling him a “sissy”. Eventually, with the advent of sound and the strict codes of gender behavior following WWII, his style of performance grew out of favor with the general public and, following great losses in the stock market crash in 1929, he fell into a life of alcoholism and virtual obscurity.
In recent years, leading theorists in women’s and performance studies rediscovered Julian through their examinations of early 20th century assumptions about gender and sexuality in performance. Indeed, it is this complex layering of identity that makes Bill Dalton’s story so fascinating to me. Eltinge seemed to be performing several identities at all times in his life, and the pure human theatricality of those presentations interested me. At first, I decided to write a screenplay about him and began my initial research. I soon discovered that even though he is clearly one of the most colorful characters in American Theatre History there had been no books or plays written about him. Sadly, most of the the prints of his movies have been lost My first draft of a screenplay felt wrong. The story was about “performing identity” and seemed more at home in a theatrical setting. So I rethought it as a one man show for myself; allowing me to combine a long wished for desire to perform a solo show with the chance to further explore my own growth as an actor using the Michael Chekhov Technique—an intense psycho-physical process that leads to strongly delineated and unique characters. All I needed was a framework for the narrative structure of the play. This came from a commonly cited story regarding one of Eltinge’s last performances.
As the story goes, following WWII , female impersonation had fallen out of mainstream favor and was deeply associated with perversion. Eltinge, once the “queen” of Broadway and Hollywood was now destitute and forgotten and forced to perform at The Rendezvous, a notorious hangout for homosexuals in 1940’s Los Angeles. Due to a recently passed ordinance meant to crack down on “undesirables”; he was unable to dress as a woman in public or risk arrest. Even after appearing in court to plead his case he was denied. Desperate to fulfill the contract; he appeared on stage holding his costumes on a rack while describing the characters he had once played. Herb Sterne, a critic from Script Magazine, was in the audience that night and described it as being pathetic.
Initially this story seemed tragic to me. Here was a man whose fame was built on creating beautiful illusion but whose art was now considered a crime. I felt there was also something artistically heroic about his actions in finding a way to be a survivor in a time of significant cultural change; finding a way to live up to his contract, get paid, and still preserve his artistic integrity as a legendary female impersonator. I decided that the play’s action would be based on this incident at the Rendezvous and the circumstances would allow Eltinge’s character to reflect upon his life, reliving the highs and lows of his career.
In my continued research I discovered that most of what we know about him is inferred from articles and clippings in a few old scrapbooks kept in theatre archives. In one of these articles “How I Portray a Woman” from a 1918 Theatre Magazine, Eltinge writes the “model script” for most of the interviews he will give throughout the rest of his career. In it, he describes how he prepares to embody a woman on stage, the physical characteristics he must take on, the psychological aspects he must consider, the vocal technique he uses, and of course, the transformation through makeup and costume that must occur. After reading over 200 versions of the same article spanning his 40 year career it became clear to me that much of Eltinge’s life was scripted and artificial. It also felt like a perfect match for working with the Michael Chekhov Technique. Developing this piece I had to really explore the dynamic between four different personas; the very private Bill Dalton , the man’s man when he is not “Julian Eltinge”, the very public Julian Eltinge who is “the world’s highest paid sex simulator”, and the performer Julian Eltinge as both the male and female characters he plays. The collision of these persona was a constant in Eltinge’s life. In fact, Eltinge’s agent often staged bar fights involving Julian to remind the public that he wasn’t an effeminate degenerate but a masculine artist. The play became a fascinating investigation in gender studies through a historical lens and the fluidity of Eltinge’s sexual persona both on and offstage illuminates the presentation of self and gender at the beginning of the 20th century.
Through my work as an Associate Professor of Performance at the University of Georgia I have spent the last ten years combing through archives and collections researching and writing this piece. I have been fortunate to be awarded a number of small research grants to aid in that process. In the Fall of 2005: I received $2500 from Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) for travel/expenses involved in archival research to New York City Library of Performing Arts, the hiring of a musical director, and the help of Michael Chekhov Master Teacher Lionel Walsh who, working with director Kristin Kundert-Gibbs led me through a series of improvisational exercises to flesh out the character and script. Spring 2006: I received $3000 M. G. Michael Award for Outstanding Scholarship to cover research, script completion, workshop expenses. This allowed me to attend the Chekhov Workshop and Conference in Ontario Canada and continue to pay for costs associated with research. Spring 2006: I received $4500 from the UGA Center for Humanities and Arts to collaborate with a media specialist to design media sequences for a workshop production of the piece. Fall 2006-07: I began year long process of workshopping the script with Director, Choreographer, Music Director, Media Specialist, and Movement Coach. Spring 2007: Received $1000 Grant from ICE for purchase of projection screen. Filmed test video segments, animation sequences and created test media sequences.
A workshop production was presented in August 2007 with minimal sets and costumes and “dummy” media.
Following that performance the play underwent major rewriting and rethinking. Characters were cut. Entirely new media sequences were filmed. The play that has emerged is a multimedia solo performance piece. A first re-creation of any of Eltinge's performances since he did them over 100 years ago. The play combines theatre history, media, song and dance, and audacious characterizations; making it not only a unique theatrical experience, but also an important contribution to our knowledge of theatre performance. The play traces his career from his first performance impersonating a young girl as a teenager for the Boston Cadet Academy through his years of international fame to his eventual decline into debt and obscurity.
I play 20+ characters throughout the narrative, sometimes playing “opposite myself” through the projection of new and archival video, animation, and other media.
The show then went on to be presented in-session at ATHE in August 2009 where I again received great critique and feedback. The show then underwent another set of script changes to shorten it a length of under 60 minutes so as to be considered for Fringe Festivals. It has been performed at the New Orleans Fringe in October 2009, the SETC Fringe in March 2011, the Chicago Fringe in August 2012.
Following the Chicago performance, after receiving feedback from potential producers, the title of the show has been changed to ManActress. This is an actual term that was used to describe Eltinge by critics of the time and it was felt it better prepared audiences for what the show is about.
A Few Primary Sources are Pictured Below
Performing The Ragtime College Turkey Trot |
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