Episode 148: Julian Eltinge In Hollywood!

I’m David Armstrong, and my guest again today is author Andrew L. Erdman, whose captivating new book is titled Beautiful — The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator. In this third and final episode in this series, Andrew shares with us the story of how Julian Eltinge capitalized on his international Vaudeville and Broadway fame and became a major movie star in Hollywood and how that coincided with a golden age of female impersonation in America. We also explore the challenges Eltinge faced during the final years of his career as America became more conservative and began to restrict and censor drag performance in the 1930s. If you missed the earlier episodes in this series, you may want to catch up with those before listening to this one. Author Andrew Erdman has immersed himself in this remarkable era of show biz history; his previous book was the equally fascinating Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanquay Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation! This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including our newest member Alan Teasley. For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth conversations with my frequent co-host Albert Evans that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits. If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link: https://broadwaynationpodcast.supercast.tech/ Thank you in advance for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices