Mid-Century American Drag Performance Archive: Jim Bailey, T.C. Jones, Club 82, and My-O-My, 1950s-70s

Jim Bailey T C. Jones Club 82 Club My-O-My

Archive

[Drag][LGBTQ][Theater and Performance] Drag performance and female impersonation ephemera documenting mid twentieth century queer nightlife and theatrical entertainment in the United States. Materials span the 1950s through the early 1980s and include promotional pieces, programs, and magazines associated with prominent drag performers and venues including Charles Pierce, Jim Bailey, T C Jones, Club My O My in New Orleans, and the 82 Club in New York. These entertainers and venues formed part of a network of nightlife spaces where gender performance and queer identity developed public visibility decades before the broader cultural acceptance of drag entertainment.

Club My-O-My, a major venue for female impersonators in New Orleans is featured with programs and postcards identifying the entertainers. The archive also includes the 82 Club in New York, legendary drag artist T.C. Jones at the Huntington Hartford Theatre, Jim Bailey’s celebrity impersonation act, Charles Pierce at The Plush Room, and a Tangents benefit performance of The Women starring drag queens as the main characters. Archive of thirteen printed items dating from the 1950s through 1982, including tourist brochures, postcards, three Club My-O-My programs, show programs, advertisements, and magazines documenting drag entertainment across New Orleans, New York, Hollywood, and San Francisco.

[1] "See New Orleans" Brochure for Bill Hayes Sightseeing Tours. New Orleans: ca. 1950s. Tri-fold tourist brochure advertising the “Gay Night Tour” of New Orleans’ French Quarter, with stops at “clubs where they feature Dixie-land Jazz” and most notably, “female impersonators” with a photo of performer Jimmy Callaway. The euphemistic language reflects the era’s simultaneous fascination with and marginalization of gender non-conformity. Pitches the tour as “A Visit to Some of Our Best Clubs” and includes the tagline “This is a Tour for Broadminded People.”

[2] Club My-O-My Program. New Orleans: Club My-O-My, ca. 1950s. 6 x 9.5 inches. Mardi Gras Greetings program with a line drawing of a male performer holding a wig captioned “I’m a HE . . . not a she.” Back cover advertises Club My-O-My as “New Orleans’ Most Unusual Nite Club", and Mr. Johnny Brown billed as “Style and Grace, the Lovely Face” and “Club My-O-My’s Favorite MC.”
[3] Club My-O-My Program. New Orleans: Club My-O-My, ca. 1950s. 6 x 9.5 inches. Mardi Gras Greetings program with Mr. Jimmy Callaway pictured as “Planet Record Star and Featured Attraction.” Back cover advertises three nightly shows and Mr. Billy De Voe billed as “Park Avenue Hillbilly” and “Master of Ceremonies"
[4] Club My-O-My Program. New Orleans: Club My-O-My, ca. 1950s. 9.5 x 12 inches. Larger program headed “Mr. Pat Waters” and “The World’s Most Beautiful Boys In Women’s Attire,” with Mr. Jimmy Callaway pictured as “Master of Ceremonies” and described as “Risque, Terrific, Sweet . . . Your Favorite and Mine . . . Sensational Song Stylist.” Back cover advertises Club My-O-My as “New Orleans’ Most Unusual Nite Club,” gives showtimes of 10:00, 12:00, and 2:00 nightly with Saturday and holiday performances continuing to 3:00, lists reservation phone Evergreen 4431, and features Mr. Gene La Marr as “Cuba’s Famous Soprano and America’s No. 1 Female Impersonator . . . Appearing Nightly.”

[5] T.C. Jones in Mask and Gown. Huntington Hartford Theatre, Hollywood: The Playgoer, 1958. Program from T.C. Jones’ starring role in a musical revue, one of the few female impersonators to gain commercial success in mainstream theater. Credits include musical staging by Jim Russell and musical direction by Dorothea Freitag. T.C. Jones helped normalize drag performance as Broadway-adjacent revue, with this production showcasing the theatrical crossover potential of drag in the 1950s.

[6] Cabaret Magazine. Vol. 1, No. 10. Skokie, IL: February 1956. Features the article “How Men Become Female Impersonators” by R. Cushing Smith, detailing backstage preparations by drag artists like Mario Costello, including wig work, corsetry, and makeup. Includes documentary photos of transformation and performance. An early journalistic treatments of female impersonation as a technical and theatrical art, capturing drag as labor-intensive, expressive, and stigmatized performance.

[7] Tangents Presents: The Women. Los Angeles: Embassy Auditorium, December 16–17 [ca. 1970s]. Clipped newspaper advertisement for an all-male production of The Women performed as a legal defense fundraiser by Tangents, a pioneering West Hollywood gay organization. Features photos of drag cast members including Geri Gordon, Mame Dennis, and Chrystal.

[8] Jim Bailey Autographed Program. Lakes Region Playhouse, Gilford, NH: August 27–September 2, 1979. Single-sheet signed program from a performance by Jim Bailey, famed for his live impersonations of Judy Garland and other icons. Inscribed “To Don Anderson—God’s Peace—Jim Bailey.” Bailey’s act fused celebrity drag, vocal prowess, and pop culture nostalgia. His popularity across queer and mainstream venues shows how mid-century drag artists performed cultural memory as gender expression.

[9] Sold Out: The San Francisco Bay Area Cabaret Magazine. January 1982. Stapled booklet featuring Charles Pierce on the cover, widely considered one of the first openly gay drag performers to achieve crossover success in mainstream entertainment. Promotes his appearance at The Plush Room, San Francisco.

[10] 82 Club Revue Postcard. New York: ca. 1950s. Color postcard showing performers in lavish white feathered costumes, posed with choreographed precision. Produced as a souvenir for the 82 Club, a well-known venue where drag was performed as high camp glamour for a mixed audience.

[11] 82 Club Revue Postcard. New Yrok: ca. 1950s. Another full-color promotional postcard from the 82 Club, featuring a large ensemble of drag performers in sailor and showgirl attire, evoking patriotic and burlesque fantasy. The crowd includes both showgirl performers and supporting cast in gender-ambiguous roles.

[12] Club My-O-My Postcard. New Orleans: ca. 1950s. Color postcard captioned “Mr. Pat Waters” and “The World’s Most Beautiful Boys in Women’s Attire,” featuring performers at Club My-O-My, the city’s most famous female impersonator club, in formal dresses and glamorous poses.

[13] Club My-O-My Postcard. New Orleans: ca. 1950s. Color postcard captioned “Mr. Pat Waters” and “The World’s Most Beautiful Boys in Women’s Attire,” featuring performers at Club My-O-My, in formal dresses and glamorous poses.

An extraordinary archive documenting mid-century drag and female impersonation as performance, spectacle, and subculture. From the high-camp glamour of the 82 Club and Club My-O-My to political fundraisers and theatrical crossovers, these pieces offer a rare visual and textual history of how queer gender expression survived and thrived in entertainment, decades before drag entered the mainstream.

Item #22909

Price: $3,500.00