Five studio portraits of comedian and female impersonator Gilbert Saroney (in and out of character). Sydney, Australia, 1880.

A$3,800 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Five albumen print photographs, in uniform carte de visite format, 105 x 64 mm (mounts); verso with the imprint of Palace Photographic. E. Riisfeldt, Artist Photographer. Hordern s Chambers, 490 George Street, Sydney ; on the verso of one is a fully contemporary inscription in pencil Saroney ; the prints and mounts are all in excellent condition. Provenance: from a group of theatre-related photographs originally collected by the Sydney actor, stage manager and playwright Alfred Dampier. Gilbert Saroney (Sarony / Saroni) was a celebrated female impersonator on the vaudeville stage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, who went on to appear in a number of American films in the early silent era prior to his death in the USA in 1910. His cross-dressing performance in a Thomas Edison film of 1903 can be viewed here . The five portraits of Saroney offered here were taken in Sydney, New South Wales in 1880 and are quite possibly unique. Although taken early in his career, two of them show the actor dressed as an old maid which would later in his career evolve into the stage and film character Giddy Gusher: Gilbert Saroni, also known as Gilbert Sarony, was a popular vaudeville impersonator, whose “old maid” character was his best known. “She” was a grotesque and talkative lady whose catchphrases included “I thought I’d die” and “Goodness, girls, was I embarrassed.” Saroni’s 15 Dec 1910 obituary called him “one of the first female impersonators of the old maid type. He w

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.