Ella Wesner: Difference between revisions
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Wesner's career was closely linked to the vaudeville impresario [[Tony Pastor]], for whom she was the featured male impersonator, performing at Pastor's theater and touring in traveling shows he organized. |
Wesner's career was closely linked to the vaudeville impresario [[Tony Pastor]], for whom she was the featured male impersonator, performing at Pastor's theater and touring in traveling shows he organized. |
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Wesner's career was briefly derailed in 1873 when she abruptly left Pastor's shows to elope to Paris with the notorious [[Josie Mansfield|Helen Josephine "Josie" Mansfield]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Faderman |first=Lillian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7owDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PR1&dq=Gay%20LA&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q=Gay%20LA&f=false |title=Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians |last2=Timmons |first2=Stuart |date=2009-08-03 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26061-0 |pages=17-18 |language=en}}</ref> who had been the mistress of Gilded Age |
Wesner's career was briefly derailed in 1873 when she abruptly left Pastor's shows to elope to Paris with the notorious [[Josie Mansfield|Helen Josephine "Josie" Mansfield]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Faderman |first=Lillian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7owDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PR1&dq=Gay%20LA&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q=Gay%20LA&f=false |title=Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians |last2=Timmons |first2=Stuart |date=2009-08-03 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26061-0 |pages=17-18 |language=en}}</ref> who had been the mistress of Gilded Age robber baron "Diamond Jubilee" [[James Fisk (financier)|Jim Fisk]] as well as the mistress of his murderer, [[Edward S. Stokes]]. The event evoked considerable scandal; it was discussed in most of the major metropolitan newspapers and journals in New York, Chicago, and other major American cities. After the romance cooled, however, Wesner returned to the United States and resumed her career with Pastor, winning even wider audiences. |
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[[File:Ella Wesner, male impersonator (3334087530).jpg|alt=A male impersonator with fair skin, wearing a fez and holding a cigarette in her lips|thumb|Ella Wesner publicity photograph, from about 1880]] |
[[File:Ella Wesner, male impersonator (3334087530).jpg|alt=A male impersonator with fair skin, wearing a fez and holding a cigarette in her lips|thumb|Ella Wesner publicity photograph, from about 1880]] |
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In the 1880s, Wesner's act included not only songs celebrating the "sporting" life and skits such as her popular rendition of a drunkard getting a barber's shave, but also monologues containing advice for men about how to court, treat and satisfy women.<ref name="Rodger" /><ref>Laurence Senelick, The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre-- Gender in Performance (London: Routledge, 2000), pp.307-308, 331</ref> Wesner's career stumbled as styles changed; she shifted routines to become a "quick-change" artist, and then faded from vaudeville. |
In the 1880s, Wesner's act included not only songs celebrating the "sporting" life and skits such as her popular rendition of a drunkard getting a barber's shave, but also monologues containing advice for men about how to court, treat and satisfy women.<ref name="Rodger" /><ref>Laurence Senelick, The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre-- Gender in Performance (London: Routledge, 2000), pp.307-308, 331</ref> Wesner's career stumbled as styles changed; she shifted routines to become a "quick-change" artist, and then faded from vaudeville. |
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Revision as of 15:21, 2 June 2023
Ella Wesner | |
|---|---|
 Ella Wesner, from a carte de visite by Sarony | |
| Born | Ella Dorsner May 29, 1841 Pennsylvania |
| Died | November 10, 1917 The Bronx, New York |
| Occupation | Vaudeville performer |
Ella Wesner (May 29, 1841 – November 10, 1917) was a celebrated male impersonator of the Gilded Age vaudeville circuit.
Early life and education
Ella Dorsner was born in Pennsylvania, to Charles H. Dorsner and Evalina Rockafellow Dorsner.
Career
Wesner began her career at the age of nine as part of a family of vaudeville and musical-stage dancers. By her mid-twenties, she was playing both male and female roles, at some point meeting and working as a "dresser" for the most notorious, and perhaps the earliest vaudeville male impersonator of the time, Annie Hindle.[1]
Wesner's career was closely linked to the vaudeville impresario Tony Pastor, for whom she was the featured male impersonator, performing at Pastor's theater and touring in traveling shows he organized.
Wesner's career was briefly derailed in 1873 when she abruptly left Pastor's shows to elope to Paris with the notorious Helen Josephine "Josie" Mansfield,[2] who had been the mistress of Gilded Age robber baron "Diamond Jubilee" Jim Fisk as well as the mistress of his murderer, Edward S. Stokes. The event evoked considerable scandal; it was discussed in most of the major metropolitan newspapers and journals in New York, Chicago, and other major American cities. After the romance cooled, however, Wesner returned to the United States and resumed her career with Pastor, winning even wider audiences.
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In the 1880s, Wesner's act included not only songs celebrating the "sporting" life and skits such as her popular rendition of a drunkard getting a barber's shave, but also monologues containing advice for men about how to court, treat and satisfy women.[1][3] Wesner's career stumbled as styles changed; she shifted routines to become a "quick-change" artist, and then faded from vaudeville.
Death
Wesner died in the Bronx in 1917, at the age of 76. Her grave is in the Actors' Fund Plot, Prospect Hill at Evergreens Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York.[4]
References
- ^ a b Gillian Rodger, " He Isn't a Marrying Man: Gender and Sexuality in the Repertoire of Male Impersonators, 1870-1930," in Sophie Fuller, Lloyd Whitesell, eds. Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002) pp. 109-110.
- ^ Faderman, Lillian; Timmons, Stuart (2009-08-03). Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. Univ of California Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-520-26061-0.
- ^ Laurence Senelick, The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre-- Gender in Performance (London: Routledge, 2000), pp.307-308, 331
- ^ "Ella Wesner Lies in Man's Garb". The New York Times. 1917-11-14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
External links
- Ella Wesner memorabilia page, with several publicity photos and posters, at Queer Music Heritage
- Four photos of Ella Wesner in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library
