 |
|
|
"These days, it is understood that sometimes boys will be girls.
In Alfred Brevard Crensha's case, (s)he wanted to be a woman
- and OH, WHAT A WOMAN!"Publishers Weekly |
|
..If 'Publishers Weekly' is going to talk about you, isn’t it lovely when they say nice things? |
|
I grew up balancing a Modern Screen Magazine on my bony knee and dreaming of becoming the silver screen’s next bombshell. I was on a Greyhound bus out of Appalachia almost before the ink had dried on my high school diploma.
|
|
It was a wild ride that took me from boyhood to womanhood. Oh, sure, along the way I had a layover in San Francisco where I worked at Finocchio’s, a club world famous for female impersonation. I was performing for and partying with headliners like Sal Mineo, Lana Turner, Betty Davis, Carman McRae and Errol Flynn – but ‘an impersonator’ wasn’t who I wanted to be...
|
|
My gender transitional surgery was in Los Angeles in 1962, one of the first such operations in the United States.
Within a year of that life changing surgery I was balancing a showgirl's headdress at the Dunes Hotel - but 'a showgirl' wasn't who I wanted to be...
|
|
I studied acting, learned my craft, and landed the role of Sherry in The Love God, with Don Knotts. After a stint as a Playboy Bunny at the Sunset Strip hutch I broke into television as a regular on The Red Skelton Show. Following that was The Partridge Family, The Dean Martin Show, and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.
|
|
To date I’ve appeared in eight feature films, made thirty-six television appearances, headlined in theater across the country, authored nine plays, a novel, and a published memoir. I even returned to teach acting at the same university I’d first attended as a boy.
|
|
Don't ever let anyone tell you that dreams don't come true!
|
|
| |
