The somewhat different diva: Impersonation, ambivalence and the musical comedy performances of Julian Eltinge

Abstract

Abstract Female impersonator and musical theatre star Julian Eltinge (1881–1941) was as formidable a draw on the musical stages as George M. Cohan in the first decades of the twentieth century. Eltinge headlined a series of musical comedies and revues, including The Fascinating Widow (1911) and Cohan and Harris Minstrels (1908). His musical comedy diva performances were inspired by the Gibson Girl image, and he enacted cross-racial performances in musical revues. As a man-impersonating-a-woman-impersonating-a-diva, he underscored the performativity of gender and race. In this article, I examine a different kind of diva performance through Eltinge’s performance: the ambivalent diva. As a white and – vigorously proclaimed – heterosexual man, Eltinge undermined his own rebelliousness through the eventual divulgence of his masculinity and subsequent repudiation of the cultural identities he performed. Eltinge’s unassailable performance ultimately and forcefully symbolized the political, social and material tensions of the Progressive Era.