LGBTQ+ History Month: Bessie Bonehill

Bessie Bonehill (registered officially as Betsey Bonehill) was born in West Bromwich in the West Midlands on 17th February 1855. She was an English vaudeville singer, comic entertainer and male impersonator, performing an act that would likely now be described as a ‘drag king’. 

A book by Richard Bonehill (connection to Bessie, unknown) entitled ‘England’s Gem, the story of Bessie Bonehill’, explains: “She claimed to be the first male impersonator in the English music halls and was so dedicated that she cut off her hair to fit her growing ambition.”

She was born into a poor family, and began performing in the 1860s in a double act with her sister Marion. After cutting her hair short, Bessie began acting in local pantomime in ‘breeches roles’, and became well known as a ‘principal boy’. During the 1870s and 1880s, she moved to London and performed as a male impersonator singing ‘coster songs’ (songs about the distinctive shouts of street vendors). Many of her songs were reportedly written by Arthur West, a friend of Charlie Chaplin.

In 1877, she married her first husband Louis Abrahams, and had two daughters and a son. Later, after the death of her first husband, Bessie remarried an American man, William Robert Smith; known professionally as W.R. Seeley, and the couple had a son.

While she was appearing on stages in London, American vaudeville manager, Tony Pastor, persuaded her to travel to the United States to perform. She first appeared in Pastor's Theatre, on 14th Street, Manhattan, in 1889, and during the 1890s toured the United States widely, becoming, according to Richard Bonehill: “One of the most famous and wealthy entertainers of her day".

Bessie often performed in sailor's clothing

Although Bessie’s gender expression can only be speculated on, The New York Times (5 Nov 1889, p. 4.) wrote of her first American performance: “Miss Bonehill, besides being lithe and frisky, strident as to voice and nimble as to feet, is evidently a public performer of extended experience. Her command of the stage is something remarkable, and she is as much at home in masculine garb as if to the manner born.”

Bessie remained in the United States for many years, performing in musicals including Little Christopher, and another show, Playmates, written by her husband, before then returning to vaudeville as the head of her own travelling company which toured across the United States, Britain, Europe, South America, and South Africa.

 In 1901, Bessie headed out on a tour in England but fell ill, and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She died on 21st August 1902 at Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire at the age of 47.

An obituary in The Tatler for Bessie Bonehill (27 August 1902) described her as "one of the great figures in music-hall life. She had been a long time at the business, and was known practically wherever English was spoken.”

The obituary’s author (known only by the initials J.M.B.) continues: “Personally, I cannot say that I admire the misshapen art of a woman personating a man, but Bessie Bonehill carried off everything by her enormous flow of high spirits and good humour, and she will be missed by her peculiar public."