Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton"Suits Me is the biography of a now notorious jazz musician named Billy Tipton, who grew up as Dorothy Tipton in Oklahoma City and Kansas City but lived as a man from the time she was nineteen until she died at age seventy-four. Billy Tipton's death in Spokane, Washington, made news all over the world, not because he was celebrated as a musician but because the scale of his deception - he had been "married" to five women and had reared several adopted children - and the scarcity of ready explanations endowed the skimpy available facts with the aura of myth." "But locked away in Billy's office closet lay files of clippings and photographs documenting the transformation of Billy from she to he, as well as a legacy of annotated comic routines, musical arrangements, and program notes. These revealed to Diane Wood Middlebrook how Billy scattered clues and riddles night after night about the drag she wore. These hints were so bold that they helped conceal Billy's secrets." "With brio and pathos, Suits Me tells the life story of this brilliant deceiver, who lived and loved in two skins, one of each sex."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
From inside the book
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Page 181
When people pester Betty about things that are none of their business , she is a
good sport . Asked whether the sex felt different with the father of her children
from the way it felt with Billy , she answered , That ' s the goddamnedest thing to
try ...
When people pester Betty about things that are none of their business , she is a
good sport . Asked whether the sex felt different with the father of her children
from the way it felt with Billy , she answered , That ' s the goddamnedest thing to
try ...
Page 266
Looking over the accounts , Brandon thought he could see a way to shape things
up . “ I got a bad - debt list and went ... I managed to get it up to about a thousand
, so we could cash checks for people , that sort of thing . Working together , I ...
Looking over the accounts , Brandon thought he could see a way to shape things
up . “ I got a bad - debt list and went ... I managed to get it up to about a thousand
, so we could cash checks for people , that sort of thing . Working together , I ...
Page 307
... agent put the best face on “ the musical revolution of the 1960s , " as he called
it in a newspaper interview in 1974 . “ Things have settled down from those wild
days when the young people sort of broke out and started doing their own thing .
... agent put the best face on “ the musical revolution of the 1960s , " as he called
it in a newspaper interview in 1974 . “ Things have settled down from those wild
days when the young people sort of broke out and started doing their own thing .
What people are saying - Write a review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - bookwormteri - LibraryThingWhile I found this book super interesting, I definitely felt the lack of Billy's perspective in this story. An incomplete read without knowing what he was thinking and feeling and his motivation ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - ursula - LibraryThingThis was a very interesting book about Billy Tipton, a musician in the jazz/swing era who was born a woman but passed as a man almost his entire adult life. It's both fascinating and frustrating ... Read full review
Contents
But Who Was She? 18891928 | 12 |
Kansas City 19291932 | 33 |
The In Sex 19331934 | 51 |
Copyright | |
16 other sections not shown
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