#jean malin

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The New Movie Magazine, April 1933

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Since it’s Gay Pride Month, I thought I’d highlight some notable people I’ve profiles here at Gay Icons.

It’s easier to be Out in the 21st Century, but turn back the clock 100 years it’s a different story. Now imagine Jean Malin in the 1920s - “a six-foot-tall, 200-pound bruiser who also had an attitude and a lisp". Malin appeared on stage as a flamboyant, effeminate, openly gay male wearing a tuxedo. That take a special kind of bravery.

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Jean Malin was one of the most popular drag performer of the Jazz Age (1920s and 1930s). He regularly appeared in cabarets, and his own rest

[absurdlakefront]

Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife

Early drag queens like Jean Malin helped bohemian gay culture thrive – before mob violence, Nazism and Hollywood homophobia drove it back underground

The 1920s also saw an increase in the number of bohemian enclaves in rundown areas, such as New York’s Greenwich Village. Painters, poets and performers were lured by the cheap rents and by an increasingly wild and lawless lifestyle. Prohibition had given birth to a black market for booze and a bustling underground scene, where bright young things slumming it in mob-run nightspots developed a taste for camp, cutting repartee.

LGBT people were flocking to cities as much for the nightlife as for the ability to connect with others. Soon, Variety was reporting that Broadway “will have nite places with ‘pansies’ as the main draw. Paris and Berlin have similar night resorts, with the queers attracting the lays.” In Berlin, you could hear singers performing Das Lila Lied (The Lavender Song), one of the earliest songs to celebrate homosexuality. “This song became the gay anthem of the time and still has status today,” says singer Ute Lemper. “The lyrics are witty and ballsy, quite unbelievable.” You can hear its influence in the work of Rufus Wainwright, Marc Almond and others.

Every European capital, and several major US cities, had similar scenes: London had Douglas Byng and Noël Coward, who once admitted: “I should love to perform There Are Fairies in the Bottom of My Garden, but I don’t dare. It might come out There Are Fairies in the Garden of My Bottom.”

Performers, including the acid-tongued Malin, quickly eclipsed the drag acts that had been a stage staple for decades. Malin began his own career in drag, as Imogene Wilson, but it was as the tuxedoed MC of Club Abbey that he “gave Broadway its first glimpse of pansy nightlife”, as Mark Hellinger of the Syracuse Journal put it. At Club Abbey, Malin ditched the dresses and reinvented himself as a high-camp, waspish, obviously gay man – and it was this that singled him out. For possibly the first time ever, an entertainer’s entire act revolved around an explicit queerness. “What was novel is that he did not bring a drag act to the club, but instead performed in elegant men’s clothing, and brought with him the camp wit of the gay subculture,” explains LGBT historian JD Doyle. “If he was heckled by men at the club he knew how to cut them to shreds, to the delight of the crowd.” At 200lbs and over six feet tall, few would argue with him anyway.

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In celebration of Gay Pride Month, I am featuring some of my favorite Gay Icons profiled on this tumblr.

Jean Malin’s short life is fascinating. He was a popular drag performer on stage in the 1920s and 1930s and even appeared in a few movies. But he died at the age of 25 in a usually car accident. His life story would make a great film.

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Jean Malin was one of the most popular drag performer of the Jazz Age (1920s and 1930s). He regularly appeared in cabarets, and his own rest

[100gayicons]

Jean Malin was one of the most popular drag performer of the Jazz Age (1920s and 1930s). He regularly appeared in cabarets, and his own restaurant in New York City, San Francisco, Boston and other cities. Malin was reported to be the highest-paid nightclub entertainer of 1930.

Described as “a six-foot-tall, 200-pound bruiser who also had an attitude and a lisp", Malin initially did not impersonate women, but appeared on stage as a flamboyant, effeminate, openly gay male wearing a tuxedo.

Together with Karyl Norman and Rae Bourbon, Malin helped ignited the “Pansy Craze” in New York’s Speakeasies. In the spring of 1930, Malin became the headline act at the elegant Club Abbey. On stage he was a witty, wisecracking emcee, with an exaggerated swishing manner (pun intended). And part of his appeal was interacting with the audience, strolled through the club teasing, flirting and and infuriating his mostly heterosexual audience with his campy wit. And he was quick with a cutting retort whenever a heckler interrupted him.

A Broadway columnist described Malin as "a baby-faced lad who lisped and pressed his fingers into his thighs... a brilliant entertainer, a very funny guy, but risqué".

When the New York club he was working at suddenly closed (there had been a mob shootout and the police couldn’t ignore that liqueur was being sold during the prohibition), Malin movies to California.

In 1933, he filmed 3 movie roles in Hollywood. The first, “Arizona to Broadway”, he played a Mae West impersonator. Most of his scenes were cut from his next film, “Dancing Lady” with Joan Crawford. And a producer of the third, “Double Harness”, demanded that a less effeminate actor reshoot his scenes.

Malin died in a freak accident after one of his shows at Venice Beach. Malin, his “close friend” Jimmy Forlenza and comic actress Patsy Kelly climbed into a car on the pier with Malin driving. Malin confused the gears, and the car lurched in reverse, went off a pier, and into the water. Malin was killed instantly when he was pinned under the steering wheel. Forlenza suffered a broken collar bone, and Kelly went into shock from submersion in the cold water. Malin was only 25 years old at the time of his death. (Today, the day I post this) would have been Malin’s 113th birthday!)

Here’s an audio recording of Malin singing, “I'd rather be Spanish than Mannish”.

https://youtu.be/L3l7vj-zZkY

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Jean Malin <i>Arizona to Broadway</i> 1933