Ever wonder what i was like to be a CD back in the 1950s or 1960s

So overall we have it pretty good these days. One can get all dolled up and go to a club or restaurant and you won't get thrown in jail! How nice. Ru Paul's drag race is even on TV

I ran across a few things i wanted to share about how things used to be.
Back in the 1950s in a place like Columbus Ohio something like this could happen. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/...ssing-laws-u-s

https://www.history.com/news/stonewa...e-article-rule

But it wasn't all bad, if you never heard of Casa Susanna this seems like it would be a great summer getaway https://www.thestar.com/news/insight...-was-safe.html

https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/...fe/susanna.jpg

Its good to know where we have come from, so never forget. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor..._United_States
I remember back in early 80s meeting someone who was much older than me who told me scary stories of what the scene was like in NYC. horrifying

I think of the 1967 film "The Producers" in the sequence when they go to get a director for their show. The guy comes out in a dress, and Gene Wilder's character just freaks out over it. Crossdressing was obviously not considered acceptable behavior.

I suppose it's no wonder the shame I felt in the 60's when trying on my sister's thrown out pantyhose.

Darla, Thanks for posting. I really liked the history.com article.

I think that it would be very difficult to CD in the fifties or sixties because the clothes and shoes were not big enough for me.

What i found interesting is that Female Impersonators seemed to be quite popular dating back to the 1890s. So that was acceptable but god forbid someone showed up at the theater that way!

https://wellcomecollection.org/artic...DpbxAAAItBfFd8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego..._impersonators
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/...t=history_pubs
https://news.sfsu.edu/when-cross-dre...-francisco-law

It was often considered funny back then to crossdress, i.e. a male dressed like a female. Ralph on Green Acres was a female dressed like a male, but that didn't seem outrageous, just kind of funny. I started crossdressing back then, about 1958. I didn't do it much, but I enjoyed it guilt-free when I did. I got to crossdress in plays a couple times, which was considered funny. But I enjoyed the feeling.

Everything i know about CDing in the 50's and 60's I learned from Pink Floyd. :O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQkzb78pMg

Hey! I started dressing in the 50's! lol And had my first trip out of the house enfemme in 1966... Those were the days... Before pantyhose were invented... all the women wore girdles and dresses (no jeans!!) I remember finding a Look Magazine with an article about transvestites of New York city and it was that moment I realized I was not alone...

Thanks for sharing, Darla... and reminding me how old I'm getting.... sigh....

Occasionally, an in-practice-depricated law shows up in times it wasn't written for, and it leaves you thinking: "What the...?!" 🤨.


Attempted misappropriation of an inapplicable law on a person that was dressed unisex ( and had clothing receipts to prove it ), and then when that didn't work, leaving the person at the mercy of a street gang..... all in the name of "appropriateness". Awful!

How good they looked though! 👏. It's not as though you could just browse a billion different styles, products and tutorials per minute from the comfort of your own living room back then.


Linda P. sent me this one around a year ago. A bit more cheerful than the history link ( the end is a bit sad though ):

https://archive.org/details/UCLABehindEveryGoodMan

"Produced several years before the historic Stonewall uprising for LGBT rights in 1969, director Nikolai Ursin's gently-activist short Behind Every Good Man (c. 1967) provides an illuminating glimpse into the life of an African-American trans woman. In strong contrast to the stereotypically negative and hostile depictions of transgender persons as seen through the lens of Hollywood at the time, the subject of Ursin's independent film is rendered as stable, hopeful and well-adjusted . . . "

- L.

I found out when I was around 10 years old my great grandmother was a opera singer with the highest vocal range in the world could hit high c and break glass plus sing just like a canary. Main thing was she played vaudeville and dressed in beautiful gowns as well. Funny thing is I wasn?t dressing then didn?t start until 1982. When I was 10 it was 1962. Thing is when I look back at pictures of her afterwards I wondered how I?d look in the beautiful clothes she wore back then.

Attachment 318922

Brave folks they were....

