150 years of Female Impersonators in Milwaukee

The Jewel Box Revue (1953)

The Jewel Box Revue (1953)

Actors who portrayed women onstage have always been popular and likely go back to the beginning of recorded history. In Milwaukee, the first instance of a female impersonator on stage was 1884, and judging by the reviews, stole the show. This was a time when the art of female impersonation emerged from circus freak shows or dime museums and into mainstream theaters.

In the next decade, Milwaukee stage managers booked impersonators on a semi-regular basis. The Crystal, Star and People’s burlesque theaters appealed to working class audiences because admission was only a dime. Traveling productions that played these stages had at least one impersonator that brought down the house with jokes and songs in German, Irish and African America