John Hathaway (1892–?) fraudster.

One-time student nurse at Carney Hospital, Boston, Ethel Kimball was arrested several times after 1904 on forgery charges.

By 1919 he had become John Hathaway. He posed as the nephew of a wealthy manufacturer, and another time as the Boston manager of financier J.P. Morgan. Otherwise he posed as a technology graduate.

For two years he lived opposite a family in Somerville. He courted Louise of that family, and they were wed in November 1921 at Boston's Union Congregational Church.

Just over two weeks later Hathaway approached an automobile salesman about a purchase. The salesman became suspicious and reported the matter to the police, who arrested him.

Further examination determined that Hathaway was female-bodied. He was offered women's clothing, which he refused. An alienist who examined him found that he was sane but abnormal. The 'disillusioned bride' disappeared quickly. The accused was quoted:

'I wore men's clothes because I wanted to approach life's problems from a man's viewpoint, especially the problem of unemployment'.

Hathaway told the court that the bride knew well what she was doing, but he pleaded guilty to 'falsifying the record' when applying for a marriage license.

• "Girl posed as man 2 years and married". The New York Times, Dec 15, 1921. PDF
  
• Jonathan Ned Katz. Gay/Lesbian Almanac: A New Documentary, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. 1983, Carrol & Graf Publishers, Inc. 1994: 404.
  

Dahlia McGowan (195?–) performer

There were two members of the Cockettes, the early 1970s San Francisco psychedelic drag troupe, who completed the journey to womanhood. We have already discussed Bobbi Cameron.

The other was Dahlia McGowan who looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor. She won a scholarship to study acting at the American Conservatory Theater. Bambi Lake describes her as funny and sweet.

After surgery she worked as a stripper in the sailor bars in San Diego.

In the 1980s Dahlia married, but her husband died in a bike accident.

Later she returned to Hawai'i to live with her mother.

• Bambi Lake with Alvin Orloff. The Unsinkable Bambi Lake: A Fairy Tale Containing the Dish on Cockettes, Punks, and Angels. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 1996: 48-9.
  

Viktor Kalnberz, Виктор Калнберз (1928 - ) trauma surgeon

Viktor Kalnberz, of Latvian descent, was born in Moscow. Both his parents graduated from the Medical Faculty of the Moscow State University. They were sent to practice in Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva People's Republic.

They returned to Moscow in 1936, and in 1941 to Riga, Latvia as the Great Patriotic War opened. The parents worked in an evacuation hospital. Despite these disruptions Viktor graduated high school and studied at the Medical Faculty of the University of Latvia 1945-51. From 1951 Kalnberz worked at and then led the Riga Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics.

He became internationally famous for transplanting fingers from dead persons onto live persons who needed them. He pioneered penis prosthesis technology at a time when Soviet orthodoxy was at best disinterested in treating impotence. He was a deputy of the Riga City Council 1963-7.

He had already performed four sex correction operations on intersex patients, when in the winter of 1968 he was approached by a 29-year-old trans man, an engineer who had already attempted suicide three times, whom we know only by his female name of Inna. Kalnberz treated him over the next four years.

“A medical council was convened; there was an endocrinologist, a sexopathologist, a gynaecologist, and a psychiatrist on the panel. They all agreed that conservative treatment methods were very unlikely to succeed in this case. The head of the Latvian republic’s health ministry had the last word. He gave us the permission, but did not actually sign any papers."

In September 1970 the operation was approved, and it was done in stages.

“He was very afraid that people would learn about the operation. That is why when they gave him his new ID and other documents, I asked him not to give me his surname or address. I don’t even know his phone number. The only thing I asked of him was to give me a ring every now and then, and tell me about his condition. The last time I heard from him was more than five years ago. He was just under 70 at the time."

Inna continued as an engineer. He married twice, and explained his scars to his wives as resulting from a car accident. Dr Kalnberz was summoned to several inquiries, but got off with a stern reprimand. The surgery on Inna was kept secret for 20 years.

In 1974 Kalnberz was issued a US patent for his penile implant using polyethylene plastic rods – in all he held 23 patents in different countries. He did a further five sex-change operations. He was a member of the Supreme Soviet 1975 – 1990. He treated Soviet cosmonauts, made a women's shortened leg longer by 60 cm, was a consultant to trauma teams across the USSR, in Tokyo, Munich, Moscow and at the Montreal Olympics. He worked with the army in Afghanistan where he developed an external fixation device to treat complex gunshot fractures.

