Who is Julian Eltinge?

from Michael Bronski, Author of A Queer History in the United States

Men dressed in women’s clothing are now common in popular entertainment. Films such as Priscilla, Queer of the Desert and Mrs. Doubtfire have devoted followings. Drag – illegal in many states just two decades ago – is now glorified on television in RuPaul’s Drag Race.

But the popularity of drag is not new. Nor has it, until recently, been particularly taboo. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Julian Eltinge was internationally famous, and beloved, for his performances as a woman. Eltinge’s reputations was so great that in 1912 his producer Al Woods built, and named, a beautiful Broadway theater that was considered the jewel of Forty-second Street. Eltinge was probably the most noted male performer of the early part of the century, but he is almost entirely forgotten today.

Julian Eltinge was born William Julian Dalton in 1881 in Newtonville just outside of Boston. He traveled around the country with his father when he was young, but – apparently at the urging of his Boston-based dance teacher – began impersonating women at the age of ten when he appeared at Boston’s Tremont Theater in the Boston Cadets Review. In the late 19th century and early 20th century boys and young men often played female roles in plays at all male schools so Eltinge’s drag performances here were not unusual. What was unusual was that he had found a theatrical calling and continued his female impersonations. By the age of 23 he was on Broadway in the musical Mr. Wix of Wickham, and soon after began play the high paying vaudeville circuit where he made his reputation. He was considered the equal to such famous performers as Fannie Brice, Eddie Cantor, and Eva Tanguay. While a few other male performers used drag in their acts it was always for comic effect, and broad laughs. What distinguished Eltinge was that he played beautiful women, very seriously, and with great respect. His fame spread so far that two years later, in 1906, he was invited to London to give a royal performance for King Edward VII.

Back in the United States Eltinge’s fame soon soared even further with his duel performance and a male college student and flirty older woman in musical The Fascinating Widow. The show had a short Broadway run, but spent the next three years touring the country, demonstrating that men in beautiful dresses did not just appeal to urban audiences but were part of American mainstream culture. The huge success of The Fascinating Widow led to more lavish musicals and Eltinge’s fame – spurred on by his keen sense, and unflagging application of self-promotion – was such that he edited three separate magazines about himself, including Julian Eltinge’s Magazine of Beauty Hints and Tips. In conjunction with this he marketed his own personalized brands of shoes, cosmetics, and corsets for his predominantly female audience. Understanding his own unique position as a man/woman one ad read, rather campily: "See What the Julian Eltinge Cold Cream Does for a Man. Imagine What It Will Do For a Woman."

From 1917 to 1925 Eltinge made films in Hollywood, almost always in duel roles one of which was a beautiful woman. During these years he was the toast of Hollywood and intimate friends with the biggest stars. At the height of his fame he built the Villa Capistrano, considered the grandest home in Los Angeles where he lived with his mother and hosted lasvish parties. Although he made films into the 1930s, Eltinge’s fortunes began to change. His style of elegant drag was beginning to be passe as the wild roaring twenties ushered in speakeasies and rowdier entertainment. He also began drinking and in 1923 was arrested for smuggling liquor to the U.S. from Canada. His extravagant lifestyle also incurred debts that ultimately forced him to sell his home. He was reduced to perform in cheap nightclubs, often in ill-health – his alcoholism was pronounced at this time – and died in New York in 1941 when he collapsed during a show. Officially his death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage, but persistent rumors held that it was kidney failure, liver failure, and even suicide.

Julian Eltinge never married and his will he clearly stated “I declare that I am a bachelor.” While many people suspected that he was gay, he himself never came out. If anything he did his best to discourage speculation about his sexuality. He even went so far– on a trip to Japan in 1919 – to claim he was married, but most of his protestations were self-generated, and reproduced by the popular media, press releases demonstrating his virility and his accomplishment at sports, hunting, and being an outdoorsman. There were never concrete rumors of a lover or partner of either sex, and no one, in recent historical research, has found one. Yet, most everyone who worked with him and kew him well, claims he was a gay man.

The importance of Julian Eltinge’s career is not about whether or not he was a homosexual, but rather on what his incredible popularity tells us about sex and gender roles in the early decades of the twentieth century. As America was rapidly growing and becoming a complex, modern country its citizens were beginning to question old-fashioned ideas of what it meant to be a man or a woman. They were fascinated by a man who could be a virile sportsman, yet convince a theater that he was a beautiful woman. They were titillated by a man dressed as a woman flirting with men on stage. Julian Eltinge had good reason not to come out in the 1920s or 1930s – he could have been arrested if the police even suspected that he was sexually involved with another man – but his bravery, and his glamour demonstrated to all Americans that there were endless possibilities to what it meant to be a man and be a woman, or even being both at the same time.

Today Julian Eltinge is a footnote in theatrical and gay history. The only remaining monument to him is the facade and lobby of the Julian Eltinge Theater which now forms the front and entranceway to AMC’s multiplex on 423ed Street iin New York.