Drag queens are not a new concept in the entertainment world. They have wowed audiences for centuries. What’s not exactly common knowledge is two Butte men made names for themselves as female impersonators.
Billy Dalton and Mansel Boyle may not have known each other, but the two men moved in the same circles. Starting their careers at about the same time, Dalton and Boyle shared a significant talent that would lead them to entertain audiences across the globe.
With the stage names of Julian Eltinge and Vardaman the Auburn-Haired Beauty, Dalton and Boyle would find success as drag queens from the early years of the 20th century up to the mid-1920s.
Julian was Dalton’s middle name and Eltinge was the surname of a childhood friend. As for Boyle, he chose his middle name, Vardaman, to be his stage name.
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An only child, Dalton was born in Newtonville, Massachusetts, but spent his childhood in Butte, living here with his parents, Michael, a barber, and Julia, from the late 1880s to about 1895.
About the time the Dalton family left Butte, Boyle, along with his parents Arthur and Mary, and brother, Eugene, were getting ready to move in.
While his father and brother found work mining underground, Boyle, who was born in Santa Cruz, California, found clerical work, eventually getting a position with the Montana Liquor Co.
Of the two, Dalton as Eltinge was by far the most successful as he would become known as America’s best female impersonator.
He and his family returned to Massachusetts around 1895 and settled in Boston. There, he began perfecting his craft as a female impersonator and by 1900, as a member of the Boston Cadets and Bankers Show, was making a name for himself.
On May 6, 1900, the Boston Globe reported that when Eltinge began his “high kicking and flourished his skirts there is a touch of daring boyishness about the way he does it which is highly amusing and quite convincing.”
Another convincing performance at the Tremont Theatre in Boston on Feb. 25, 1901, left patrons astounded.
“No woman could wear a dress better than he does,” said one audience member. Another commented, “I never saw a more beautiful woman’s face on the stage than his.”
High praise indeed, but Eltinge worked hard at perfecting his feminine look and would become so skilled, he would eventually market his own cosmetics line.
For the next couple years, Eltinge performed in several theaters throughout New England. By 1904, Broadway came calling and he appeared in the stage production of the musical comedy, “Mr. Wix of Wickham.”
It would become a blip in his so far stellar career. The New York Times deemed the musical comedy “not even fair theatrical hash.” The bad review, however, did not hurt his career and he continued to wow audiences and fellow vaudevillians, including W.C. Fields. The comedian, who would later become a popular film actor, said of Eltinge, “Women went into ecstasies over him. Men went into the smoking room.”
With his popularity rising, it was time to take the show on the road by way of Europe. The tour included Eltinge and the rest of the theatrical troupe performing for England’s King Edward VII.
“You can’t go home again” was just not the case for Eltinge, who returned to Butte for the first time in January 1910, to perform with Harry Lauder, a world-renowned Scottish comedian.
Childhood friends met the vaudeville star at the train station and escorted him to the Empire Theatre. The Butte Evening News reported on Jan. 22, 1910, that at the end of his performance, Eltinge, who stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed about 185 pounds, removed his wig and talked to the audience about the size of his corsets.
By the following year, Eltinge had also returned to the New York stage, starring in the comedic play, “The Fascinating Widow.” Wanted by the law, the star of the show, Eltinge, kept law enforcement guessing as he disguised himself as a widow.
This time, the reviews were not just good, they were doled out with enthusiastic praise and once again, Eltinge took his show on the road.
“One of the best shows ever presented,” said one New Jersey critic, while a reporter from the Bridgeport Times in Connecticut said the play was “filled with comical situations which create no end of laughter and applause.”
The Julian Eltinge magazine had also been published to showcase the “handsomest woman on the stage is a man.” At a cost of 10 cents, the publication was usually 32 pages and included full-page photographs of Eltinge dressed as a man and as a woman.
The accolades kept coming. Located on New York City’s 42nd Street, a theater bearing Eltinge’s name would be dedicated on Sept. 11, 1912.
The entertainer also lent his name to a corset company advertising its R&G “Abdoband.” An advertisement in the Times Herald proudly boasted “It’s the corset he (Eltinge) wears.”
Now frequently called the “best female impersonator” in the business, Eltinge brought his popular play to the Broadway in Butte. The performance earned plenty of accolades.
In an Oct. 12, 1912 review, a Butte Inter Mountain reporter described the play as the “newest thing in merry widows” and noted that Eltinge “fascinated a discriminating audience at the Broadway theater last night.”
