Drag & Burlesque History and Origins

Jan 247 min read

Origins

Victorian burlesque was popular in London theaters from the 1830s to the 1890s. It took well-known cultures such as opera or Shakespeare and parodied it. They would often use the original music or popular music of the time and re-write the lyrics for comic effect. Venues became known for showing burlesque during this era. The Victorian burlesque style was taken to New York in the 1840s. It was later popularized in 1868 by Lydia Thomson’s visiting dance troupe, the British Blondes. Their burlesque shows were focused on parody elements performed by a female cast. The women wore tights which were risqué for the Victorian era, when compared to all the ruffles used to hide a female leg. Their first success in New York was with Ixion (1868). The mythological spoof saw women playing men’s roles. A female-run production that showed under-dressed, attractive women mimicking patriarchs’ roles, including as sexual aggressors, pushed boundaries. No wonder the show was a hit! Lydia Thompson’s first season in the city grossed over $370,000. There was soon prudish outrage which, of course, fueled the demand for such shows. Quickly, imitators were popping up and were also often female-run.

Drag and Burlesque both originated as a type of parody, and could be literary, dramatic or musical with the intention to make their audience laugh by poking fun at more serious pieces of art or the treatment of an artist's muse. Performers were typically marginalized members of society as well. It can be argued that drag began as a type of burlesque act, as the performers would often be mocking society’s standards of women in comedic and often ridiculous ways, demonstrating the ridiculous expectations that were placed on women.

Loosely speaking, drag kings specifically can be traced back hundreds of years, their beginnings stemming from the legacies of male impersonators in the 1600s onwards. Even before this, there are records of female cross-dressers dating back thousands of years, such as women who performed in male roles during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) in China. And throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, female-born actors began playing male roles in France, Italy, Britain, Sweden, and other parts of Europe.

Late 1800s-1920s

Both drag and burlesque started to take shape as Vaudeville gained popularity in America in the late 1800s- early 1900s.

Vaudeville was a variety show with singers, dancers, jugglers, comedians, magicians and even trained animal acts. Female impersonation became a staple to Vaudeville, thus the first known Drag Queen was born, Julian Eltinge.
In 1869, within Harlem's Hamilton Lodge, drag balls began. As the secret of the balls spread within the gay community, they became a safe place for gay men to congregate. Despite their growing popularity, drag balls were deemed illegal and immoral by mainstream society. However, this is where so much of drag and burlesque culture came from, and we have black and brown queers and trans folks to thank for that.

Producers began to notice with burlesque shows that the strip tease was making the money, so burlesque went through a shift from more satirical performances to focusing on the art of the strip. This is where you may think of classical style burlesque really making its shining moment. This explains why burlesque began as a cultural and political movement, but so much of what we see is centered around glamorous femme bodies that in the spotlight and less of the performers and numbers that make a statement.

And as for bipoc history in the burlesque world, burlesque did have a dark background of racist character portrayals since this was considered “comedy” at that time (i.e. blackface and exaggerated stereotypes), and shows were often segregated with all-white casts and all-black/bipoc casts existing separately. But between the 1920s and the 1950s performers started to co-mingle.

Jean Idelle was the first black woman to tour with an all white burlesque troupe. Unfortunately, black dancers were paid the worst while white and lighter skinned dancers were able to make more money. As audiences integrated, white troupes began to hire one or two performers of color that they could bill as “featured attractions.” However, these burlesque dancers were publicized as “exotics” with producers using descriptors like “jungle fever” or “voodoo mistress” on posters and playbills. Frequently, women of color were only booked if they performed acts which reinforced racist stereotypes.

In the mid-to-late 1800s, Drag King pioneers like Annie Hindle, Vesta Tilley, Hetty King, Ella Shields, and Ella Wesner began performing. And in the early 1900s, Go-Won-Go Mohawk was likely the first Indigenous male impersonator. However, male impersonators did not co-mingle with drag or burlesque performers very often for fear of being too taboo.

By the early 1900s, black king performers like Gladys Bentley and Stormé DeLarverie were becoming drag pioneers. It was in 1920s America that male impersonators became more associated with LGBT+ culture.

