This gender bending performer is one we are presenting in a series to celebrate NYC Pride Week.
According to vaudeville encyclopediast Anthony Slide, Gypsy Byrne was a fixture of New York night clubs and vaudeville houses in the late 1920s. Of a 1928 performance, Variety said “She makes a cute boy and while not actually attempting to fool the customers is pleasantly boyish in her brown suit and mannish slouch hat.”
To learn more history 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 don’t miss 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) 