While not reaching the heights Eltinge had in his career, Vardaman had a modicum of success as a drag queen.
After moving to Butte with his family, the young Boyle would eventually immerse himself in the local musical theater scene and would make some friends along the way. His name was often mentioned in the local newspapers, not just for his musical talent, but for helping introduce residents to the newest rage, pingpong
“Ping-Pong Now the Fad” was The Butte Miner headline of April 4, 1902. The newspaper credited Boyle and his friend, Samuel Mayer, for the introduction.
“A most delightful evening was spent, and especially interesting was the game of pingpong, in which most of the guests indulged,” reported The Miner.
Boyle was also a member of the entertaining Overland Club, which showcased his singing abilities, all the while dressed as a woman.
In a June 6, 1902 article, a The Butte Inter Mountain described Boyle as a “pretty little filly with good legs.”
Following a production at the Family Theatre on Nov. 24, 1902, a reviewer wrote in The Butte Miner that “Boyle was nice and plump and altogether girly” and was “too cute for words” decked out in his pretty costume of yellow and black, short skirts, along with a decollete bodice. The reviewer concluded that young Boyle “simply took the house by storm.”
By February 1903, Boyle, with his stage name Vardaman the Auburn-Haired Beauty, packed his belongings and left Butte to find work on the vaudeville circuit, hoping for bigger stages, bigger audiences.
It was a smart move for Vardaman, who would soon be performing throughout the U.S.
The entertainer, however, did not break ties with his one-time home. Fifteen months later, he returned to Butte as a headliner at the Grand Theater.
“Mansel Boyle given an ovation,” reported The Anaconda Standard. “He is by all odds the cleverest female impersonator ever seen on the stage.”
Less than a year later, he was back for yet another performance.
The Butte Miner was looking forward to his return. On April 1, 1906, the newspaper had some heartfelt words to share about the former Butte resident:
“The great Vardaman has also been engaged, who is well known to the people of Butte, as his home was in our city for many years, and as a female impersonator he stands today without a rival in this country. The people of Butte should feel proud of the position which he occupies today, which is the top round of the ladder.”
Vardaman’s stay in Butte was brief as the entertainer got back on the road once more to follow the circuit.
In August 1906, Vardaman was performing on the Bijou Theatre stage in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Leading up to that performance, the local newspaper, The Daily Oklahoma reported “this very clever performer as an imitator of the fair sex, has no equal.”
The words of praise continued.
On Jan. 5, 1909, the Evansville Courier in Indiana told its readers, “Vardaman is without a doubt the cleverest in his line in the profession.”
In the years to follow, Vardaman would continue to hone his craft, eventually heading overseas to perform at such venues as the National Amphitheatre in Sydney, Australia.
By 1915, his popularity was dissipating and his stage name changed from Vardaman the Auburn-Haired Beauty to Vardaman the Gay Deceiver.
As he got closer to 40, the former Butte man found it harder and harder to find work on stage and eventually the curtains closed on his career.
Vardaman was 68 years old when he died May 28, 1945. When his obituary was published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, his fascinating profession in the limelight appeared to be little more than an afterthought as the obituary concluded with “Forty years ago he was on the stage in New York as a female impersonator.”
As for Eltinge, he would venture into silent films, taking minor roles in such movies as “How Molly Malone Made Good,” “The Countess Charming,” and “Madame Behave.”
Audiences continued to patronize his shows and he would return to Butte for yet another production on Feb. 13-14, 1919.
As with his previous shows, Eltinge and company received rave reviews.
“From the opening act to the elaborate final number, the audience was with the performers, and laughter was unrestrained through most of the numbers,” reported The Anaconda Standard.
Eventually, though, Eltinge’s popularity would also wane.
Eltinge had a minor role in the 1940 Bing Crosby film, “If I Had My Way.” The following year, while attempting a comeback at Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub in New York City, he became ill while on stage and died days later on March 7, 1941. He was 59 years old.
Unlike Vardaman, Eltinge’s death was reported in Butte and dozens of other newspapers, large and small, across the country.
Perhaps Burns Mantle of the New York Daily News summed up Eltinge’s life best — “Nothing will completely lift the slur from female impersonation, but Julian Eltinge came as close to lifting it as any man ever had succeeded in doing. So close, in fact, that he suffered very little during his lifetime from the taunts of either the rough or the simpering and light-minded play followers of his time.”