Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 280: 'Christine Jorgensen Reveals' (1957)

Trans woman Christine Jorgensen released a very interesting album in 1957!

Here's the damnedest thing about doing research. While you're looking for information about one subject, you're bound to find a bunch of other, unrelated material you'd never even heard of and weren't searching for. And suddenly, instead of just working on one topic, you'll be working on three or four. At least, that's what often happens to me. 

A most unusual LP from 1957.

Recently, for my Happy Days podcast, These Days Are Ours, I was delving into the history of actor Donny Most's self-titled 1976 pop album. We'd never reviewed an album on our show before, so I didn't know exactly where to start. But I have a book specifically about albums and singles recorded by celebrities: Goldmine's Celebrity Vocals (1994) by Ron Lofman. While leafing through this volume—a fun and informative book, by the way—I stumbled onto something I'd never known: pioneering trans woman Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989), whose life inspired Ed Wood's first feature film, had recorded a spoken-word album in 1957!

I knew I'd have to hear this LP for myself. Fortunately, it has been uploaded to the internet in all its crackly, monophonic glory. Six years after her highly-publicized surgery in Denmark and four years after Ed Wood turned her story into Glen or Glenda (1953), Christine released a 50-minute interview album simply titled Christine Jorgensen Reveals on J Records, a New York vanity label that existed only for this one album. (The J presumably stood for Jorgensen.) The liner notes declare:

Christine Jorgensen is unquestionably the most publicized, most controversial and interesting personality of this generation. 

In this album hear her PERSONALLY discuss in an open and frank interview the enigma of her transformation and the subsequent electrifying experiences of her phenomenal career. 

For the rare moment when your guests have become bored with musical sounds... give this LP a spin. Everyone will be delightfully entertained by this witty, exciting and informative interview.

Though she was making her living as a nightclub singer at that point, the LP contains no songs and no music at all apart from brief instrumentals at the beginning and end. Instead, for the better part of an hour, Christine fields questions from a male interviewer regarding her surgery, her stage act, her love life, her body, and the reaction she's gotten from the press and the public. She is remarkably plainspoken and forthcoming about all these topics.

This album is full of surprises, not the least of which is the identity of its mysterious host. The interviewer is listed on the record sleeve merely as "R. Russell." As confirmed by multiple sources, this is comedian and actor Nipsey Russell (1918-2005), noted for his many appearances on TV game shows and talk shows and for his role as the Tin Man in The Wiz (1978). Nipsey was already an established nightclub comedian by the time he made this record and was starting to make inroads into television and film but was not yet a household name. On Christine Jorgensen Reveals, he keeps his wisecracking comedic persona largely in check without being overly formal or self-serious. His responsibility here is to act as a surrogate for the listeners, asking Christine Jorgensen the questions they themselves would like to ask.

At the center of the album is Ms. Jorgensen herself. Born in California but well-traveled by 1957, she speaks in what I'd call a Mid-Atlantic accent, the kind used by such classic film actresses as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell. I'd have cast her in a stage production of Auntie Mame, though she is rather reserved and lacks Mame's unbridled joie de vivre. Jorgensen might also have made a decent Lovey Howell on Gilligan's Island. Her warm, engaging personality is of particular importance to this story. While not the first trans woman in history, Christine Jorgensen was the first to receive such widespread media attention. In many ways, she was an ideal spokeswoman: eloquent, well-mannered, even-tempered, and not a bit pretentious.

Comedian Nipsey Russell.

If you're reading this article, however, you probably want to know if the subject ever turns to Glen or Glenda. It does, yes, though it takes until somewhere in the middle of Side 2. Russell asks Jorgensen if she's been offered any film roles. She says that she's been approached by producers to appear in a film, but they've never known exactly what to do with her. When Russell suggests she play herself in a biopic, she demurs: "I don't think I'd be the best person to do it. I may be a little too close." And then we get to the passage that Ed Wood fans have been waiting for:

Russell: Are there any movies of questionable nature in print at the moment? 

