Today we're traveling back to 1930s Paris with Victor Victoria! Join us to learn more about gun molls, Gay Paris, French Leave, and more!

Sources:

Gay Paris:

Elspeth H. Brown, "Queering Interwar Fashion: Photographers, Models, and the Queer Production of the "Look,"" Work!: A Queer History of Modeling (Duke University Press, 2019). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220kh4.8 Robert Aldrich, "Homosexuality and the City: An Historical Overview," Urban Studies 41:9 (August 2004): 1719-1737. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43201476 Michael Sibalis, "Urban Space and Homosexuality: The Example of the Marais, Paris' 'Gay Getto'," Urban Studies 41:9 (August 2004): 1739-1758. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43201477 Denis M. Provencher, Queer French: Globalization, Language, and Sexual Citizenship in France (Taylor & Francis, 2007). Michael D. Sibalis, "Homophobia, Vichy France, and the "Crime of Homosexuality": The Origins of the Ordinance of 6 August 1942," GLQ 8:3 (2002): 301-18. Phil Hubbard, Cities and Sexualities (New York: Routledge, 2012). http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/26730/1/96.pdf Leslie Choquette, "Beyond the Myth of Lesbian Montmartre: The Case of Chez Palmyre," Historical Reflections 42:2 (Summer 2016): 75-96. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44631073 Darryl W Bullock, "Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife," The Guardian (14 September 2017). https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/14/pansy-craze-the-wild-1930s-drag-parties-that-kickstarted-gay-nightlife http://www.jazzageclub.com/queer-paris/630/ Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, "Brassai" Encyclopedia Britannica Academic (23 August 2012). Mee-Lai Stone, "The City of Light and its shadows: Brassai's Paris--in pictures," The Guardian (8 October 2019). https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/oct/08/city-of-light-brassai-paris-in-pictures-photography Queer Music Heritage, "Brevities" http://www.queermusicheritage.com/gayephemera5.html Brassai, Young Couple Wearing a Two-in-One Suit at the Bal de la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve, Photograph, c. 1931, The Met Museum. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265457 Brassai, Le Monocle, the Bar, Paris. On the Left is Lulu de Montparnasse. Photograph, 1933, MoMA. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/58849 ; Brassai, Bal de la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve, Photograph, c. 1932, MoMa. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/44009?artist_id=745&page=1&sov_referrer=artist You can find Brassai'd collected works at MoMA here: https://www.moma.org/artists/745#works

Film Background:

Steve Cohan, "'I Think I Could Fall In Love With Him': Victor/Victoria and the 'Drag' of Romantic Comedy," in Terms of Endearment: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1980s and 1990s eds. Peter William Evans and Celestino Deleyto 37-57 (Edinburgh University Press, 1998). John C. Tibbetts, "Robert Preston Talks about Typecasting, Cecil B. Demille, and Victory/Victoria," (interview conducted 1982), American Classic Screen Interviews (2010). Thomas Hischak, "Victor/Victoria" The Oxford Companion to the American Musical (Oxford University Press, 2009). "Julie Andrews on Late Night, February 17, 1982," https://youtu.be/IBtRZiKVH00 "Julie Andrews and James Garner at the premiere of Victor Victoria," https://youtu.be/29xk8LEw8N4 Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/victor-victoria Roger Ebert, "Victor/Victoria," (1 January 1982). https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/victorvictoria-1982 Vincent Canby, "'Victor Victoria,' A Blake Edwards Farce," The New York Times (19 March, 1982). https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/19/movies/victor-victoria-a-blake-edwards-farce.html Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor/Victoria Associated Press, "NFL Great Alex Karras Dies" ESPN https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/8485773/alex-karras-detroit-lions-defensive-great-dies-age-77 ; Detroit Lions, "Alex Karras headed to Hall of Fame," YouTube https://youtu.be/wCSrlVW4FFI

Male Impersonators:

Cornell University Library Digital Collections, Postcards of Male and Female Impersonators Cross-Dressing in Europe and the United States, 1900-1930. Available at https://digital.library.cornell.edu/collections/impersonator-postcards Jeanne Bloch Postcard, Cornell University Digital Library Collections, Available at https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:24415912 Drag King History, Timeline, available at https://dragkinghistory.com/dk-timeline/ Lenard R. Berlenstein, "Breeches and Breaches: Cross-Dress Theater and the Culture of Gender Ambiguity in Modern France," Comparative Studies in Society and History 38, 2 (1996)

French Leave:

"French leave, n." Oxford English Dictionary Seth Stevenson, "Don't Say Goodbye Just ghost." Slate (3 July 2013). https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/07/ghosting-the-irish-goodbye-the-french-leave-stop-saying-goodbye-at-parties.html

Gun Molls:

IMDB List of Films Featuring Gun Molls: https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=gun-moll&sort=year,asc&mode=detail&page=1 The Mob Museum, Top Five Women of Organized Crime. Available at https://themobmuseum.org/blog/top-5-women-of-organized-crime/ Claire Bond Potter, "I'll Go to the Limit and Then Some: Gun Molls, Desire, and Danger in the 1930s," Feminist Studies 21, 1 (Spring 1995)