Dear Friends,
I want to share the story of an adventure exploring Kentucky’s gay history during my recent visit.
Before the film screened at Morehead State University, I received a news clipping in the mail from Mike Esposito, the director of Student Activities. It was from the October 15, 1960 Lexington Herald, with the headline, “Two Female Impersonators Booked During Stage Show.” He had discovered it with a search of the newspaper’s archives.
The article talks about a Friday night bust at the Lyric Theater. Female impersonators “Tuesday Taylor” and headliner “Princess De Carlo” were charged under a lewdness ordinance.
The four-man detective team led by Sgt. James Perkins, raided the show minutes after [Tuesday Taylor] performed a “strip dance” and while [Princess De Carlo] was on stage during a singing act. Both men were dressed as women.
An estimated 200 persons, including some youngsters, attended the 9 p.m. show, the second of three performances.
Police allowed [Tuesday Taylor] to complete his twisting, grinding dance and stopped the show toward the end of [Princess De Carlo's] act. –LEXINGTON LEADER, 10/15/1960
It also says, “It was the second time in two weeks that police have arrested men posing as women.”
The article is light-hearted in some ways, including a description of the dresses the duo were wearing, with Tuesday in a “red one-piece dress, large hoop earrings and black high-heel shoes,” and the Princess in a “black chiffon dinner dress, long white gloves, and high-heeled shoes.” Fabulous! As if ripped straight from the society page.
I mentioned this case during my introduction of the film at MSU. It was great to be able to give a little local gay history, a set of arrests that happened just five years after the so-called “boys of Boise” cases.
The next day, Mike and I drove through the Lexington neighborhood where he thought the Lyric Theater had been located and we saw a shell of a building, in a state of deconstruction. What had the theater looked like? What was happening to it?
We headed to the Lexington Public Library and headed for the clipping files. We found a file on the theater, and learned of its rich history, with details like these:
A leading entertainment center in the African-American community, the Lyric Theater hosted first-run films, black films and entertainers like The Temptations, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, The Ink Spots, and Redd Foxx.
The Lyric’s decline began with the integration of Lexington’s other theaters and it closed in 1963. –CINEMATREASURES.ORG
See a photo of the theater in its prime HERE
What was going on? Were they tearing down this landmark? The place looked like it had been run down for years. HERE are pictures from 2000.
I read on in the small mound of newspaper clippings.
NO! They’re rebuilding the long-empty theater! Construction began over the summer and it looks like they’re striping the building to the bones.
City officials committed to restoring the Lyric as an African American arts and culture center… a design that calls for a 588-seat theater, a 2,000-square-foot African American culture museum and a 3,800-foot multipurpose room. –TOM EBLEN
So a happy ending for the Lyric.
While we were there, we also researched an unrelated character from Lexington’s past,”Sweet Evening Breeze,” born James Herndon, who dressed openly as a woman in Lexington from the early part of the 20th century until 1983.
Lexington is known for its unique eccentrics and characters, but none can surpass the notoriety and fame of “Sweet Evening Breeze”, who managed to live openly as an African-American gay crossdressing male in the early-mid twentieth century.
At a time in history when the idea of being “out” was nearly unthinkable, and when most who chose crossdressing not just as a hobby but as a lifestyle had to keep it on the DL, Sweet Evening Breeze would have none of that. Instead of sneaking and slinking around, she walked brazenly down the city streets of Lexington in broad daylight. Everyone in town knew “Miss Sweets” and loved her.– UNUSUALKENTUCKY.BLOGSPOT.COM
As for Tuesday and Princess, we don’t yet know what happened to them. If anyone in Lexington is interested in doing some legwork, we could probably find out more. And, more research could be done on the other arrests two weeks earlier.
“Female impersonators?” Was that really the biggest peril facing Lexington Police in 1960?
My trip to Lexington turned into a History Detectives-type treasure hunt, all because Mike had done a little searching! I believe many cities probably have stories like these from the middle of the 20th Century. It just takes people like Mike willing to do a little digging.
