Vander Clyde was a Texas born female impersonator, high wire performer, & trapeze artist who performed under the stage name Barbette (1898-1973).
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Barbette’s act became a sensation in the United States and Europe - especially Paris - in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1926 Cocteau described one of Babette’s performances in his essay “Le Numéro Barbette". He wrote..
Barbette “transforms effortlessly back and forth between man and woman. His female glamour and elegance Cocteau likens to a cloud of dust thrown into the eyes of the audience, blinding it to the masculinity of the movements he needs to perform his acrobatics.”
“That blindness is so complete that at the end of his act, Barbette does not simply remove his wig but instead plays the part of a man. He rolls his shoulders, stretches his hands, swells his muscles...”
“And after the fifteenth or so curtain call, he gives a mischievous wink, shifts from foot to foot, mimes a bit of an apology, and does a shuffling little street urchin dance – all of it to erase the fabulous, dying-swan impression left by the act.”
Barbette continued to perform until the end of the 1930s when ill health put an end to their career. Some sources attribute this to fall, others to pneumonia, or polio. Whatever it was, Barbette was left in extreme pain & needed surgery & extensive rehabilitation to walk again.
Barbette became the artistic director and aerialist trainer for a number of circuses, as well as consultants g on a number of films. It was Barbette who trained Jack Lemon & Tony Curtis in the art of cross dressing in “Some Like it Hot” (1959.
Alfred Hitchcock based a character in the 1930 film Murder! on Barbette.
Barbette’s deteriorating health & constant pain toll a terrible toll and on August 5, 1973, they died by suicide.
