A new tintype photo and another nice review!

My nephew, Jeff Howlett, was back in town again a couple of weeks ago to take tintype photographs at two different venues in Tampa and Dunedin.  You can read about my first tintype Jeff took of me in a previous post here.   This time around I had my eyes opened much wider -- which I made a point of doing since I look a bit like I'm squinting in the first tintype.  It's difficult not to squint or blink due to the bright lights Jeff has to use. 

Jeff's website is here.  He also has another site with a fellow photographer that explains a bit about tintypes here. Jeff had a lot of happy customers at the Tampa Indie Flea.  Many people were having tintypes taken for holiday gifts.

My other bit of news is that I've received another nice review of one of my recordings in Audiofile Magazine.  This one is for The Prettiest Girl on Stage is a Man: Race and Gender Benders in American Vaudeville by Kathleen B. Casey.

"Narrator Lee Ann Howlett brings to life an array of American vaudeville stars from the 1890s-1920s whose acts reflect the cultural changes caused by immigration, racial discord, and changing gender roles at that time. With a conversational delivery style, Howlett creates a tough persona for singer Eva Tanguay, emphasizing her strength while performing racy songs of the period. Also portrayed is Julian Eltinge, a top female impersonator whose extreme masculine facade in real life countered speculation that he was gay. Howlett is most enjoyable as Lillyn Brown, a biracial woman who played a black dandy with a top hat, which she removed to display long hair as she sang suggestive songs as a woman. The great Sophie Tucker herself played in blackface, impersonated men and people of other races, and emphasized her Jewishness. Listeners will be intrigued to hear that Lady Gaga is considered a modern gender bender."

The link to the review is here and you can listen to a sample of the book on Audible here. 

 

"The Prettiest Girl on Stage is a Man" is now live on Audible!

My latest release on Audible is a very interesting look at the role reversals of vaudeville entertainers.  The Prettiest Girl on Stage is a Man: Race and Gender Benders in American Vaudeville by Kathleen B. Casey is a mixture of arts & entertainment, and history.

"In this lively and enlightening study, Kathleen B. Casey explores the ways in which the gender- and race-bending spectacles of vaudeville dramatized the economic, technological, social, and cultural upheaval that gripped the United States in the early 20th century. She focuses on four key performers. Eva Tanguay, known as "The I Don't Care Girl", was loved for her defiance of Victorian decorum, linking white womanliness to animalistic savagery at a time when racial and gender ideologies were undergoing significant reconstruction. In contrast, Julian Eltinge, the era's foremost female impersonator, used race to exaggerate notions of manliness and femininity in a way that reinforced traditional norms more than it undermined them. Lillyn Brown, a biracial woman who portrayed a cosmopolitan black male dandy while singing about an antebellum southern past, offered her audiences, black and white, starkly different visual and aural messages about race and gender. Finally, Sophie Tucker, who often performed in blackface during the early years of her long and heralded career, strategically played with prevailing ideologies by alternately portraying herself as white, Jewish, black, manly, and womanly, while managing, remarkably, to convince audiences that these identities could coexist within one body."

To listen to a sample or purchase, head to Audible here.