This gender bending performer is one we are presenting in a series to celebrate NYC Pride Week.
Walter H. Lambert (1869-1949) was a British female impersonator and ventriloquist whose most famous act was called “Lydia Dreams”. His usual turf was the music hall in his home country, but he did come for a tour of U.S. vaudeville in 1906.
He was also a talented painter, and got quite a lot of publicity in 1903 for a large painting he did of himself and 225 other music hall performers. You can actually see that painting (in puzzle form) right here: http://www.wentworthpuzzles.com/browse-themes/contemporaryart/562908.htm
To find out about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
(Travalanche) 
[…] Walter H. Lambert was a British ventriloquist and female impersonator whose famous early 20th century vaudeville routine was a hospital skit in which his female character “Lydia Dreams” played a nurse, and his figure played an accident victim. He was also an accomplished painter, famous for his 1903 large-scale painting of 225 Edwardian music-hall performers you can see here (via) […]
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