TV Clip Sheet, No. 4

Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, [1962]. Offset. 2 folios 15 x 8 1⁄2 in. folded to form a pamphlet 7 x 8 1⁄2 in. 8 pp. Very good. Item #5809

Based in Los Angeles, Chevalier Publications published a number of periodicals aimed at heterosexual male transvestites, including Femme Mirror and Transvestia. The TV Clip Sheets ran for 39 issues between 1962 to 1965, and were miniature zines composed of newspaper and magazine clippings featuring stories about cross-dressing and transvestism worldwide. Cross-dressing and dressing in drag were criminalized in the United States at the time, and many men dressed as women were locked up on charges of masquerading and indecent exposure.

This issue features a wide array of news coverage of men who had assumed a female identity and vice versa, with a focus on articles about Christine Jorgensen. The clip sheets may have been intended to foster a sense of community and solidarity, to normalise, or to provoke continued resistance to prohibitive laws.

A scarce document of the presence and scope of the pre-Stonewall trans community.

Price: $250.00