Most Famous Trans Stars PRE-INTERNET

[collector171]

Candy, Shannon, the girl from Australia whose name I can't remember

i will need to take some pics of old mags and post them when I get some time.

C

[danoblue]

Loni Brown used to work at Peanuts/Club 6969
Gina and Geneva. Met Geneva at Peanuts, softest hands

[danoblue]

Kristy MacNicol from Australia

[Torris]

Who were the most famous trans stars PRE-INTERNET.






Looking for names like Dana Douglas, Brandy Scott, etc.

Dana Douglas on the cover of She-Male Vacation brought me to Tgirl porn. Before her, I avoided the “gay” section in the San Francisco porn huts along Polk Street and Market Street

[donfjr]

Caroline Cossey, Bond Girl, For Your Eyes Only

[Stavros]

Who were the most famous trans stars PRE-INTERNET.
Looking for names like Dana Douglas, Brandy Scott, etc.

The answer to this question lies in its sources, some of which are stiil avaiable in one format or another.

These sources are in no order of importance-
1) Magazines, such as Female Impersonator (1960s-70s), Female Mimics International, and others that came and went with a similar theme, and the porn that was produced in the 1970s which has featured in other threads on HA such as the Then and Now thread on locations.
Here is one link to an issue of Female Impersonator (1969) which I bought c1970 -I used to have several of these but they went into the bin one day and were lost forever. Other magazines/issues available from the link below

https://www.digitaltransgenderarchiv...iles/v405s9646

2) Feature Films
Walk on, blink-and-you-miss it appearances have been common over the years, though I don't know who was the first or where, but there are two candidates:

a) the Japanese feature film The Black Lizard (1968 ) whose main character -Akihiro Miwa is transgendered -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063203/
Akahio Miwa bio here-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihiro_Miwa

b) Also in 1968 was Frank Simon's Documentary The Queen, which is still worth seeing -the winner, Rachel Harlow, used Finnochio as a stage name -it may be linked to the night-club/revue Finnochio's in San Francisco that first opened in the 1930s. I went to Finnochio's when I was in SF in 1983 and by coincidence, Bob Fosse and his wife were in the audience, and contrary to the offensive/childish remarks Bill Cosby makes in one of his recorded stand-up shows from the 1970s, there were no queens in the toilets doing what comes naturally, if not for Mr Cosby.
Rachel Harlow as far as I know was not involved with the SF club, but Harlow's in Philadelphia, details here
https://zagria.blogspot.com/2015/01/...ner-model.html

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063477/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_5

This thread also helps, esp. re Eva Robin's who must be one of the most famous people pre-internet, along with the porn stars-
http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/sho...-in-the-cinema

3) Porn
An abundance of porn emerged in the 1980s, Sulka's Wedding being the most famous, followed by so many, but search for name and more titles will emerge-
Leilani
Summer St Cerly
Cassandra del Rio
Dana Douglas
Morelle De Keigh
Julie Bond
Kelly Michaels
-and so many more!

4) Television
Drag has been common on UK tv, most of it straight comedians reviving a genre popular from music hall and armed forces entertainment. Danny La Rue for me was a teenage crush, I even went to the Palace Theatre in London to see his show, but they were times when he was top of the range if you could not get access to one or two exclusive clubs, and he was famous in the UK.
Rebel Rebel -sort of well known on the pub cabaret circuit in the 1980s- and some friends appeared in an episode of Eastenders, I think in 1986, but perhaps the most famous was in Australia, where the former dancer Carlotta, a dancer with Les Girls in Melbourne appeared a a transexual character in the soap opera Number 96, in 1973. Links below to Carlotta who moved to the Gold Coast and is, I think, quite well known in Australia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlot...on_personality
Her website is here
http://www.carlotta.com.au/

I saw Les Girls when they came to London in I think 1979, it was quite a good review if you like that sort of lypsynching thing. Carlotta was pretty amazing then, as was another performer with dark hair whose name I don't know.

5) Books
There have been a few books dedicated to transgendered people, mostly photo books, and though they do not feature for the most part famous people there were some who could be seen in London clubs or pubs
Men in Frocks (1984, ed by Kris Kirk and Ed Heath) is quite good as an overview of the UK drag scene, and some of the people in the photos I used to see at the Porchester Hall balls, Mickey being sensational. This is all at the anecdotal level, I am sure there are guys in the US who can point to some girls that appeared in magazines who they would see at clubs and such places. It is fame of a sort.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Frocks-.../dp/0907040489

The point being that I believe all the people referred to here were famous in their own way, in the transgender 'underground' whether they did porn or photo shoots, and that this phenomenon is not new, but has suffered in the past from a lack of exposure, pun intended!

[morim]

Yeah, I was thinking of Sulka and Shannon. Summer St. Cerly, Angel Harris, and Leilani were around about the same time as Dana Douglass. And Meghan Chavalier was around right when the internet was getting going (and maybe before).

I know there were girls even before, but for me too the first names that come to my mind were just Sulka and Shannon

[tslvr]

Juicy Jennifer and Pasha too

[Fitzcarraldo]

Morelle De Keigh

[bryanferryfan2]

Jennifer Thomas and Sulka were my first experiences with transgendered ladies... I clearly remember seeing Sulka in a magazine 40 years ago and then Jennifer Thomas in video in the 80's.


Sulka

Jennifer Thomas



Here's a few magazine covers I think many of you may remember !