The biggest difference between then and now, of course, was the lack of an Internet, which is a gold mine for CDers. The term crossdresser was not in common use, so when I went to the libarary for information, I had to look for material about transvestism. And there was no on-line shopping or companies like Amazon to relieve me of the stress of going into a department store to buy women's clothes. I bought a lot of "gifts" for fictional girlfriends.

Occasionally the Ed Sullivan Show featured performances by the Princeton Triangle Club, an all-male musical troop that featured guys in dresses, heels and fishnets doing chorus lines. Whenever they were on, I had to fake disintetest in the performance so that my parents didn't catch on. I actually thought about applying to Princeton, but we couldn't afford it.

Bottom line: Things are infinitely better now.

I once saw part of an old movie in black and white, set in the 1920s where two out of work male musicians dressed as women and joined an all female orchestra (band). I didn't get to see it all so I don't know how it turned out.

I imagine crossdressing was much more difficult in years gone by, but apparently it has been going on for a long time. I also wonder if there are crossdressers in the mid east where laws are much different than in the western world.

I was born in 1951 and I can concur that the 5o?s and 60?s were different times. The first time I got into women?s clothes at 13 I had no idea that people actually did that, I thought I was alone. I live in a typical Midwest smaller town and have never seen a crossdresser in public here. I would guess that we would prefer to go to the closest big city where it tends to be more welcoming.

These smaller towns are still not very welcoming and I doubt they ever will be.

My first attempt at CDing was 1959, I think.

There was Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda (1953) free on Youtube. Some say it's the worst movie ever made. That's what makes it so good.

https://youtu.be/_EDK_GrkfHI

Darla,

Thanks for posting, an interesting read.

I feel it's hard to overestimate the debt owed to Stonewall for moving things forward.

No, I never wondered what it was like back then...
That's because I lived it and don't need to wonder.

I began in the mid 50's when women wore dresses almost all the time. Beautiful bras, nylon panties, girdles and corsets and of course seamed hose as pantyhose weren't a thing yet (they arrived late 50's early 60's).
You didn't speak about this to anyone or you would be ostracized. Drag Queens were the big item in the City and in the 60's Female Mimics were popular. There was derision and shame, guilt and fear of discovery.
Yes, I don't need to wonder, I was there, I felt all those things. I feared discovery, I hid from everyone.
I salute the brave ladies that paved the way so that I can be me today. I wish I had had the courage to be one of them back then.

I'm 73. I was born and raised in New York City. There may have been some levity on the big screen towards men who wore women's clothing, but, essentially cross dressing men were outcasts. Yes, there was no internet. There really was no way for cross dressers to easily connect with others. I have to look at the 1950's and 1960's as a pre-teen and teenager. Maybe, if you were older you were able to connect with others. But, basically as a teenager you went to school, and, if lucky you had an after school part time job. It was thrown out as common knowledge that men who wore women's clothing were homosexuals, although you never heard that term. You heard queers, faggots, fruits and many other degrading words and phrases. Gay men and cross dressers were fair game for violence and job and social discrimination. Maybe the Stonewall riots made an impression and were able to occur because NYC was 8,000,000+ people. With 8,000,000 people it is easy to get a quorum of anything and everything. My grandparents lived north of NYC in a small town before it became a NYC suburb. Any sexual minority did not stand a chance. Of course, there was the guilt by association which I think is still prevalent these days. Have a cross dresser as a friend and you must be one too.

The biggest negative aspect of the 1960's was lack of knowledge. To be told endlessly cross dressers (transvestite back then) were "queers and faggots" did not play well in my mind. How could a teenage boy who lusted after girls and movie starlets be gay. Totally confusing. And of course, one had to conceal one's thoughts and behavior. My parents showed their hatred for gays and lesbians and cross dressers. It was the same with other minorities. If you think NYC was a hub of welcoming liberals, throwing their arms open to all, it wasn't. That would belong in the "lounge" section.

It does not take much to figure out why men kept their secret from girl friends and wives.

Thank you Darla. Too often we take for granted what others had to fight for. If I was in that time era I hope I would have been as brave. Brenda

Thank You Darla,

We all need to appreciate those that have come before us and paved the way.

