#638 - Venus Castina C J Bulliet Guys in Gowns
Venus Castina
Famous Female Impersonators Celestial and Human
by C. J. Bulliet
illustrations by Alexander King
Covici, Friede Publishers, Inc.
New York, New York
1928
digital replica
and
Guys in Gowns
S-K Books [Leonard Burtman]
cover by Eric Stanton
New York, New York
1964
digtial replica
Venus Castina
After working as a journalist for nine years in Indianapolis, during which time he reviewed plays, Mr. Bulliet found employment doing publicity for a traveling Shakespeare company. He worked as an art critic and was the author of four books. It's fair to say that he was a professional writer, far ahead of his time.
In Venus Castina, Mr. Bulliet shows the audacity to address a previously unexplored subject, and begins his account of famous female impersonators shortly after the invention of alphabets. His comprehensive inventory of personalities includes Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, emperors, philosophers, warriors and writers. His 300+ page history blends record, literature, gossip, innuendo, and rumors of 25 centuries. He not only tells us what notable impersonators wore at dinner, he describes the cuisine. The readable prose crackles with witty conversation, quotations from many books, and clever verse.
Between surprising anecdotes and lines from famous literature, he refers to Plutarch, Socrates, Shakespeare, Abbe de Choissy, Queen Elisabeth I, Homer, Oscar Wilde, Francis Bacon, Virgil, George M. Cohan, Solomon, Havelock Ellis, Moliere, Eddie Foy, Juvenal, King Charles (I and II), Victor Hugo, Ben Jonson and the Y.M.C.A. He spends several chapters describing the costumes and figures of actors and opera singers who worked onstage in female roles.
The ebook carefully reconstructs pages and typography of the original hardcover book. The text has been completely re-set for the ebook iteration of this modern classic of esoteric history. Twelve Alexander King illustrations are included, placed after the text they are adjacent to in the original.
A unique and pioneering research work, it reflects the boisterous timbre of its era — the racy Twenties and its disastrous Volsteadism. Sophisticated and confident, wry and warm, Mr. Bulliet offers a treasure of information about colorful female impersonators, the kind of information that piques t-v pride.
Guys in Gowns
According to Dr. Bienvenu, Leonard Burtman published out of two dozen corporations from 1954 to 1970. In 1964, S-K Publishers produced several digest-sized one-shots, including the first publication with the name Bizarre Life.
Guys in Gowns has a format identical to the Connoisseur series: color covers and 64 interior pages of monochrome photographs with little text. Mr. Burtman launched Female Mimics magazine in 1963 as a Selbee Associates product and performers seen in Guys in Gowns were also featured in issues of the full-sized magazine.
The conscientiously produced volume introduces us to four entertainers: Kim August, Hans, Terry Noel and Toby Marsh. We meet them in apartments and are shown bits of the male to female conversion process, applying makeup, wigs, and stockings. No pictures show impersonators on stage.
The ebook presents all the content of the original in the original sequence. Brightness and contrast were adjusted and specks re-touched.
Cute, flirty, knowing and sexy, they show off in leather, nylons, lace and fur. Competent at projecting female identity, they seduce us into assuming that these are pictures of women. However they transpose gender, it's clear they're having fun creating unique, feminine personalities.
NOTE:
The Venus Castina .pdf file requires a password to open it. The easy-to-remember password is included in a third password file.
Two e-books, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.