He became a Hero of Socialist Labour and an Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1988 and was given many other rewards.

He retired at age 80.

• "Fingers from the dead". Time, 6/10/1966, 87,23: 55. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942022,00.html.
  
• Hoag Levins. American Sex Machines: The Hidden History of Sex at the US Patent Office. Adams Media Corp, 1993: 132-2, 136.
  
• Anastasiya Gnedinskaya. "A Soviet doctor pioneered the first sex change operation". Russia Beyond the Headlines, January 20, 2014. http://rbth.com/society/2014/01/20/a_soviet_doctor_pioneered_the_first_sex_change_operation_33351.html.
  

Peoples.ru    WorldCat    Patents
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Kalnberz is admirable enough as is.  Why does Gnedinskaya spoil it with the false claim of Inna's operation being a world's first?

Robert Allen (1914 - 1997) film maker, radiologist, teacher

Joyce Allen from Warrington, Lancashire was a masculine tomboy who frequently scrapped with both boys and girls. She resisted having to wear girls' clothes, and took pleasure in dressing in her father's trousers. She pilfered dad's cigarettes, and when he bought a car, she, although under age, borrowed it and drove around the streets.

She had learned the violin, but at her first public performance, of Luigi Arditi's Il Bacio, a string snapped, and it was many years before Allen picked up the violin again.

She left school at fourteen, and worked at a variety of jobs, but also became well known at the local labour exchange where she befriended one of the clerks. The most satisfying job was at a local cinema.

In 1933, Joyce had met a man with whom she enjoyed going to horse races and greyhound tracks. They married, but quickly realized that 'a normal marital relationship' was impossible. Bored and incompetent as a housewife, Joyce took up gambling and lost everything, even the furniture.

Afterwards, now usually wearing slacks and with a man's haircut Allen worked in the exhibition side of the entertainment industry. She continued to suffer from stares and comments while trying to pass as a girl/woman.

"The sadistic delight of strangers in making mocking remarks about my appearance perhaps called forth a sadistic response from me. I actually had visiting cards printed, bearing a false name and address, and when people were offensive to me in public, I would hand them a card with the remark: 'If there are any further details you would like to know, perhaps you would write to me.'"

With the start of war in September 1939, Allen immediately enlisted. She was assigned as a driver to First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and after six months was made a sergeant. In December 1941 Allen was having difficulties in avoiding a woman's sexual advances, when her mother fell ill and she was given a compassionate release.

After some weeks of caring for her mother, Allen applied for work and found a job at the Ministry of Supply where she was working with men driving heavy lorries and tippers, wearing slacks beneath a boiler suit. One evening, returning home, tired on the bus after work, Allen was subjected to an extended tirade from a man who had known her since childhood. She chased him and they fought until both were exhausted.

That done Allen knew it was time to leave Warrington. A spate of letters to film companies, advertising firms etc. produced several offers (it being wartime there were many vacancies as staff were in the forces). As a masculine woman in slacks, Allen became a secretary at the Denham Film Studios just outside north-west London, which at that time was more used than the nearby Pinewood. She was part of the team under Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger which made The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and then The Volunteer, a short starring Ralph Richardson.

At this point, in late 1943, Allen received a directive from the Ministry of Labour and National Service with instructions to report as a woman porter at a London station. This provided the nudge needed and Allen went to the Ministry of Labour headquarters in person, where he was put in touch with Valentine Harvey, the Chief Press Officer who accepted Allen as a man, quashed the directive and guided him through the bureaucracy. Allen's doctor who had previously treated him only for influenza, did a thorough examination and sent samples for pathological analysis. Allen wrote to his parents explaining that they had a son and not a daughter, and received a strongly supportive letter from his father.

In 1944 Allen took a position with Halas and Batchelor, the film cartoon company.

In September that year Allen wrote to the Registrar General, and with the doctor's report and a declaration from his parents, Allen was invited to Somerset House at the end of October that year where his birth certificate was rectified. He was asked for his male name, and, unprepared, chose ‘Robert’ from a glance at somebody else's documents.

In December Robert received a legal opinion that his first marriage was void ab initio, and he was free to marry his love from the Warrington Labour Exchange who was now working at Denham. They married quietly two days before Christmas, and spent the holiday with Robert's parents.

Allen returned to Denham to be the second assistant director on the film Carnival, directed by Stanley Haynes based on the novel by Compton Mackenzie. He was then an assistant to David Lean on Great Expectations, based on the novel by Charles Dickens.

