A Film Documentary

"When Julian Eltinge entered, Women went into Ecstasies over him, Men went into the Smoking Room."

W. C. Fields

On Sunday, March 2, 1998, the Empire, an elegant Beaux Arts Style Broadway theater built in 1912 and weighing 7.4 million lbs. , was floated on tracks up 42 St. near Seventh Ave. to a new location close to Eighth Ave. Few among those witnessing this strange migration realized that the theater was originally named The Eltinge Theatre in honor of Julian Eltinge, perhaps the greatest female impersonator of the American Stage. The theater has been remodeled as the AMC MoviePlex. On the original lobby ceiling a fresco of the Three Muses, all portraits of Julian Eltinge as a woman can still be seen.

In the 1910s and 1920s, Julian Eltinge was one of the biggest stars of the day, the toast of the Broadway Stage and the Vaudeville Circuit, and an enormously popular and wealthy star of Silent Film. With music composed by Jerome Kern and other leading composers of the day, and lyrics often written by Eltinge himself, his theatrical farces were phenomenal critical and financial successes. Regarded by many as the greatest female impersonator in history, yet today Eltinge is all but forgotten and his life and work virtually unknown to the public. Using archival material and theatrical recreations of some of his musical performances, JULIAN ELTINGE: THE FASCINATING WIDOW will chronicle and examine Eltinge's life and career, highlighting his struggle to dispel rumors about his supposed homosexual identity and exploring the reasons for his descent into obscurity.

Eltinge made every effort to quash any evidence of a possible homosexual identity, despite many indications to the contrary. Presenting an intensely macho image as an amateur boxer, horseback rider, and ladies' man, Eltinge went to great lengths to craft a public impression of manliness that sharply contrasted with his stage persona. Accounts of him winning fights in bars, or with hecklers in the theater, were widely circulated, though most of them were staged for public consumption. An ambiguous newspaper article about him and a male sportswriter, however, suggests the real possibility of an intimate relationship that contradicts this highly engineered straight image. Eltinge's international fame brought him great prestige, and he was soon called to Hollywood. Between 1914 and 1930 he starred in 12 films, ranging from slapstick comedy to high drama, generally within a plot of a man impersonating a woman to solve some personal or domestic problem. His last starring role was in his only musical comedy sound film. Typically, whether on stage or in film, he would reveal himself as a man during the developing plot, or at the end. His financial success in Hollywood allowed him to build one of the grandest mansions of any film star of his time.

Eltinge's style of female impersonation was unique and influenced much of show business for decades to come. His influence has reverberated throughout the 20th century evident in such films as "Some Like it Hot", "Tootsie", and the performances of Charles Pierce and Dame Edna Everidge.

Unlike most other female impersonators of the time, he never resorted to a broadly burlesque style. His stage and film performances were always geared toward an intelligent, subtle, and witty satire of the current feminine image as stereotyped by a male dominated culture. Perceiving women to be his main audience, Eltinge published THE JULIAN ELTINGE MAGAZINE OF BEAUTY HINTS, a magazine of tips and beauty secrets for women, with ads for Julian Eltinge Beauty Products to buy. The magazine , titled "THE FASCINATING WIDOW" from his most famous musical comedy, was filled with images of Eltinge in the most elegant gowns, with such titles as "See What the Julian Eltinge Cold Cream Does for a Man. Imagine What It Will Do For a Woman!" Paradoxically, and typically for Eltinge, in the same magazine he has an article in which he advises women to learn how to box to develop strength, endurance and greater health.

Despite great international success Eltinge's career began to fade in the 1930s. Times and tastes were changing, and alcoholism, and other personal and financial problems seemed to spin him into a decline. Eltinge died in 1941 under questionable circumstances. His life was a story filled with many peaks and valleys. Eltinge performed before a President and Royalty, headlined at the Palace, held numerous champagne parties, brawled with thugs, had a theater named in his honor, starred in twelve films, lost three fortunes, endorsed beauty products for women, and, after his death, faded into undeserved obscurity.

Documenting Eltinge's life and career and the struggles he experienced balancing the two , JULIAN ELTINGE: THE FASCINATING WIDOW will restore a truly unique personality and fascinating performer to his rightful place in the history of American theater and film.