In this episode, Megan talks about The Pansy Craze - a period of increased LGBT visibility in popular culture from the late 1920s until the mid-1930s, that came to an end following the Great Depression, The Hays Code and the rise of World War Two.

During the "craze," drag queens, drag kings, masculine women and femme queer men — known as "pansy performers" — experienced a surge in underground popularity, especially in US cities such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

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Sources:

Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.

Bunyon, Patrick (1999). All Around the Town: The Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Fordham University Press.
Wilson, James (June 16, 2010). Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies. University of Michigan Press.

Starr, Kevin (2002). The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. Oxford University Press.

Ames, Jack. “Remembering Ray.”RaeBourbon.com. https://raebourbon.com/remembering-ray/

Bullock, Darryl W. “Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife.” The Guardian, Thu 14 Sep 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/14/pansy-craze-the-wild-1930s-drag-parties-that-kickstarted-gay-nightlife

Doyle, Dave. “The ‘Pansy Craze’ Pioneered LGBT Acceptance in America.” The Syncopated Times, 30 Dec 2023.https://syncopatedtimes.com/the-pansy-craze-pioneered-lgbt-acceptance-in-america/

Vandenburg, Margaret. “Rise and Fall of the ‘Pansy Craze.’” The Gay & Lesbian Review, January – February 2025 issue,https://glreview.org/article/rise-and-fall-of-the-pansy-craze/