Thursday, July 19, 2012

My First Emulation-Worthy Femulator

Cliff-Norton---The-Munsters---tv-US---1964 As a young femulator back in the mid-1960s, I did not have any femulators to emulate.

On the big screen, there were Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, but they dressed in 1920s flapper styles --- an attractive style, but difficult for this young girl to emulate during the Jackie era. 

On the small screen, Milton Berle made an occasional appearance en femme, but his femulations were strictly for laughs; they were clownish and often ugly --- nothing this girl wanted to copy.

The New York newspapers occasionally had ads displaying professional femulators at Club 82 and I so wanted to dress in showgirl drag like the girls at 82, but let's be practical.

There were no femulators that dressed like women dressed in the mid-1960s... no one I could look up to for inspiration.

Finally, one evening watching television in 1964, I saw a great femulation of a mid-1960s woman on a new episode of The Munsters --- of all places! In that episode, character actor Cliff Norton played a cop who disguised himself as a woman (see photo) in order to trap a guy who was accosting women in the park at night.

Norton's femulation left an impression on me for a very long time. He was not a beautiful woman, but he passed and more importantly, he was dressed like a mid-1960s woman in the styles I knew and loved and wanted to wear.

(The title of The Munsters episode is "A Walk on the Mild Side" and you can view it online in a number of locations; just search on "'The Munsters' 'A Walk on the Mild Side'" and you will find it. The femulation occurs near the end of the episode in case you want to fast-forward to it.)

4 comments:

  1. Stana.
    I am surprised that I did not recall that episode. I grew up the same way. The closest we ever came to a femulator was a comedy act in a dress such Berle. I am sure that had I seen this episode of the Munsters that I would have had a similar recollection.
    Thank goodness for today's younger femulators that there are now models such as yourself as well as good information on the net such as this site.
    Pat

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  2. AnonymousJuly 19, 2012

    Hi Stana-
    not to toot my own horn, but you might be interested--I recently wrote about two television episodes w/trans themes that had a big, big impression on me as a child at my blog.( http://gwenstgirladventure.blogspot.com/2012/07/jill-moment.html)
    (and also-look at Popular Posts: "The Ginger Effect")
    I also recall an episode from the first or second year of the "Superman " TV series that featured an exceptional femulator. If I find it, I'll let you know!

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  3. AnonymousJuly 19, 2012

    The exact thing happened to me! Except that it was the show Happy Days...the episide where Richie dresses as a girl and the Fonz dances with him!

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  4. AnonymousJuly 20, 2012

    Hi Stana-
    the "Superman" episode I refer to above was called "Double Trouble" and featured the actor/voice coach Stephen Carr as a femulator/spy "Madame Charpontier". It was from the first season of the series.

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