Sex changes in the music halls

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 25

Sex changes in the music halls

Vesta Tilley. By Sara Maitland. Virago Press, 1987. 148 pp. Illustrations. $13.15 (paperback). (Reviewed by Diane Prout) In the 1840 s Victorian Music Halls were venues for “mixed crowds of folly and vice,” places where “ingenuity has been exerted to its uttermost lest an obscene thought should be passed by,” according to one patron. By 1912, social change had made it possible for a music halls "artiste,” Vesta Tilley, to appear in a Royal Command Performance — a triumph of talent over hypocritical social mores. Vesta Tilley specialised in “perfomance drag.” One of the most brilliant exponents of the art of maleimpersonation, she rose from workingclass poverty to wealth and eminence as Lady de Frece, wife of a Conservative Member of Parliament, and the doyenne of her profession. Sara Maitland, a free-lance feminist writer, presents the details of Vesta Tilley’s extraordinary stage career, not so much for the rags-to-riches biography (sole support of her parents and 13 brothers and sister, emotional bond with her manager-father) as for the socio-political implications of her actions. A perfectionist in her art — she wore Y-fronts under her male costumes and maintained a svelte .body-shape in an era of bosoms and bottoms — she endeared herself to thousands, particularly women. When she retired at the Coliseum in 1920, after 50 years of public and charity performances, her last song “Jolly Good Luck To All The Girls Who Love A Soldier” won a 40-minute ovation, follow by a eulogy from the great Ellen Terry.

In private life she observed the utmost decorum and respectability. She never wore drag to theatrical fancy dress parties, was a faithful and happily married wife (unlike Marie Lloyd, Lottie Collins, and Ellen Terry), and the epitome of femininity. Social acceptance was what she craved and what she earned, transcending the stigma of the stage, with her unique blend of artistic integrity and shrewdness. What makes this book of interest to those concerned with women’s issues is the concept of breaking down sexdeterminants through cross-dressing. In a unisex age, the author is not so concerned with the psychology of why women imitate men in their choice of attire as with the historical and social consequences of that choice. She draws analogies with other “gender benders” — Joan of Arc, Queen Christina of Sweden, and Georges Sand — three real-life transvestites who attempted to escape the restrictions imposed on their sex and class; and Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Beatrice Lillie, and Annie Lennox who sought escape through their art. By parodying male traits and mannerisms, at the same time allowing their audiences to participate in and enjoy the mimicry, these artists have been able to challenge stereotyped conventions while still retaining acceptability with the class which endorsed them. The converse is not always true, however, the author argues. Femaleimpersonators are generally homosexual, whether “street fairies” or “performance queens.” Their roles usually denigrate women (the pantomime dame, the old crone,

vulgar harpy, or glamorous malefantaSy figure). Male-impersonators may only mimic the “ideal” traits of a male-oriented order — the soldier, the dandy, the adorable rogue — never the violent, ridiculous, or pathetic drunkard. Vesta Tilley was too adroit ever to show contempt for the middle class which gave her the chance to develop her skills. By careful selection of her material and impeccable standards of taste, she was able to overcome the obstacle of her background and rise to the heights of her profession. “Vesta Tilley” is an absorbing little book, packed with theatrical history, scholarly reflections on the changing role of women, and the ambivalence of gender in its dramatic context over the last 120 years.