About "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin as Peter

[Sometimes Steffi]

As a kid, I used to watch the movie "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin as Peter on (American) TV.

I got to a point where I started wondering if Peter was a boy or a girl. At first, I thought that Peter might be like me - a boy who wanted to be a girl.

I finally got up the courage to ask my parents who were watching it with me. I don't remember the conversation about it but I think they asked me why I wanted to know, and I said that Peter kind of looked like a girl. They told me that Peter was a boy, but played by a female actress. I guess that satisfied me, but I wanted it to be the other way.

Does anyone else have memories of watching "Peter Pan"?

As an interesting sidelight:

It turns out that Mary Martin was originally a dance instructor until a local evangelical-adherent burned down her studio citing her work as being too sinful for human nature.

It seems like the evangelicals haven't moved forward very much in the past 65 years.

[AllieSF]

I always liked that black and white version. It was black and white, right? This year I saw the Broadway play Finding Neverland, which was the story of how the play was created. Very interesting and very good. I think that most of the Peter Pan's have been women, or no?

[docrobbysherry]

We lived in LA then. My parents took me to see her/it live on stage back then!

I thot she looked like a girl at the time-----

[SometimesKairi]

There's a comedian called Paul O'Grady in the UK, but his rise was born from him dressing in drag as Lily Savage.
I remember my nephew asking when he was about four, why that lady has a man's voice.

[NicoleScott]

Trivia: Mary Martin was the mother of Larry Hagman (I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas).

[Micki_Finn]

Peter is almost always played by a woman. Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, Allison Williams... just the way the part was written. There is a long rich history of crossdressing in theatre.

[DIANEF]

Christmas pantomimes in the UK always feature a girl playing Peter Pan. And in Cinderella men almost always play the parts of the ugly sisters.

[Lana Mae]

I loved Peter Pan with Mary Martin! I understood that it was a woman playing a boy! Many many examples of this in history of theater! This is acceptable crossdressing! I played a washer woman for a cub scout skit! I heard some verbal noises not heard with acceptance as well as some facial expressions! So even in acting there are prejudices! Just my $.02! Hugs Lana Mae

[Sometimes Steffi]

According to IMDB, it was in color.

[Tracii G]

The only memory I have about peter pan was using one in the hospital because If the nurse was not around to help me to the bathroom.

[Lori Kurtz]

Hmm. Interesting little self-awareness here. I remember that when, as a little kid, I first saw the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan, I thought it was pretty strange that he was played by a woman. I was already crossdressing by then, but it wasn't until this very moment that I thought of that female-to-male dressing up as in any way parallel to my male-to-female dressing up.

[SometimesKairi]

The only memory I have about peter pan was using one in the hospital because If the nurse was not around to help me to the bathroom.

Haha most I've laughed in a week

[Tracii G]

The nurse thought me calling the bed pan a peter pan was hysterical.

[Mark B]

Peter is almost always played by a woman. Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, Allison Williams... just the way the part was written. There is a long rich history of crossdressing in theatre.

Forgot...Mrs Doubtfire

[Taylor186]

It may have been filmed in color but in my home in 1960 it would have been viewed in B&W. Strangely I never considered gender an issue when watching Peter Pan. The character was just an androgynous fantasy to me.

[Kate Simmons]

Perhaps to give the story a certain "flavor"? Peter was, after all. a different kind of boy.

[Julogden]

I too looked forward to watching the annual showing on TV of Mary Martin as Peter Pan, but I remember my mother explaining to me right off the bat that Peter was being played by a woman, didn't have to ask. I was already dealing with gender stuff, and it thrilled me to see a bit of crossgender presentation back in the days of the early 1960's, LONG before gender variation became something that was seen as remotely acceptable outside of theater.

According to IMDB, it was in color.

But back then, most people's TV's were black and white. My family didn't get a color TV until the late 1960's, so Peter Pan (and everything else) was in black and white until then.

[sometimes_miss]

I thought it weird that a woman was playing a boy when I was oh, about seven when I saw peter pan for the first time. When I asked my mom, she simply said that when acting it's acceptable for one sex to play the part of the other. The trouble was, when we had a school play and a boy played a female part, he was routinely ridiculed by all the other boys. So just like today, even though it's 'sort of' acceptable to do it, it still automatically makes the actor suspect for being gay or TS to a huge number of people. Whenever an actor comes out as gay, if he's EVER done any role as female or gay, we tend to hear the homophobes declaring, 'I knew it! There was just something about with the way he played [pick the role, peter pan, Tootsie, etc.], it was just a little too convincing!'