Jorgensen: Yes, there are several. There are several which, unfortunately, use my name in the advertising, which has absolutely nothing to do with my sanction. I have never sanctioned or permitted it. But it exists, and it's always one jump ahead of me. 

Russell: Yeah.

Jorgensen: If you understand what I mean. I keep appearing in a town, and then they said, "Well, two weeks ago, there was, your picture was here."

Russell: Oh.

Jorgensen: And I said, "I have no picture." I know there is a, uh, dreadful Frankenstein-like picture of a doctor who does, uh, hocus pocus and changes a man into a woman, and... but this is hardly the story of my life as it is proclaimed to be. 

Christine Jorgensen was clearly reacting to the fantastic elements that Ed Wood grafted onto the story, particularly the addition of horror actor Bela Lugosi as the sinister, god-like Scientist character. It is not difficult to understand how she would feel this to be inaccurate or in poor taste. And she's correct that her name was shamelessly used to advertise the film, even though she did not endorse it in any way. In my kitchen right now is a poster for Ed Wood's film that proclaims in all capital letters: "FROM THE LIVES OF CHRISTINE JORGENSEN." The authorized Jorgensen picture would not arrive until 1970 and would not involve Wood whatsoever.

What's really remarkable, however, is how often the ideas expressed on Christine Jorgensen Reveals are similar to ones stated in Glen or Glenda. If you are intimately familiar with Ed Wood's film, you will hear echoes of it throughout Jorgensen's album. Occasionally, though, the characters in Ed's movie have some different information about the same topic or have reached different conclusions about it than Jorgensen. For the sake of clarity, I am presenting the quotes from the album in RED and the quotes from the movie in BLUE.

Timothy Farrell as Dr. Alton.

The album begins with Nipsey Russell asking Ms. Jorgensen if she has female organs somewhere within her body. Jorgensen responds, "It is believed that somewhere within my body, these organs exist. Or part of them exist." The conversation then turns to the subject of hermaphrodites and pseudohermaphrodites. Jorgensen says:

Well, I asked my doctor not very long ago what actually is the word hermaphrodite. Because I was under the impression that almost every human being was, to some extent, a hermaphrodite. And he said, "Yes, they probably are." Except that the hermaphrodite tends more to the actual genital organs of both sexes. If one person has the genital organs of both sexes, then that is called a pseudohermaphrodite. Whereas intersexuality, which is a term he used, means there is a preponderance of one sex, but there's also the other sex. 

Compare this to Dr. Alton (Timothy Farrell) in Glen or Glenda, who explains the case of male-to-female transsexual Alan/Ann ("Tommy" Haynes):

It had been found that Alan was really a pseudohermaphrodite. A hermaphrodite is one who has the organs of both the male and female in plain sight. A pseudohermaphrodite is one who has one perfectly formed organ of either sex and one imperfectly formed one that's difficult to detect. Alan was of the latter.

Much later in the album, Russell and Jorgensen discuss what the latter's body was like before the operation and whether Jorgensen was ever fully biologically male.

Russell: I assume that, before your operation, your genital organs were as the normal male genital organs would be. 

Jorgensen: Well, not as the normal male genitals would be because it was an immaturity, of course, in my case, as my whole body was immature. I was not developed either properly physically, sexually, and probably not emotionally either.

Again, compare this to what Dr. Alton says about Alan/Ann in Glen or Glenda:

Alan was then given his choice. That which nature had given him was a mistake. It was up to us to correct that mistake one way or the other. Alan had to decide whether he wanted to become a man or she wanted to become a woman. Both were completely possible.

Jorgensen opted to become a woman, just as Alan did. Russell suggests that Jorgensen's naturally delicate, feminine physique led to this decision. He says:

I notice your hands are tiny, your feet are small as a woman's feet would be, and [you have] long, graceful fingers, many of the feminine characteristics. Your features are clean cut. The jawline is un-hard, as a man's would be. And I guess all of this goes to make up what made you know you were primarily a woman.

