Video of the Day: The Drag King Timeline You Won’t Find In Textbooks
It’s International Drag Day, so let’s talk about the kings who’ve been serving swagger since the 1800s.
Today is International Drag Day, and we’re highlighting a video from drag king and YouTuber Adam All that offers a much-needed history lesson on a side of drag culture too often left out of the spotlight. In an engaging breakdown, Adam traces the rise and fall of male impersonators from the height of their fame in the Victorian music hall scene to their gradual erasure from mainstream performance.
Related: Get To Know Stormé DeLarverie, The Butch Drag King And Stonewall Icon History Can’t Forget
Figures like Annie Hindle, Ella Shields, Hetty King, and Gladys Bentley are reintroduced not as footnotes, but as headliners in their own right. “By the 1890s, male impersonators were some of the highest-paid performers in the whole of the entertainment industry,” Adam notes. Don’t get us wrong, we love a queen, but these kings deserve their flowers, too.
Watch:
