An Angel, A Flower, A Bird

Jean Cocteau championed the first drag superstar.

A double portrait of Barbette and Vander Clyde taken by Man Ray and commissioned by Jean Cocteau.

What once was a subculture of a subculture has now gone mainstream: drag queens (and the occasional, though too rare kings) have become part of mainstream pop culture. Unquestionably the result of Rupaul’s Drag Race’s popularity, it’s delivered to the general population a version of a transgressive form of performance that has been translated into something digestible for a mass audience.

Decades before the stars and creators of Drag Race, La Cage aux Folles and The Rocky Horror Picture Show were even born, however, existed a circus sideshow and a multidisciplinary Parisian artist enraptured by one of its performers.

Vander Clyde Broadway (his legal name and birth year remain unconfirmed) was born in 1898 or 1899 in Round Rock, Texas. His mother took him to the circus when he was a young boy, and it was at that point that he decided he would join one – spending hours as a kid teaching himself aerial arts and tightrope walking on his mother’s metal clothesline at home. He joined one after graduating high school at around fifteen years old.

The original meaning of drag is an acronym dating back centuries: “Dressed Resembling A Girl.” Which is what Vander agreed to do when he auditioned to replace a female aerialist in a duo act. It was suggested that it would be more striking if performed by two women instead of a mixed-gender pair. He came up with the name Barbette to sound exotic, elegant and French, and was off to the races.

By the early 1920s, Barbette was performing as a solo act, part of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and touring through the United States and Europe. In 1923, Jean Cocteau saw his act and was instantly obsessed.