Born in Philadelphia, blues singer Gladys Bentley, known for her masculine attire, was a major figure during a cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s in New York City, which saw an outpouring of culture, theatre, and music by black artists.
Stormé DeLarverie was a drag king performer at the Jewel Box Revue, a touring drag cabaret that catered to a mainstream crowd, from 1955 through to 1969, the year of the Stonewall uprising, which paved the way for modern LGBT+ rights movement. DeLarverie is believed by some to have thrown the ‘first punch’ that precipitated the Stonewall Riots.

During the prohibition, drag became more underground showcasing mainly in speakeasies. This tied drag and burlesque heavily to the queer community and nightlife. Many queers found comfort in a safe space to express themselves.

1920s Drag Balls became quite popular despite the law, especially in New York City, and became a safe space where for the LGBTQ community to cross dress and be themselves, and they would have performance battles as well as fashion shows and beauty pageants.
What were once known as Masquerade and Civic Balls were dubbed "Faggots Balls" by the general public after it became well known that these spectacles were frequented by gay, lesbian, and transgender people. The balls did not attract just queer patrons, though straight artists, writers, and ball appreciators outside the LGBTQ community frequented these spectacles for their renowned reputation.

1930s

1933 the Hollywood Motion Picture Production Code was passed, which forbade men impersonating women as society began to see it as a perversion. This did not stop the queers who continued to express themselves in underground venues- bringing together yet again drag, burlesque, singers, dancers, comedians, and more!

1950s-1960s

Come the 1950s and 1960s, a whole genre of performers called “shake dancers” was alive and thriving as well. Shake dancers were black and brown women performing burlesque, and they very much had their moments to shine and make triple the wage offered by their civilian jobs. A top billed shake dancer could expect to earn between $500 and $1000 a week (however, compare this to burlesque star Tempest Storm, who in a burlesque study conducted between 1961-63 was found to be the highest paid stripteaser in the nation, earning a salary of $2000 weekly). Shake dancers gained fame, notoriety and a slew of wealthy admirers, including singers, actors, politicians and even royals. Many of them were booked to tour the world, made TV appearances and, in later life, made an easy transition into singing at theatres, clubs and casinos. However it is of course much more taboo and dangerous for black and brown women to strip while white women have a much easier time doing so. This paired with the fact that white women were of course desired more at the time and pushed out many opportunities for bipoc women creating the very whitewashed burlesque environments we see so often today.

Following the 1920s drag balls, drag continued to thrive through the 50s and 60s.

Stonewall riots of 1969 in which NYC police raided a popular gay venue only brought more strength to the queer community, as the community banded together in protest of being discriminated against any longer.

1970s-1980s

Drag culture and “gender bending” became more popular with the rise of David Bowie, Rocky Horror, and other mainstream artists showing the world that gender fuck-shit was all the rage.

1980s-1990s

Drag kings became more prominent in the 1980s and 1990s, including in New York, Sydney and London, alongside the modern LGBT+ rights movement. Pioneers included Canadian-born Diane Torr, who ran drag king workshops in New York in the 1990s before taking her work to countries in Europe, alongside Turkey and India.

Current Day

In burlesque, many non-white performers and many genderqueer and trans performers exist, but the representation is still too small and often these marginalized humans still feel uncomfortable or tokenized in shows. The rise of Neo-burlesque has allowed much more of a space for alternative and marginalized performers, with less rules and more artistic expression than classical burlesque.

Drag has permeated into pop culture (Ru Paul, Dragula, etc).

Drag Kings still fight for visibility, but we have had Landon Cider, Throb Zombie, and Jarvis Hammer in the spotlight on Dragula.

Landon Cider - winner of Dragula Season 3

Many performers now identify as “draglesque.” Even though the two communities do exist separately, they are always side by side and bleeding together. The two are forever intertwined and should be!!

Take-Aways

Due to the harsh history of BIPOC women in burlesque, we must make sure we heal that generational trauma by uplifting these performers in our community. We owe it to BIPOC friends to work harder to not only get them booked, but to also make them feel supported and comfortable.

It is essential we keep fighting to good fight because we are SO privileged to be able to do what we do thanks to those who came before us and forged our path. It is essential to love one another and advocate for each other especially in 2025 when the future feels unknown.

Community over competition!

We may need to go more underground like our ancestors did when political times are tough, but we will persevere and we will continue to revolt against bigoted political systems!!!

Historical Baddies to Get to Know

Burlesque