The Women that Came Before us!

The Women That Came Before Us!

                      

(Coccinelle & Capucine)

As far back as 1919 we have knowledge of such women at least from The Institute of sexology back in pre-World War II Germany, thanks to the pioneering work of Mangas Hirschfeld.

(Mangus Hirschfeld with two of his transsexual patients Circa 1920s)

Institute was formed in 1919 and lasted till 1933 when the Nazis came into power and the clinic was destroyed by Nazi youths who did public book burnings and destroyed all of the works that This brilliant doctor did so many of the information has been lost and destroyed unfortunately but this doctor coined the term transvestite as an umbrella term for someone that was changing their sex. This doctor was one of the first we know of to introduce hormone therapy to their patients and to do castration as well as gender reassignment surgery.

(Lili Elbe 1882-1931)

She is commonly known as the first woman to have undergone a gender reassignment surgery but that's actually not true, we actually know of another young lady that was worked up by the same doctor and Magnus Hirschfeld,  her name was Dora/Dorchen (little Dora) Richter she had her vaginoplasty in 1922  and was someone that was drawn to his Clinic because of the attitude of his treatment and because she knew this was the only way to correct her birth anomaly unfortunately there aren't any photos that are known of her that I could post.

Unfortunately due to the book burning by the Nazi youth in 1933 and the burning of medical records we don't really know who was the first person to undergo gender reassignment nor how many countless people underwent that procedure so we don't know how many sisters were out there during the years 1920 to 1933.

 This is Miss Tobi 

Seen here at 80 years old a very well adjusted woman who was operated on well before Lili Elbe she was a housekeeper for Mangus Hirshfield and fled Germany before Hitler invaded that saved her life, this is one of the few photos of her that we know of her. Like Lili she was far from suicidal once she had her conversion surgery.

The Atomic Age

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Roberta Cowell

(Britains first lady)

Ms. Roberta Cowell is the first British citizen to undergo gender reassignment and she actually got her documents changed to female. She had her srs in 1951 by the renowned plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies in the UK. Let me state she's the first "known". 

We have all heard of ...

( Christine Jorgensen)

Who had her gender reassignment in Denmark starting in 1951 and being completed in 1952 and returning to America.

(Charlotte McLeod)

Charlotte was a woman that was part of Harry Benjamin's Core group of girls that had to meet strict standards of care. Charlotte actually was the second American to have her surgery that we know of she went to Denmark in 1953.

       

 (Charlotte w/ her father)

A couple of newspaper articles about her from her time not as big of a splash is Christine, but I don't think that was her point was to be a celebrity as much as to just be a happy healthy woman.

In 1954 a woman named Tamara Rees 

(1924-2000 Stripper/housewife)

Ms.Rees/Stevenson was a former stripper in New Orleans that saved her money to pay for her surgery that then married a nice man adopted children and lived out a very happy life and then died in her 70s of cancer.

Hedy jo Star

(1920-1999)

A queen of burlesque this woman was fantastic.

The fourth woman that I'm coming up with is "Coccinelle" the Parisian born Entertainer that was primarily known for working at "Le Carousel De Paris" 

She was known for dating well-known and very prominent men she toured with the company she worked for and they went all over Europe, Paris and Japan. She started taking hormones in 1952 and had her surgery in 1958 by George Burou who also did April Ashley surgery as well as Bambi's surgery she was also the first French person openly to have gender reassignment in 1959 she was in a film Europe De Noche which she sang.

She was married in 1960 in Notre Dame Cathedral she went by the name of Jacqueline and was given away by her father. 

   

( a scene from Europe de notte)

Miss April Ashley who was as far as everyone knows was the second British citizen to have a sex change, she went to Morocco for her surgery in 1961.

Miss April Ashley

This beautiful Vouge model started out working as a showgirl at the famous carousel show Lounge in Paris where she worked with the likes of Bambi and Coccinelle two other beautiful women that have the in common secret.

April was Vogue magazine's top selling lingerie model before she was outed for having not been born biological female. The news came as she returned from her honeymoon from marrying a lord of the realm in England. Unfortunately the courts an old the marriage ruling that she was not considered legally a female even though the government paid for her feminization and in this day and age pays for gender reassignment surgeries and still doesn't afford their citizens the luxury of the gender they were meant to be.

(Miss Ashley at 80)

The girls in Europe seemed to to be far ahead of the times as far as American Standards were it wasn't uncommon to see women walking down the street that had this common history although one wouldn't know but it wasn't criminalized again when wouldn't know.

((Capucine)

Was a contemporary of Bambi and Coccinelle, the three did a routine together and independently at the carousel de Paris. She went in 1960 the same year as Bambi and Coccinelle did to Casablanca to Dr. Burou for her sex change. She was content to stay out of the limelight after her surgery happy to be married and live in Society unnoticed.

Bambi!

(Marie Pierre Pruvot)

Was also originally an Entertainer at the famed Madame Arthur's and Le Carousel de Paris she was part of a group of Coccinelle, April, and Capuchine were all girls that would be known as early European pioneers.

(Doing a routine)

Like the incredible Miss Ashley she is gone on to live a long and lovely life she herself went back to school after years of working in nightclubs. She received a degree from the Sorbonne and became a professor at the Cherbourg, where she taughtt for 2 years, then at Garges-les-Gonesse where she remained for 25 years and no one knew of her famous past.

After retiring she was re discovered by a new generation of fans and is the subject of a celebrated documentary about her life entitled of course "Bambi".

None of these women have taken their lives, and all have lived or are living quite long lives btw.

(Bambi)

A Beautiful Life!

Back in the U.S.A.

(Aleshia Brevard)

The beautiful Miss Aleshia Brevard was the 3rd American citizen to have a sex change surgery in 1962 in Calabasas California by dr. Elmer Belt. She Charlotte McLeod and Kathy work 3 of 5 of doctor Benjamins special patients that he called his girls and she would talk to me about this in person and on the phone I felt very blessed to know her.

Armed with a beautiful figure and face Alicia set out to conquer the world of acting and that she did getting several Choice rolls starting with the love God with Don Knotts.

(Aleshia on the far right)

Also on many tv shows like the Dean Martin Show, The Red Skeleton Show, The Partridge Family & Batman

(As Giganta the Atoms girlfriend)

She did much more, she was a Playboy bunny and was a Las Vegas showgirl, but was outed while making the love God and doing a press junket in her hometown so she went back to college as a co-ed, got her degree.

She became a professor and then did some theater and became an author of three books two autobiographies and one nonfiction, which I encourage anyone to get she was a true lady.

Aleshia Brevard❤

 At the same time Dr Harry Benjamin was working with.

(Patricia Morgan)

This young lady had her srs in 1961 by dr. Elmer built in Calabasas California at the same facility aleshia Brevard had her surgery. At the time the procedure cost about $5,000 that included cost of travel and incidentals so it was quite a sum of money at the time but the result was quite magnificent considering him been done for decades at this point and was really pretty much perfected.

She was a business owner and the landlady but had a rough way to get there but she did none the less she wasn't the keynote speaker or author like most of the ladies before her but she did just fine for herself.

Her srs was it Westlake Memorial Hospital in November of 1961.

    

By this time more and more...

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