Krisi,

The movie is "Some like it hot" and it stars Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis. It is a great film! The men witness a St. Valentines day massacre type of event and need to go under cover, so they end up joining an all girls band heading south. They meet Marilyn Monroe along the way, and one of them falls in love with her. The other is courted by an old rich man when they get to FL. I highly recommend it! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Krisi

I once saw part of an old movie in black and white, set in the 1920s where two out of work male musicians dressed as women and joined an all female orchestra (band). I didn't get to see it all so I don't know how it turned out.

I imagine crossdressing was much more difficult in years gone by, but apparently it has been going on for a long time. I also wonder if there are crossdressers in the mid east where laws are much different than in the western world.

---

Quote... Cheryl T, No, I never wondered what it was like back then... That's because I lived it and don't need to wonder.

Fully agree with your statement. :thumbsup:

During those days, there were some very dark day's for me personally back then questioning who & what I was as a person.

Since everything was hidden & forbidden for me, with no other means or persons to asking questions to, without giving your self away.

I'm happy with what I can do freely today, while leaving the past behind me.

Brenda Lee... People all around but I don't hear a sound. Just the lonely beating of my heart :straightface:

I wonder if the 60?s version of some like it hit was a remake of the 20?s movie? I watched the Jack Lemmon Tony Curtis one but never a 1920?s version of that story line. Or are we saying that it was set in the 20?s?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Krisi

I once saw part of an old movie in black and white, set in the 1920s where two out of work male musicians dressed as women and joined an all female orchestra (band). I didn't get to see it all so I don't know how it turned out.

---

That sounds like "Some Like It Hot, a 1959 Billy Wilder film starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe. The reason for their joining the band is a little different (no spoilers here), but the very same plot.

This thread topic is why I get irritated with people on here who say things like “it’s not fair that I can’t wear a skirt in public and women and can wear trousers!” Gay people and crossdressers of yore made the sacrifice to get where we are today, which is a giant leap forward for which I am grateful (for the CD part myself and for my gay friends the other). It takes courage and sacrifice to shift opinions and laws.

Now, if we are talking about the access to great clothing back then, for that I would definitely take a trip in a time machine!

I have two clear images from the media in the late 60's, each had an effect on me. One was on the Carol Burnett Show -- they had a judging of who had the best legs, with just the nylon clad legs (finished with high heels) showing. Once the winner was chosen, they raised the curtain to reveal the contestants were all men! I secretly wished I were one of them and it locked my fascination with nylons.

The other was a picture from a gay pride event of a bearded guy in ghastly make up wearing a pink ballerina dress. I was disgusted, and it scarred my imagination of wearing a dress for a long time. I still hesitate at the thought of wearing pink.

That was my 1960's, encouragement and discouragement.

LOL Geena, my wife and I message each other with listings of ghastly pink dresses for sale on eBay and saying things like “you would look gorgeous in this!”

What really strikes me about crossdressing in the 60s is what a contrast it was. You could watch Flip Wilson conjuring Geraldine on one show or on Laugh-In. Crossdressers were always available for comic relief, but the reality was for the majority of people crossdressing was strictly forbidden or looked down upon. Whether this was a religious objection or just societal pressure it was not welcomed. Maybe its that Puritanical element that has always been present in American society? Contrast that with other Eastern cultures like Japan or Thailand where it was no big deal for a man to don female garb.

I think in a lot of ways it has contributed to the lack of acceptance by women in a traditional relationship. That's a lot of repression to overcome. Crossdressers are not visible in American life today in any kind of role model capacity. If someone were "outed" there was shame associated with crossdressing. It really should be no big deal. There are improvements but we are not where we need to be in terms of acceptance.

Interesting topic. You may have a good point about why some women may be intolerant.

No need to wonder, there is quite a bit of literature from the trans world from back in the 1950s and 1960s that survives today and is freely available.

Much of what people talk about today was talked about 70 years ago (especially issues with wives, which are the same back then as they are now.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cheryl T

No, I never wondered what it was like back then...
That's because I lived it and don't need to wonder.
...You didn't speak about this to anyone or you would be ostracized. Drag Queens were the big item in the City and in the 60's Female Mimics were popular. There was derision and shame, guilt and fear of discovery.
Yes, I don't need to wonder, I was there, I felt all those things. I feared discovery, I hid from everyone...

