A Letter from Ward Hall: Did you know that most of the female performers in the circus world were actually drag queens?

Here is a story from the midway, a sideshow story.
(In the carny language telling stories is called "cutting up jackpots),
 

I ran into Joe Givens out on the road last season.
He was working a popper.

Joe had been a half&half / bearded lady back in the heyday of
sideshows.
He stopped by our shows one day and introduced himself.
We talked a little while and he told me this story about Hedy Jo
Starr.

Hedy Jo Starr was America's first sex change.
Christene Jorgenson got all the press as the first but it was really
Hedy Jo Starr.

Hedy Jo used to work in drag before her operation.
After, she became famous writing a column for the National Enquirer
called "Both Sides of Love".
She also did quite well ($) designing and sewing costumes for famous
strippers, herself included.

So, at the height of her success, she decided to take the first class
girl show out on the road and play all the best fairs.
That's how she wound up booking into a spot with L.I. Thomas.

L.I. Thomas liked to book girl shows on his midway.
Apparently, he had an eye for the ladies in general and for strippers
in particular.

So, there was Hedy Jo one morning, supervising her crew as they were
laying out the girl show tent when L.I. Thomas walked up.
He was there to check out the goods.

L.I. Thomas- "Good morning, where are the girls?"

Hedy Jo- "Over there, lacing up the top."

L.I. Thomas- "Those are all men, they're not women!"

Hedy Jo- "Don't worry, honey. They will be by tonight!"

PK

 

 

• Pete: Great story on Hedy Jo Star, who was born Carl Hammonds in Oklahoma I think it might have been1924. As a teenager, he became a drag queen and ended up with a small carnival in OKLA. (note: In the 1930s and forties there were a lot of female impersonators in both carnival and circus. I believe they were
  more comfortable there because show people have always been nonbiased of people who acted with different behaviors.) In my inaccurate research, I believe there were 104 ten in one sideshow touring in North America in 1948 and 49.
   

• Of these, I expect 90% of them had a female impersonator
  working as a half man, a half woman (hermaphrodite) as the blow off (annex attraction) working on a pc of the annex ticket sales, Therefor most (if they were good) made good money. By about 1942 Hedy Jo Star was operating a store show, a sideshow presented in a rented empty store building in the main business district in a town) in the winter in Oklahoma City. Hedy got drafted and had to report for the pre-induction examination. Hedy had her own hair which reached her mid back. She refused to allow them to cut her hair. The next morning the Daily Oklahoman" had a front-page photo of Hedy Jo behind bars, with the
  headline "I'll see you in Hell before you cut my hair". I don't know if they cut her hair.  
   

• I first met Hedy Jo in the early spring of 1947. I was in Dailey Bros. Circus winter quarters at Gonzales, Texas. The Zachinni Bros Shows (carnival, owned by Tio and Bruno Zacchini advertising their cannon act as a nightly free act, was a strong grift show. I went with Fred Brad over to a nearby town to the carnival to work as an outside man doing "Nut Mob", (three shell game), I was 16 and when the local sheriff looked the game over, he decided I was too young to be participating in the "Gambling game". So, I had to back away and wander the midway. Hedy Jo had two small shows: a half and half sideshow which she worked herself. She did the bally doing the talking and then inside did the act, she also had a small girl show with 3 or 4 performers. My partner then, Harry Leonard, knew Hedy and we visited with her. Over the years we would see her on midways we visited.

•  

• The only time we were on the same midway was in1954 on "Gem City Shows" where Harry and I had the sideshow, and Hedy had one large girl show plus a small one. She had a very big house trailer and it had a big sewing room in it. She made all the costumes for the people on her shows. She was a great designer and
  costumer. The people on her shows always had a very beautiful wardrobe. She always lived as a female and possibly by 1970 she had already had the surgery.
  Sometime later she legally married a man in Boston. The last time I saw her she was making some special wardrobe for Circus Vargas and frequently visited with Dale Longmire who was clowning on Circus Vargas at that time. Hedy Jo made her home than in Las Vegas where she operated a costuming business, specializing in feather work. I am not sure when she died. What a great book her biography would be. Cordially, Ward Hall