Pansy Craze Explained

Pansy Craze
Location:	Mainly the United States Chicago Los Angeles New York City San Francisco
Start:	late-1920s
End:	mid-1930s
Leaders:	Gene Malin Karyl Norman Ray Bourbon

The Pansy Craze was a period of increased LGBT visibility in American popular culture from the late-1920s until the mid-1930s.^{[1] [2]} During the "craze," drag queens — known as "pansy performers" — experienced a surge in underground popularity, especially in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The exact dates of the movement are debated, with a range from the late 1920s until 1935.^[3]

The term "pansy craze" was first coined by the historian George Chauncey in his 1994 book Gay New York.^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

The Craze

New York's first drag balls were held in Harlem's Hamilton Lodge in 1869.^{[8] [9]}

In the 1920s, female impersonators were hired to perform at cabarets and speakeasies in many major cities, including New York, Paris, London, Berlin, and San Francisco.^[10] The target audience was straight, which gave the performers broader social acceptance.^[11]

Gene Malin — known as the "Queen of the Pansy Craze" — achieved relative mainstream success, appearing in both Hollywood films and Broadway shows.^[12] Malin worked primarily in New York City in the early-1930s; however, his career was cut short when he died in an automobile accident at the age of 25.

Other stars during the Pansy Craze included Karyl Norman and Ray Bourbon, as well as the gay pianist and singer Bruz Fletcher, who gained fame in Los Angeles during the Pansy Craze.^{[13] [14]}

End of the era

Beginning in late-1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, American Roman Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This led to legal restrictions in the public visibility of homosexuality through the Hays Code. Police simultaneously began strict crackdowns on the public presence of homosexuals during the Great Depression, as calls for politicians to "clean up" downtown nightlife came from progressive reformers.^[15]

Legacy

Some scholars have argued that the Pansy Craze broadened the range of acceptable behaviors for men, even though restrictions on gender conformity and LGBT visibility were tightened after this period.^[16] In later decades, drag queens such as Divine and Rupaul again starred in Hollywood films, and performers such as Jinkx Monsoon appeared on Broadway.^[17]

See also

• List of drag queens

Further reading

• George Chauncey

(Basic Books, 1994), especially Chapter 11: "Pansies on Parade"

• Chad Heap, Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885–1940 (University of Chicago Press, 2009), especially Chapter 6, "The Pansy and Lesbian Craze in White and Black"

External links

• Queer Music Heritage: "The Pansy Craze: the Story and the Music by JD Doyle
• Queer Cultural Center – Bentley Profile.
• Baltimore Afro American contemporary articles

Notes and References

1. Web site: Imig . Nate . June 6, 2022 . Tracing the roots of Wisconsin's drag history, dating back to the 1880s . 2022-10-27 . Radio Milwaukee . en-US.
2. Web site: Bullock . Darryl W. . 2017-09-14 . Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife . 2022-10-27 . . en . 1756-3224.
3. Web site: Pansy Craze . 2022-10-27 . PBS LearningMedia . en.
4. Web site: Halley . Catherine . 2020-01-29 . Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered . 2022-10-27 . JSTOR Daily . en-US.
5. Cohen . Lizabeth . Chauncey . George . September 1997 . Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. . The Journal of American History . 84 . 2 . 685 . 10.2307/2952659 . 2952659 . 0021-8723.
6. Web site: 2022-09-28 . The Work of George Chauncey, LGBTQ Historian and Kluge Prize Honoree September 27, 2022 By Neely Tucker . 2022-10-27 . Yonkers Tribune. . en-US.
7. Book: Heap, Chad . Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940 . 2008-11-15 . University of Chicago Press . 978-0-226-32245-2 . 319 . en.
8. Web site: Stabbe . Oliver . 2016-03-30 . Queens and queers: The rise of drag ball culture in the 1920s . 2022-10-27 . National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution . en.
9. Web site: Fleeson . Lucinda . June 27, 2007 . The Gay '30s . 2022-10-27 . Chicago Magazine . en-US.
10. Web site: 2018-05-11 . The Pansy Craze: When gay nightlife in Los Angeles really kicked off . 2022-10-27 . KCRW . en.
11. Web site: Pruitt . Sarah . How Gay Culture Blossomed During the Roaring Twenties . 2022-10-27 . History . 12 June 2019 . en.
12. Web site: 2021-09-03 . Jean Malin: Queen of the pansies American Masters PBS . 2023-02-05 . American Masters . en-US.
13. Web site: Grey . Charlie . Listen: This campy star of the '30s Pansy Craze was gloriously shady and super gay . 2022-10-27 . Queerty. 18 October 2022 .
14. Web site: Bruz Fletcher: Remembering a Gay Voice . 2023-02-05 . www.tyleralpern.com.
15. Web site: Fleeson . Lucinda . The Gay '30s . Chicago Magazine . 25 July 2023.
16. Book: McCracken, Allison . Real men don't sing : crooning in American culture . 2015 . 978-0-8223-5917-3 . Duke University Press Books . Durham . 894746159.
17. Web site: Street . Mikelle . Jinkx Monsoon Was Always Destined to Make Broadway History . W Magazine . 2 February 2023 . 25 July 2023.