---

I suppose I was lucky to have grown up when all boys had long hair, wore heels, and jewelry...a transitional years of Hippies and Disco dancers. Just before Metrosexual was coined. Change for me happened slowly, but more defined in the late 70's.
As Cheryl mentioned, my mother knew all that history and made sure I wasn't discovered when I started living as a girl after we moved from the south.
I never spoke about my condition to anyone or I could be laughed at or made fun of.
If I went out in public anywhere, she was there to drop me off and pick me up. I never understood, but she new the history of being different in those times.
I learned from my psychologist about gays, drag queens, queers, and she told me I was neither, just a person in transition.
I never considered myself in the spectrum.
I only new I had a history of medical issues that was dictating my change from a boy to a girl, and that change had a lot of positive perks.

In the 50s and sixties you could be had up for carrying articles of disguise.

Don't carry a wig and a dress in your satchel, let alone a bra and panties.

I had support then and went on many forays with the girl next door and her parents.

Never had proof but I think they were a bit weird.

Like early hippies I think, just a little more liberated in their thinking.

I lived it!!
I didn't know back then you could get in such trouble. I was out and about. I was stoped once and scared I would go to jail.

I shudder to think what it must have been like for anyone but the most privileged. Shame, ridicule, persecution, etc. No thank you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darla_g

What i found interesting is that Female Impersonators seemed to be quite popular dating back to the 1890s. So that was acceptable but god forbid someone showed up at the theater that way!

---

Watch the movie Victor Victoria.

It was about a woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman. Hard to explain.

Random thought that might resonate with some of you.

I think that a lot of the crossdressing on TV and in movies was a vestige of vaudeville.

I remember trying to look up "transvestite" in the card catalog at the library. Never found anything.
Couldn't ask for the librarian's help.

As for getting clothes, you didn't really need the Internet; there was the Sears Catalog, that we all remember. It was like the Amazon of its day. Sears would still be thriving today if it didn't discontinue mail order just before online shopping came about.

Playboy was pretty tame, although it did have some references to crossdressing, at least in the cartoons.

I still remember Penthouse Forum. There were some great crossdressing stories in there. But, I always believed that they were stories written by the editor, not to the editor.

As a teenager, a friend of a friend appeared to be gay. In particular, affected voice and mannerisms. I believed he logic that all transvites were gay. How could I be gay? I wasn't like him at all.

My dad would have thrown me out of the house. My mom gave some indications that she maybe knew and might have accepted me. But, no way that I was going to have that version of "The Talk".

After both my parents passed, I felt a little more free to crossdress. Then I only had to hide from my wife.

I lived those days when it was against the law to wear clothing designed for the opposite sex. Never stopped me, as it was so wonderful to dress up. Rayon and satin undies, then nylon. Just heavenly! Then to discover Vanity Fair lingerie. How could we resist? In spite of laws forbidding it many of us did. And survived! Served our country in a manly way, feminely underdressed. Traveling coast to coast dressed as our sisters, knowing jail or worse waited around every curve. In my 80's now and still with the desire!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sometimes Steffi

As for getting clothes, you didn't really need the Internet; the was the Sears Catalog, that we all remember. It was like the Amazon of it's day. Sears would still be thriving today if it didn't discontinue mail order just before online shopping came about.

---

I find it ironic that modern "mail order" or better known as the internet probably helped kill off Sears. They were the driving force behind mail order 100 years ago. Back a few years Sears upper management must have been wearing blinders to not dive into the internet and push e-mail order! They should have been larger than Amazon.

As Cheryl said "I was there". I was born in small town New Zealand in 1936. I was a real country boy with a love of books but also a good athlete. My hidden love was women's clothing and fashion but this was something I couldn't share with anybody.
In those days any man dressing as a woman was committing a criminal offence and would be prosecuted and the fact publicised in newspapers. They would be considered "queer" and ostracised in society, especially their own community.
My breakthrough came when I met the girl I would marry and found a sympathetic attitude that persists to this day.