In 1946, the British film industry suffered one of its periodic crises with the end of wartime government subsidies, and Allen was out of a job. In March his father died. Allen suffered a few years of short-term employments and unemployment.

Valentine Harvey helped yet again, and in 1948, Allen was awarded a grant to train as a medical auxiliary, and in 1951 qualified as a diagnostic radiographer.

He developed a friendship with another radiographer who was a fervent Catholic, and promised to look into the religion after qualifying. Which he did, and at Christmas 1951 was baptised into the Catholic Church.

After a number of temporary radiography posts, Allen became a science teacher at a Christian Brothers run College in Liverpool.

His marriage came to an end, and they were divorced.  In 1957 Robert remarried in a Congregational church

At the end of his life he was a resident in a nursing home in Cheshire.   He died age 83.

*Not the fabric designer, nor the finance writer, nor the composer. Alan Hart also used the name Robert Allen Bamford Jr in 1918. Also Laud Humphries was born Robert Allen Humphries. Robert Eads was in full Robert Allen Eads.

• Robert Allen. But for the Grace: The True Story of a Dual Existence London: W.H. Allen 149 pp 1954.
  
  
• "He was once a bride".  Daily Mirror, 30 August 1957: backpage.  See More on Robert Allen.
  

2024:  A very useful article that goes deeper into the films of Robert Allen:

• Chris O'Rourke.  "A life in pictures: trans visibility, invisible labour and the film career of Robert Allen". Screen, 65, 3, 2024. Online. 

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This is one of the country's earliest officially recognized gender changes. He did not take hormones or have surgery. Obviously he had an intersex condition with anomalous genitals, but he does not say which.

There is no record of Robert Allen after the second marriage in 1957.  

Carol Anne Masters (1921–?) impersonator, model, actress.

Masters was dressed and treated as a girl until the 6^th grade, on the pretence that every time that he wore trousers he got into a fight.

As a girl Masters had applied to act in the Hal Roach Our Gang comedies, and made the short list.

He served in the US Army during World War II where he played a female role in a few army shows.

Afterwards she lived in Los Angeles where she became known for cross-dressing at gay parties, and did some professional modeling and appeared in five films in small uncredited roles.

She came third in a beauty parade with 80 contestants.

She then became a professional female impersonator. She usually dressed as female outside work also.

At age 28 Carol wrote an autobiographical sketch for Sexology magazine, which was later reprinted in D.O. Cauldwell's Transvestism: Men in Female Dress, 1956.

• Carol Anne Masters,. "Transvestite Confession." Sexology, xvii, 9 (April 1951): 567-76.
  
• Carol Anne Masters. “Confessions of a Female Impersonator”. In D.O. Cauldwell. Transvestism: Men in Female Dress. New York: Sexology Corp, 1956: 85-92.
  
• Vern L. Bullough & Bonnie Bullough. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender. University of Pennsylvania Press 1993: 244.
  

Leslie Townsend (1960 - ) model, film extra.

Townsend grew up in Philadelphia. After learning about Renee Richards, and seeing a Donahue episode about transsexuals Townsend sent away for some informational materials which were then discovered by father. Townsend was then sent for professional help to, among others, John Money.

At 19 Leslie left home for Key West, New Orleans and then New York. She worked as a female impersonator and a sex worker. She had genital surgery at 23. She was married to a man for 18 months. She moved to Houston and was reasonable successful as a model, acting in commercials for malls and condominium complexes. In Los Angeles she was an extra in television shows: The West Wing, Alias, Boomtown and Malcolm in the Middle. In Las Vegas she was a stand-up comic. She has also worked as a secretary and tended bar.

After 20 years of stealth she wrote her autobiography and started speaking at colleges and transgender groups.

"Following my surgery, I realized that I could fit into society as a woman and no one would ever be the wiser. And until very recently I lived in deep stealth. In fact, I was in so deep that I didn't know there was a name for it. Stealth. Once I was told its meaning and it's use in the transgender community, I realized that it is definitely a word that describes the last twenty years of my life. In all that time I never found it easy or advantageous to reveal the details of my past to anyone. I'm sure that fear was the motivating factor in keeping my secret. Fear of rejection, loss of friendship, loss of boyfriends. In retrospect, I think I feared the loss of my female persona and validation of that persona that I received from the men in my life. Fear can be such a crippling emotion. For me, the prospect of divulging my secrets went hand in hand with giving up life as I knew it in my seemingly secure little world. Looking back, I have to wonder how secure that world was if one tidbit of information could have brought it tumbling down. It has taken me all of those twenty years to come to terms with the shame I held onto for so long."

