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Art Art & Books

Casa Susanna’s cross dressers in AGO’s 60s show amaze

In the early 2000s, collectors Robert Swope and Michel Hurst made an amazing discovery at a New York City flea market: several albums full of candid snapshots made in the 50s and 60s at a holiday camp called Casa Susanna. They showed men of various ages and ethnicities enjoying parties, outdoor activities and quiet times – all dressed as women. They’re not in flamboyant drag, instead looking much like their wives might have at the time. They were part of a small pre-Stonewall-era movement of male cross-dressers who identified as heterosexual, though in subsequent years some began to live full-time as women. Images from Casa Susanna are part of the AGO’s show Outsiders: American Photography And Film 1950s-1980s (NNNN), which runs until May 29 and focuses on photographers and experimental filmmakers whose work reflects the massive social changes of the period. 

Swope, via email from Mexico, tells us some of the story behind the photos.

What was Casa Susanna?

It was located outside Hunter, New York, in the Catskills. As far as I know, there was no other sleep-over resort for heterosexual transvestites at the time. The “girls” would sometimes go into town and shop a bit, gathering a few stares but nothing more. Susanna, aka Tito Valenti, was the centre of the New York scene of transvestites in the late 50s and 60s, and his wife, Marie, owned a wig shop on 5th Avenue where many transvestites shopped and also learned of the resort. From what I’ve heard, it quietly disappeared sometime in the late 60s. Nobody seems to know why.

I’m struck by how the people look like ordinary women. They’re not going for a Bettie Page or Divine kind of look. Was extreme drag or homosexuality discouraged at Casa Susanna?

What makes the photos in the book so interesting is this very fact: these men were not drag queens they wanted to experience the life of everyday women and emulate them physically. They wanted to look like real ladies, not like exaggerations of women. From what I’ve been told, there was no homosexuality at the resort, though one would have had to have been there to know for sure. But visitors to Casa Susanna all identified as heterosexual men who were exploring their feminine side. As Susanna is often quoted as saying, she was interested in “the girl within.”

Susanna-and-three-friends-outside.jpg

Unknown American

Susanna and three friends outside, 1964-1969
chromogenic print 8.9 × 10.8 cm (3 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.)
Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Purchase, with funds generously donated by Martha LA McCain, 2015
© Art Gallery of Ontario

How did you learn the story behind the camp? I read that when you first published the photos, you hesitated to investigate the place’s history because you feared the guests’ stories would end badly. 

We believe that a very strong aspect to the book is that after you look at the photographs, they begin to tell a story that is fairly obvious, and this was our experience when we first found them. We basically put the story together just by looking at the photos. We didn’t know then where the resort was or who any of the individuals were. We only learned this later.  

Have you met some of them? 

Yes, we’ve met with Katherine Cummings, who now lives in Australia and was one of the youngest visitors to the resort. She subsequently had sex reassignment surgery and has lived as a woman for many years. She was an important consultant for a 2014 Broadway play by Harvey Fierstein, Casa -Valentina, which was inspired by our book. We put her and Harvey in touch as part of our contract with the play’s producers. There are many interesting stories about the visitors to the resort. One of the “girls” was an airline pilot who knew Charles Lindbergh and also flew across the Atlantic solo. Another guest was a well-known New York City theatre publicist who was married to a major Hollywood movie star.*

Susanna-friend-in-kitchen.jpg

Unknown American

Susanna and a friend in the kitchen, 1955-1963
chromogenic print
6.4 × 8.4 cm (2 1/2 × 3 5/16 in.)
Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Purchase, with funds generously donated
by Martha LA McCain, 2015
© Art Gallery of Ontario

Who owns the photos now? 

All the original photographs are now in the collection of the AGO. We loaned a group of 25 photographs to the AGO in 2014 [before the AGO acquired them] for the exhibition Fan The Flames [during World Pride]. 

How is the story continuing to be taken up in pop culture? Is it being seen differently now than it was when you first published the photos?

The book [Casa Susanna, $19.95, powerHouse] is now in paperback and continues to sell briskly. Since it came out in 2005, there’s been a lot of interest in the phenomenon of heterosexual cross-dressers. We think our book has contributed to this renewed interest. It was very well received and had good reviews. I think the Casa Susanna photographs are seen today the same way they were when the book first came out – as a remarkable document of a group of very brave individuals who wanted and needed to express their urge to cross-dress as women no matter what society thought, and they were lucky to have a safe haven in Casa Susanna.     

Susanna-in-a-pink-green-and-yellow-dress-sitting-with-friends.jpg

Unknown American

Susanna in a pink, green and yellow dress, sitting with friends, 1960s
chromogenic print
9 × 12.6 cm (3 9/16 × 4 15/16 in.)
Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Purchase, with funds generously donated by Martha LA McCain, 2015
© Art Gallery of Ontario

*Although Swope didn’t answer my question about who shot the photos, the AGO credits one of the visitors, Andrea Susan (aka Jack Malick), as the photographer of most of the Casa Susanna collection. In a fascinating interview posted in November 2015 on YouTube, Susan/Malick gives more details about how he made and printed the Casa Susanna images with equipment bought for him by actor Joan Bennett’s cross-dressing husband, David Wilde (allowing them to avoid the risks associated with getting the film developed and printed commercially), and how the photos subsequently ended up in the flea market.

Don’t miss our review of Outsiders at the AGO here.

art@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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