In the 60's I guess, we had the good ole Sears catalog to check out women's clothes even undergarments, so exciting. I never checked out guys cloths just women's. I dressed a little in the 60's in the house I really got into dressing around 1970.

1990 was the first time out went out to a bar as Kristy in Pittsburgh. At the time I thought I was the only guy that dressed as a girl. When i went into the bar that night I met 3 other cd's.

I feel even today cross dressing is still frowned upon by most people. It doesn't seem much different to me today than it did in 1990 when I first went out. One bar I went to in the early 90's refused me service because of my attire. I was dressed in a simple black skirt, top and blazer nothing considered wild or over the top at all.

I think the best part of the 60's and early 70's was having long hair.
It was accepted and pretty standard. That certainly made dressing easier not needing to shop for a wig and being able to enjoy my own long hair. At that time is was half way down my back and full. I wish that were the case now.

The movie “Some Like It Hot” was released in 1959. Two men who (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) witness a mob hit disguise themselves and go on tour with an all-female band. The singer is none other than Marilyn Monroe!

Curtis and Lemmon have the hots for Monroe, but can?t do anything because girls. But a millionaire starts pursuing Daphne (Lemmon) and eventually proposes. He lists off all the reasons they can?t get married, but he is not dissuaded. Finally he pulls off his wig and announces, ?But I’m a man!?

To which his suitor replies, “Well, nobody’s perfect!? A double entendre to boot.

Very surprising plot and execution for the 50?s! Some of Monroe’s outfits and lingerie are to die for! Found the ending clip.

https://youtu.be/-mHhr-aaLnI

Henry III was a crossdresser



It is being suggested that Joan of Arc wore mens clothes and in that time women were burned at the stake for dressing as men.

I'd like to change my answer. Being a crossdresser in the 1950's was probably better than being a black slave in the 1850's, but not much better.

[SIZE=1]- - - Updated - - -[/SIZE]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lingerieLiz

It is being suggested that Joan of Arc wore men's clothes and in that time women were burned at the stake for dressing as men.

---

Joan of Arc was in fact burned at the stake (according to Wikipedia).

Fashion wise is was great for CDs. As in 50's and early 60's women would commonly wear makeup and mainly dresses, hose and heels. Petticoats were common and bullet bras literally reaching their peak. Not too many females wearing slacks or pants. Big bouffant hairdo as well.

There is a great documentary on the Discovery+ streaming app called 'P.S. Burn After Reading.' I have really enjoyed it. It's very informative about the New York drag scene in the 50s and 60s.

I don't have to wonder. I only have to remember.
The memories aren't pleasant.

Well - let me rephrase that a bit... The dressing part brings some pleasant memories, but discovery by the outside world was definitely unpleasant.
It was a time of desperate need, abject fear, and self loathing - all wrapped up in one skinny little body.
I don't miss it.

Darla,
Lets not forget crossdressing hit the scene big time in the late sixties with the new pop/rock bands and the hippy generation . My dressing was limlited to the closet in thiose days but I wore some very colourful clothes which some suggested were more effeminate . I liked my pink shirts and soft salmon pink sweaters and very flaired jeans and boots .

Like so many others here, I lived it. I was 5 years old in 1950 and I began toying with my mother's clothes in 1951 or 1952. It was terrifying and the worst of it was that it felt so good and seemed so right. How can something so wonderful as being yourself be so terrifying? Goes to show how far we have come as well as how far we still need to go. There were some wonderful things about the 50's and 60's, but having a need to see yourself as the girl who seems to inhabit you was not one of them. And yet it was wonderful and quite beautiful emotionally.

The thing i find so totally fascinating is the transition from the 50s looks where everything is so "prissy" (meaning prim and proper, impeccably in place, neat)
-to-
the "Hippie" look which was so free form, eclectic, both modern and traditional

Some people might find one era so much more appealing than another but what i find delicious is how "styles" evolve through the ages up into current times. No i don't think shoulder pads was ever a good look for everybody but especially NOT CDs.

hello Darla,
is it much different now?
If you can pass you can pass; but if you are a "man in a dress" ...?
stay healthy,
luv J