This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1400 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing.

There is a detailed Index arranged by vocation, doctor, activist group etc. There is also a Place Index arranged by City etc. This is still evolving.

In addition to this most articles have one or more labels at the bottom. Click one to go to similar persons. There is a full list of labels at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar. There is also a search box at the top left. Enjoy exploring!

07 May 2010

Pudgy Roberts (? - ) female mimic.

Pudgy was a New York female impersonator most famous in the late 1960s.

He also wrote two novels, Dormitory Mates, 1968 and Seafood, 1969, an how-to book, and edited a monthly magazine.   ++He also wrote for Gay Power, 1969-70, and ran a business distributing flyers.

Avery Willard made a short film about him, and he was one of the first drag queens to do comic relief in a porno movie, The Sexualist, 1975.






  • Pudgy Roberts. Female impersonator's handbook. Newark: Capri Publishers, 1967.  Selections 
  • Gil Truman.  "Girls Who Are And Can't: An Interview with Pudgy Roberts".   Female Mimics, 1,12, Spring 1968.    Online at:  http://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/PUDGY.HTM.
  • Avery Willard (dir). Camp Burlesgue. With Pudgy Roberts impersonating Bette David, Carol Channing, Tiny Tim, Marlene Dietrich, Lily Tomlin, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. US 6 mins 1969.
  • Kemal Horulu (dir)  The Sexualist: A Voyage to the World of Forbidden Love.  With Pudgy Roberts as Papamabuto.  US 73 mins 1973. 
  •  Donald Greenhaus. “Without Abstract”. Society. Vol 11,1 November 1973. www.springerlink.com/content/h6870muw8m283033/fulltext.pdf?page=1.
  • Pudgy Roberts (ed). The great female mimics. New York: Mark Lithographers. 1963-79. Monthly magazine.  Sample 
  • Laurence Senelick. The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre. Routledge xvi, 540 pp 2000: 384, 395, 403n15.
  • Mark Singer.  Mr. Personality: Profiles and Talk Pieces from The New Yorker.  Mariner Books, 2005: 95-8. 
IMDB     Queer Music Heritage  
__________________________________________________________________________________

I met Pudgy once, when we were both in Lee Brewster's boutique.

    2 comments:

    1. I met Pudgy Roberts in 1975 when he he came to Charlotte NC. to perform at Oleens Lounge, the top drag showbar in N.C.at the time. I was part of Oleens House show then and got to know Pudgy well during the two weeks he stayed in Charotte. He was such a talented preformer and my favorite was his impersonation of Bette Davis. Every thing was done live, not like the lip synking done today.

      ReplyDelete
    2. In 1982 I almost moved in with Pudgy to be his boytoy. What an amazing person.

      ReplyDelete

    Comments that constitute non-relevant advertisements will be declined, as will those attempting to be rude. Comments from 'unknown' and anonymous will also be declined. Repeat: Comments from "unknown" will be declined, as will anonymous comments. If you don't have a Google id, I suggest that you type in a name or a pseudonym.