Jewel Box Revue Female Impersonators Advert
Date
Credits
- Danny Brown Producer
- Doc Bennar Producer
- Jewel Box Revue Subject
Format
- Flyer 164
- Advertising 652
Media
- newsprint 54
Techniques
Locations Made
This is a poster for a female impersonator show called the Jewel Box Revue at the Apollo Theater in Harlem 1968. The logo for the Jewel Box Revue mimics the marquees of a theater and opens like a jewel box, with notable performers posed inside of it. At the top of the poster is the logo for the Apollo Theater. At the bottom is the inclusion of a film called Flame on the Streets, an interracial romance. These kinds of shows are the predecessor to drag shows. The Jewel Box Revue was the first travelling group of gender impersonators and are part of queer history. It was also unique for being a mixed race group of performers. The creators of the show, Danny Brown and Doc Bennar, were gay lovers and the performers were also predominantly queer. It was considered one of the first queer and queer-positive communities that fostered a family that would influence queer history like having drag king Storme DeLarverie who was one of the first rioters to inspire the Stonewall movement.
