a high wire artist who performed "en femme" for Ringling Brothers and
was a star attraction in his day.
Mr. Herbert "Slats" Beeson, aka Berta Beeson was a famous center-ring wire walker,
who from the age of 11 to the time he retired in 1936 performed as an attractive female
impersonating wire-walker. He was a headline, center stage act (the Julian Eltinge of the
tight-wire).
He was with Sells-Floto from 1917-1922, and Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey
from 1923-1936. When he retired as a performer, he worked as a 24-hour man
(the advance man for Ringling Brothers). Apparently in the off-season he also performed
in Vaudeville, en femme.
I have read that he was considered masculine by the other performers and enjoyed
playing baseball - so the female impersonation was correlated to his perfomance in the
ring (or on stage).
I am interested in writing my third play about Mr. Slats Beeson. I have in the past
performed in an amateur circus as a fire juggler/stilt walker, and it is my intent to portray
Mr Beeson as a genuinely interesting character (I am still a huge fan of the Circus, even
though I no longer perform). If you do have any more information about Herbert Beeson,
please let me know.
I have attached (2) posters of Berta Beeson that I have found images of below :
M'lle is an abreviation for Mademoiselle I think, so Sells-Floto is advertising
Slats as a girl, where as Ringling Brothers, being more market savy is
advertising him as the Julian Eltinge (a famous and elegant cross-dresser) of the
high wire to sell tickets to men who found this exciting.
I've trained on the low-wire ( a wire at 5' so when you fall you don't hurt yourself)
and it is really difficult - but some people do take to it easily, and Slats was obviously
a natural. I'm thinking a pretty, petite 18 year old girl in a "pants" role could play the
part of the 11 year old boy and Berta Beeson the performer - so that it wouldn't
offend anyone.
I have, in the past written two musicals, I made several thousand dollars from my
first, even though it was never produced, and completed my second, it was not
produced either, but I can write a play when I set my mind to it.
So the play would start with the retired performer Herbert Beeson trying to get
the circus ready for the next move, he'd run into some some insurmountable
problem, start reminiscing about his days on the wire, the girl would come out
do some "learning to wire walk", do some "manly" stuff, do her actual good
wire walking routine, the scene would switch back to the present, where in
order to solve the "insurmountable problem" Herbert decides that he has
to once more dress up as a woman - meets a guy who for a pretty lady,
bends the rule or signs the lease, whatever, and then in drag, there is
a convenient low-wire around (this is a play after all) so Slats, thinking
he's alone is on the wire when a couple guys walk by - one says "get
down lady you're gonna kill yourself'" the other pointing to a faded poster
says "oh I think she's perfectly safe" and points to an old faded poster
and says "hi Slats" Curtain falls.
So that's the rough outline - guess who I'd like to cast as Slats Beeson
(oh darn you guessed -and you'd be right -me.)
Re: the insormountable problem, basically I'm
thinking that the circus has a lease with
someone to use a vacant lot to set up, Slats
comes in to town and the Guy tries to chisel
him out of some extra money. Of course the
circus would win in court, but so what, they
lose the performance the next day - so as
long as he's a guy representing the circus,
the other guys just want to extort some more
money, but if he comes back as an attractive
lady, then the guy would give in and honor the
original bargain, thinking he's getting a date
with a pretty woman in exchange (I do not have
any reason to believe Slats was gay, so, out of
respect, I will not pursue "that" avenue -Slats gets the concessions he needs (it is his job)
and then leaves (no implied sex is involved -it's
a comic device only)
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