2006/03/01 by Joel Meyerowitz · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #Hollywood #Publicity #Headline #Newspaper #Art history #Biography #Media studies #Performance art #Popularity #Beauty #Art #History #Sociology #Advertising #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1093/maghis/20.2.16
openalex publication_date 2006/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Christine Jorgensen entered the public eye in December 1952, via the New York Daily News. The front-page headline read, “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty: Operations Transform Bronx Youth,” and the story inside told of her medical treatments in Denmark and her “sex-conversion” from man to woman (1). The initial publicity quickly escalated into media madness. Over the next several months, Jorgensen appeared in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles in the United States and abroad. In February 1953, she returned to New York and learned to live in—and love—the spotlight. Soon she launched a successful nightclub act, which sustained her popularity, and she appeared on television and radio and in theatrical productions. In 1967, she published her autobiography, which sold almost 450,000 copies in its paperback edition, and in 1970, the Hollywood director Irving Rapper produced the movie version of her life. In the early 1970s, she...