Chevalier Publications, Virginia Prince’s Newspaper Coverage of Gender Variance in Six Issues of TV Clip-Sheet, 1960s-70s

Virginia Prince TV Clip-Sheet

Periodical

TV Clip-Sheet gathered mainstream newspaper and magazine clippings on cross dressing, female impersonation, passing, theatrical performance, arrest and public scandal for readers already connected to Chevalier Publications’ transvestite print network. These six issues preserve the publication’s method of reprinting sensational press language, with headlines including “Princeton Lads Put Show On The Road,” “The Amazing Dilemma of Kenneth Johnson,” “Men Were Girls!,” “A Tale of Two Sexes,” “He Got Idea From Mother,” “He Was a Man All the Time,” and “The Lady Is an Undercover Man.” The sheets record how mid century newspapers described gender nonconformity through entertainment, crime, deception, medical curiosity, and nightclub publicity, while Chevalier repackaged that coverage for a specialized readership. The group links the broader press record to the same Los Angeles publisher behind Transvestia, placing mass media accounts beside the private mail circulation through which cross dressing readers followed public cases and underground performance.

TV Clip-Sheet. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, 1960s to 1970s. Archive of 6 issues: Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 38.

[1] TV Clip-Sheet. No. 1. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, 1962. Two full pages. Opens with “Princeton Lads Put Show On The Road” and includes a “Personality Parade” feature naming “some of America’s foremost female impersonators,” along with clippings headed “I Tried Both Sexes,” “Dennis Day as Sophie Tucker,” “Dual Role for Alastair Sim,” and “Nellee’s No Lady But He Wears Long Skirts.”

[2] TV Clip-Sheet. No. 4. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, circa 1960s. Includes “The Amazing Dilemma of Kenneth Johnson,” a large feature on Kenneth Johnson, plus additional clippings headed “This Beautiful Gal, Her ‘Girl’ Pal Was Really a Man,” “Women’s Clothes Were His Disguise,” “The Model Who Fooled London,” and “A Feminine Man.” The sheet centers on press accounts of passing, exposure, and feminine presentation framed as mystery or deception.

[3] TV Clip-Sheet. No. 5. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, circa 1960s. Includes “American Male Has Donned Ugly Look,” “Men Were Girls!,” and additional small clippings on masculine and feminine appearance. The issue preserves the period’s tabloid vocabulary around gender presentation, including the recurrent treatment of clothing as both social evidence and comic spectacle.

[4] TV Clip-Sheet. No. 6. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, circa 1960s. Includes “A Tale of Two Sexes,” “Victoria is Victorious,” and a boxed Chevalier Publications announcement titled “Look Sisters,” offering book and magazine material through the publisher’s mail order network. The issue ties press clippings to Chevalier’s direct circulation of transvestite reading material.

[5] TV Clip-Sheet. No. 7. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, circa 1960s. Includes “He Got Idea From Mother,” “News of Transvestia, Female Impersonators and Related Fields,” and a notice for “All Points West” in Los Angeles. The issue combines syndicated human interest clippings with Chevalier’s own announcements for readers following transvestite and female impersonator culture.

[6] TV Clip-Sheet. No. 38. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, circa 1970s. Includes “The Lady Is an Undercover Man,” “Here’s the Oddest Turn in Showbiz!,” “Mr. or Should I Say Mrs. La Rue Adds a Touch of Culture,” and clippings on stage performers, disguise, and theatrical impersonation. The issue continues the series’ later focus on press coverage of performers and public exposure narratives.

TV Clip-Sheet occupied a different function from Transvestia’s essays, fiction, advice, and letters: it collected outside press coverage and made it legible to a readership already negotiating secrecy, public curiosity, and the risks of being named in print. The repeated newspaper language of masquerade, disguise, “really a man,” and “undercover man” records the terms through which American popular media framed cross dressing before later transgender vocabulary gained wider public circulation. Folded as issued with light toning, minor edge wear, and handling creases; overall good condition. A compact run of Chevalier’s serial preserving the press record that surrounded, distorted, and publicized cross dressing and female impersonation in mid century American print.

Item #23533

Price: $3,500.00