“This is Julian Eltinge,” says Jill, pointing to a photo of a stout, coquettish woman in a large Edwardian hat. “Eltinge was very big in vaudeville. ‘Women went into ecstasy over him. Men went into the smoking room’–that’s what W.C. Fields said about him.”
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Among the things on display is some sheet music from the 20s featuring photos of Karyl Norman. “She was known as the ‘Creole Fashion Plate,’” says Jill, pointing to the sassy, feminine eyes and lips. “Gorgeous. She achieved that without surgery, without drugs.”
Jill knows how difficult that can be–she’s a biological male who’s turning herself into a woman. The hormones haven’t completely softened her features.
“Before Transformations you’d go into a store and pretend you were getting something for a sweetheart or a wife or whatever,” says one middle-aged customer in full drag. “Most of us were in the closet before Transforma-tions opened. I was scared to death to come out. When I first came here I thought, ‘Oh my God!’”
