LGBTQ Drag Performance and Nightlife Culture in 1950s New Orleans Club My-O-My Ephemera

Club My-O-My

Archive

Club My-O-My ephemera archive, four items dating to the 1950s, documenting drag performance culture and nightlife in New Orleans during the mid-twentieth century. The material reflects a venue central to the development of female impersonation revues in the Gulf South, where staged performances of gender transformation were presented to mixed audiences within a commercial entertainment setting. These items illustrate how drag performers were marketed through glamour, humor, and spectacle, offering insight into the visual and cultural language of early LGBTQ nightlife in a region where such expression operated within constrained social boundaries.

Club My-O-My. New Orleans, ca. 1950s. Four items comprising three large-format printed programs or handbills and one real photo postcard. The programs feature illustrated and photographic covers depicting performers in costume, including Jimmy Callaway identified as master of ceremonies, shown in theatrical attire such as a feathered tutu or formal eveningwear with gloves. Taglines such as “The World’s Most Beautiful Boys in Women’s Attire” appear prominently, emphasizing performance identity and audience appeal. Additional performer images include Gene La Marr, Poppy Lane, and Johnny Brown, each presented in stylized stage costume. One handbill titled “Mardi Gras Greetings” includes an illustrated figure holding a wig with the caption “I’m a HE—not a she,” foregrounding themes of gender inversion and theatrical transformation. The real photo postcard shows a group of performers posed onstage in coordinated evening dress beneath a banner bearing the venue’s slogan, documenting ensemble presentation and staging practices.

Produced during a period when drag performance circulated within nightclub entertainment rather than mainstream media, these materials demonstrate how gender nonconformity was framed through spectacle and humor while remaining legible to broader audiences. Club My-O-My functioned as a regional center for drag performance, contributing to the development of Southern queer nightlife traditions and influencing later venues and performers. The archive supports research into LGBTQ performance history, visual culture of drag, and mid-century entertainment economies. Light handling wear and minor age toning; overall very good condition. A focused group of promotional and photographic material documenting a significant site in the history of American drag performance.

Item #22793

Price: $750.00