Leslie has moved back to Philadelphia to reconnect with her family, and is now active in real-estate development. She has set up a fund for transgender students at the University of Pennsylvania.

She was also part of the all transgender production of The Vagina Monologues, and the resulting film, Beautiful Daughters.

*Not the Derbyshire cricketer, nor the Australian cricket umpire, nor the Royal Navy Rear-Admiral, nor the Ohio River historian.

• Leslie Townsend. Hidden in Plain Sight. San Jose: Writers Club Press 158 pp 2002.
  
• Lynn Conway. “Leslie Townsend's Story, Hidden in Plain Sight”. TS Successes. http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/LeslieTownsend.html.
  
• Andrea James. "Transitioning early in life: Leslie's advice". Trans Road Map. www.tsroadmap.com/early/leslie.html.
  

IMDB

Pete Burns (1959–2016) performer

Burns was born in Cheshire to a father from Liverpool and a German Jewish mother who had fled from the Nazis.

He later told journalist Kris Kirk:

"When I was 13 I heard about April Ashley's sex change and I thought 'Bloody hell, that's what I have to do', 'cos I was really enjoying putting on make- up and stuff. But after a while I realised you didn't have to be a 'she' to do it".

At 14 he dropped out of Catholic school after it was clarified that his appearance/actions were not in line with the rules. Shortly afterwards Pete met hairdresser Lynne whom he married in 1980.

"The only thing that spoiled it was that the man in the registry office had to go and make a feeble joke by asking which one of us was the bride".

They remained married until 2006.

After working in a Liverpool record shop, Burns was able to perform with a band, and after personnel changes they became Dead or Alive, who had a number one single with a cover of "You Spin Me Round" in 1985. Pete fronted the group and was known for his androgynous look.

After his friend InternationalChrysis died in 1990, he put out a cover version of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" under her name in 1994:

"You've got your mother in a whirl /She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl ".

Burns became a media personality, swearing on the BBC, a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother. He became famous for his feminizing plastic surgeries, and appeared on television programs on the subject.

In 2006 Pete and Lynne were divorced; shortly afterwards he entered a civil union with Michael Simpson.

He published an autobiography in 2007. In 2010, Burns won £450,000 in damages from cosmetic surgeon Dr Maurizio Viel, who, the singer claims, left him 'suicidal' after his lip implant operations went wrong.

However by 2015, and more plastic surgery, he was bankrupt.

Pete died of cardiac arrest, aged 57.   

• Kris Kirk & Ed Heath. Men In Frocks. London: Gay Men's Press, 1984: 114-5.
  
• Sharon Walker & Rebecca Woodward (dir). Pete Burns's Cosmetic Surgery Nightmares. With Pete Burns and Michael Simpson. UK ITV 46 mins 2 Nov 2006.
  
• Pete Burns and Ian Cranna. Freak Unique: My Autobiography. London: John Blake. 2007.
  
• Mike Goudreau & Paul Tinelle (scr). VH1 News Presents: Plastic Surgery Obsession. With Pate Burns. UK VH1 2010.
  
• Jill Cumberbach (dir). 50 Greatest Plastic Surgery Shockers. With Pete Burns. UK Channel 4 120 mins 2 Dec 2010.
  
• Jody Thompson. "'My face might fall off': Pete Burns reveals he'll keep having plastic surgery despite a string of botched operations". The Daily Mail, 4 February 2011. www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1325929/Pete-Burns-My-face-fall-Ill-having-plastic-surgery.html.
  
• "The changing face of Pete Burns". Now Magazine, January 25, 2012. www.nowmagazine.co.uk/celebrity-pictures/gallery-specials/the-changing-face-of-pete-burns-234897.
  
• Jill Cumberbach (dir). The Body Shocking Show. With Pate Burns. UK E4 30 mins 2013.
  
• Fay Strong. "Pete Burns declared bankrupt after spending hundreds of thousands on surgery". The Mirror, 21 April 2015. www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/pete-burns-declared-bankrupt-after-5556983. 
• Hannah Ellis-Petersen,  "Pete Burns, frontman of Dead Or Alive, dies aged 57".  The Guardian, 24 October 2016.   www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/24/dead-or-alive-frontman-pete-burns-dies-aged-57.
  

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