Again, Dr. Alton:

Small-boned, fair of complexion, his hair thin like a woman's, his body slim, hips slightly girlish. It was easy to see his decision, along with the fact that he had been brought up from early childhood to believe that a woman was the thing to be. Alan decided to become a woman.

Significantly, both Christine Jorgensen and Alan/Ann served time in the military before transitioning. While it was widely believed that Jorgensen had seen combat action in World War II, she carefully dispels those myths on this album and explains that she served in a clerical capacity after the war was over. Russell asked how Jorgensen reacted when the other soldiers bragged of their various romantic conquests. Jorgensen responds:

Of course I had no place in it. I sort of moved away. It embarrassed me a little, I might say.

Compare this to Alan/Ann's uncomfortable military experience, as described by Dr. Alton:

Alan was drafted. He was accepted. In the army, he successfully passed his vigorous training. He did not like it, but then there were the weekends for his particular diversions.

The rigors of transition.

Another recurring theme in Glen or Glenda is Alan/Ann's long-term commitment to transitioning and the rigorous and unpleasant physical hardships of the process. This parallels Christine Jorgensen's own experiences in the early 1950s. As Jorgensen says on this album:

One can hardly make lurid tales out of about two years of constant everyday examination, hormonal examination, and three operations. It's hardly sexy.

Later, when Russell asks her about hormone injections, she clarifies:

Yes, I take hormones, but I do not take them too regularly. It's always a good idea to take rest periods, but of course hormones should only be taken under the guidance of a qualified physician.

Dr. Alton discusses Alan/Ann's ordeal in a similar, albeit more dramatic, way:

During the following two years, he was to go through the tortures of the damned, but never was there a whimper from him because he knew that at the end of it all, he would at last be that which he had always dreamed. Hundreds of hormone shots were injected into various parts of his body.

Alton later adds:

Still, the hormone shots continue. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and even then, when the operation is over, the sex is changed, the shots must continue as long as Alan lives.

Christine Jorgensen Reveals briefly touches on the subject of plastic surgery. Jorgensen says she only underwent one procedure to have her ears pinned back, plus some occasional electrolysis to deal with a recurring "mustache" problem. Here is where Glen or Glenda contrasts. Alan is said to have gone through "long, tedious hours" of plastic surgery to "smooth out the female elements." Ms. Jorgensen apparently required no such smoothing in real life.

The album and the movie realign, however, when the subject turns to childhood experiences. Jorgensen says she felt "different" and ostracized as a young person. She explains:

There's a very, very big problem in the world with any child who has to live with the thought of being different. Because we all sort of want to be a part of the group. This is a great, great fight, I think, of each individual's fight for survival is to be wanted, to be needed, to be part of the mass. And when an individual is segregated out of that, by themselves many times, by their own emotional conflicts, it sort of leaves them standing alone. 

Again, Alton:

Alan did not enter the competitive sports that the other boys of the school did. However, he was an extremely studious boy and always had above-average marks in his subjects. Yet sports, girls' sports, he always was interested in, but he was rejected by the girls and also rejected by the boys. It seems he belonged to neither of them.

Then there is the subject of courage and whether Jorgensen's transition constitutes an act of bravery on her part. Russell feels that it does, but Jorgensen is more modest: 

It is simply something I had to live through for my own happiness and my own adjustment. Consequently, I see very little courage there.

At first, Jorgensen did not see her own story as particularly important or having significance for the wider world. Eventually, though, this changed:

As time went on, I realized that this was sort of an important step in the eyes of the world. Although my life happenings or those happenings in Europe were completed, I knew there were many others who may or may not be available for such treatment.

This put me in mind of an idea expressed by Inspector Warren (Lyle Talbot) near the end of the film and then echoed by Lugosi's Scientist in the very final scene. While it's nice that Alan/Ann's story has a happy ending, as does that of cross-dresser Glen/Glenda (Ed Wood), there are many other similarly-troubled people in the world who may not get the help they need. ("What of the other, less fortunate Glens the world over?")

