Christine Jorgensen's "I Enjoy Being a Girl"
album
On my radio show and website, QMH, I love to feature
transgender performers and history, and there could not be better history than
Christine Jorgensen (1926 - 1989). While she was not the first person to have
sexual reassignment surgery, she certainly was one of the first to get worldwide
attention for it, especially in the U.S. This was in late 1952 when she traveled to Denmark for the
operation and returned to front-page
headlines all over the world. Her celebrity essentially became her career, with
speaking and night club engagements, for the rest of her life.
Many people know of her LP "Christine Jorgensen
Reveals," in which Nipsy Russell does an awkward interview, and to me I
found her articulate responses full of amazing poise, especially considering
this was 1958. Discovering that LP was probably the start of my
admiration and fascination with her, and I have set up several pages of my site in
tribute to her, at the link below.
In December of 2006, a piece of history was restored and
given back to us, in the form of a very rare night club show by Christine
Jorgensen. Prior to this the only recording released to the public was the 1958
interview album. While she made herself a career in show business for most of
the rest of her life, no recording of her performances had surfaced, until this
"new" release. The album is comprised of two of her shows in Los
Angeles, one done in late 1982 and the other in early 1983. In this recording
she does some singing, tells stories about celebrities and does some
impressions.
below, ad for engagement similar to the ones on the album
The album is only available in digital format, at iTunes.
I was blessed to have been able to interview the album's producer, David
Cunard, who sadly passed away in October of 2011. That interview can be found
on my May 2007 QMH show.
Great stuff!
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