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Barbette (December 19, 1898 – August 5, 1973) was an American female impersonator, high-wire performer, and trapeze artist born in Texas on December 19, 1899. Barbette attained great popularity throughout the United States but his greatest fame came in Europe and especially Paris, in the 1920s and 1930s. Barbette began performing as an aerialist at around the age of 14 as one-half of a circus act called The Alfaretta Sisters. After a few years of circus work, Barbette went solo and adopted his exotic-sounding pseudonym. He performed in full drag, revealing himself as male only at the end of his act. Following a career-ending illness or injury, Barbette returned to Texas but continued to work as a consultant for motion pictures as well as training and choreographing aerial acts for a number of circuses. After years of dealing with chronic pain, Barbette committed suicide on August 5, 1973. Both in life and following his death, Barbette served as an inspiration to a number of artists including Jean Cocteau and Man Ray. ==Early life and career== Barbette (birth name cited as Vander Clyde〔Gewirtz, et al. p. 198〕 and Vander Clyde Broadway〔〔) was born on December 19, 1899,〔 (although it is sometimes cited as 1904〔〔) in Texas. Most sources indicate he was born in Round Rock, although Barbette stated that his birthplace was Trickham.〔〔〔United States passport application for Vander Clyde Broadway, dated March 9, 1923〕 His Draft Registration Card, dated 7 September 1918, states that his birthday was 19 December 1898.〔Document viewed on ancestry.com on 10 January 2013.〕 Some confusion surrounds the name of Barbette's father. On a 1923 passport application, Barbette lists his father's name as "Henry Broadway" and notes him as deceased.〔 However, Barbette's death certificate gives his father's first name as "Jeff."〔Texas Certificate of Death E950067, State file number 81205, for Vander Clyde (Barbette) Broadway. 1973-10-17〕 The death certificate lists his mother's name as "Hattie Wilson;"〔 Barbette listed her name as "Mrs. E. S. Loving" on his passport application, as well as his 1918 Draft Registration form.〔 In the United States Census of 1900, Barbette (then given the birth date of 19 December 1897) and his mother, Hattie Broadway (''née'' Martin, 1879-1949), were living in Llano, Texas, in the household of his maternal great-grandparents, Florence E. and William Paschall, a farmer. Hattie, then aged 21, was listed as a widow on the census, while her son's birthdate is given as December 1897. Also living in the household was Hattie Broadway's younger brother, Malcolm Wilson.〔1900 U.S. Federal Census, accessed on ancestry.com on 10 January 2013〕 Hattie Broadway married, as her second husband, in 1906, Samuel E. Loving (1868-1953), who worked in a broom factory, and had five more children, sons Eugene Loving (1908-1971) and Sam Paschall Loving (1917-1996), and daughters Hugo Loving (1910-1912), Bonsilene Loving (born 1914), and Mary Martin Loving (1915-1997); after his mother's second marriage, Barbette was known as "Vander Loving".〔1910 U.S. Federal Census, accessed on ancestry.com on 10 January 2013. Hugo Loving's gravemarker states "Infant Daughter of S.E. and H.M. Loving".〕 Barbette's mother took him to the circus at an early age in Austin and he was fascinated by the wire act. "The first time she took me to the circus in Austin, I knew I would be a performer, and from then on I'd work in the fields during the cotton-picking season to earn money in order to go to the circus as often as possible."〔 Barbette practiced for hours by walking along his mother's steel clothes line. He graduated from high school at the age of 14.〔 After high school, Barbette began his circus career as one-half of the aerialist team The Alfaretta Sisters. One of the sisters had died unexpectedly and Barbette answered the surviving sister's ad for a replacement, auditioning in San Antonio.〔 Together the pair decided that it was more dramatic for a woman to perform the acrobatic stunts.〔Kibler p. 148.〕 "She told me that women's clothes always make a wire act more impressive...and she asked me if I'd mind dressing as a girl. I didn't; and that's how it began."〔 Following his time as an Alfaretta, Barbette next joined an act called Erford's Whirling Sensation. This act included three people who hung from a spinning apparatus by their teeth.〔 He then developed his solo act and moved to the vaudeville stage. He took on the name "Barbette", believing that it had an exotic French sound and because it could conceivably be either a first or a last name.〔Gewirtz, et al. p. 199.〕 His solo debut was at the Harlem Opera House in 1919.〔Cullen, et al. p. 67.〕 Barbette performed trapeze and wire stunts in full drag, maintaining the illusion of femininity until the end of his act, when he would pull off his wig and strike exaggerated masculine poses. For the next several years he toured the Keith Vaudeville Circuit, advertised as a "versatile specialty." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barbette (performer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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