According to this album, one very disturbed young man (a less fortunate Glen, let's say) sent Christine Jorgensen a threatening letter accompanied by a razor blade and admonished her that she was "making it hard for the rest of us." It is Russell's supposition that this man was upset simply because Jorgensen had the temerity to take action rather than remain in limbo. Once again, this mirrors something said by Dr. Alton in Glen or Glenda:

The world is shocked by a person who changed his sex. Glenda is shocked also, but by another reason. Someone like her had the nerve to do something factual about their situation. There are so many problems for Glen and all the other Glens: perhaps the fear of discovery of the underthings they wear beneath their regular outer clothing or that which they wear during their nightly visit to Morpheus, god of sleep.

By now, you get the idea that Christine Jorgensen Reveals covers a lot of the same ground as Glen or Glenda. The parallels go on and on, becoming almost too numerous to count. On the album, Nipsey Russell talks about the comedic aspects of this story:

To most men, the height of hilarity is to get dressed in women's clothes at parties and at different affairs. It's just funny to see a man put on women's clothes and walk out, especially if he tries to wear the high heeled shoes. 

He also asks Ms. Jorgensen how she reacts to the various jokes made about her. She takes them in stride and even shares one she likes. Ed Wood also tackles the issue of comedy directly. In Glen or Glenda, Glen actually goes to a costume party in drag, ostensibly as a joke. Dr. Alton also scolds us for laughing at a bearded man (Conrad Brooks) wearing women's clothing.

The poster Christine detested.

You want more? Well, on the album, Nipsey Russell asks whether Christine Jorgensen's case is a "panacea" for the entire world. Jorgensen says it isn't and that each person's unique situation must be dealt with on an individual basis. This closely mirrors what Dr. Alton says in Glenda: "No matter what the case, it's a different thing." 

Furthermore, Dr. Alton says that the press had a "field day" with the sex change story, resulting in lurid newspaper stories like the one we see in the movie. (The headline reads: "WORLD SHOCKED BY SEX CHANGE.") Likewise, Jorgensen says that, in the event of her marriage or death, "the newspapers would have a Roman holiday and rehash the whole past." 

Dr. Alton says, "Nature makes mistakes," while Russell opines, "Many people in our civilization feels that nature made mistakes." Jorgensen says she occasionally receives catcalls and leers from passersby, just as Alan/Ann does in Glen or Glenda.

It goes on and on. When Russell asks Jorgensen how she feels in women's clothing, she says that she is "very comfortable." In Glen or Glenda, Dr. Alton describes how a cross-dresser feels about feminine attire: "These things are his comfort." 

Jorgensen says she regularly consulted with a psychiatrist about her case. Dr. Alton says that "Glen/Glenda should consult a competent psychologist." Jorgensen says that, had she not transitioned, "I'd have gone on existing, but I'd hardly have gone on living." In Glen or Glenda, Dr. Alton describes what it means to deprive the cross-dresser of his preferred attire: "This is their life. To take it away from them might do as great a harm as taking away an arm or a leg or life itself."

Jorgensen says that society has too-narrowly decreed that "there are men and there are women." In Glen or Glenda, Dr. Alton says: "There's no law against wearing such apparel on the street, as long as it can be distinguished that man is man and woman is woman."

The main takeaway from Christine Jorgensen Reveals is that the real "problem" here is with societal attitudes toward gender. Understanding and acceptance are the only sure solutions. This is a message expressed again and again throughout Glen or Glenda. Though she described Ed Wood's film as "dreadful," based mainly on its marketing campaign, I sincerely hope that she sat through the movie eventually and learned to appreciate what Eddie was trying to accomplish with this feature.

P.S. There is an epilogue to the story. In 2005, this album became the basis for a highly-acclaimed stage show that I would have otherwise been unaware of. If you have attended a performance of this show, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.