Public Faces, Private Lives
Text from Improper Bostonians

"The ideal woman" Born and raised in Boston, Julian Eltinge was the most celebrated female impersonator in vaudeville. He began his career with George M. Cohan's touring minstrel shows and eventually amassed a fortune performing as the ideal woman in the United States and Europe. He published his own magazine, in which he often gave advice to women about how to be more beautiful. His personal life was closely scrutinized, and numerous assurances were printed that Eltinge was a "real man" offstage. One such article, which appeared in the Boston Traveler on May 18, 1912, was entitled "Eltinge Really a Manly Chap, In Fact His Name is Bill Dalton."