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What A Drag:
Men as Women & Women as Men in the Movies

Homer Dickens

1984, Quill

264 Pages

From the Introduction

Impersonation of the opposite sex has always been a fascinating subject.  The practice has come down through the ages in many forms, and is significant to any study of mythology, religion, anthropology, psychology or social behavior.  As this brief introduction will show, drag did not begin with the movies but has been with us since ancient times, as part of individual behavior - or as entertainment.

The "drag" pictures in this book cover seven decades and, in their own way, represent not only the actor's art of disguise but also offer us a microcosm of film history - one of the twentieth century's most exciting art forms, which has also left us a permanent record of the changing face of culture and society.  Movies reflect our perception and customs from an age of public innocence to the new morality of the 1980s.   Role-switching, disguises, masquerades and sexual transition are shown here in every form imaginable.

Table of Contents

Charley's Aunt - The Old Chestnut
Some Like It Hot - The Classic Drag Film
The Comedians
The Comedies
The Dramas
The Thrillers
Period Pieces - Historical Drag
The Musicals
The Chorus Lines
The Westerns
The Children
The New Freedom
Television Drag
Hollywood at Play

 Readers' Comments

 

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Diane Sutton 

Another coffee table book, but without the hard cover or glossy pages, each page contains black and white photos from a particular movie with a modest amount of identifying text. The pre-1984 standards are all here as well as wonderful shots of Katherine Hepburn, Bing Crosby, Melvyn Douglas, James Cagney, Jean-Paul Belmondo and many other stars in drag.

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Michael Anderson  SuedoNym@hotmail.com

This book includes the oft overlooked but fascinating aspect of women dressed as men, and includes solid research (eg the Foreign Language film from which Victor/Victoria was taken)

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