Drag queens are not a new concept in the entertainment world. They have wowed audiences for centuries. What's not exactly common knowledge is two Butte men made names for themselves as female impersonators.
Billy Dalton and Mansel Boyle may not have known each other, but the two men moved in the same circles. Starting their careers at about the same time, Dalton and Boyle shared a significant talent that would lead them to entertain audiences across the globe. With the stage names of Julian Eltinge and Vardaman the Auburn-Haired Beauty, Dalton and Boyle would find success as drag queens from the early years of the 20th century up to the mid-1920s.
Julian was Dalton's middle name and Eltinge was the surname of a childhood friend. As for Boyle, he chose his middle name, Vardaman, to be his stage name. An only child, Dalton was born in Newtonville, Massachusetts, but spent his childhood in Butte, living here with his parents, Michael, a barber, and Julia, from the late 1880s to about 1895.
About the time the Dalton family left Butte, Boyle, along with his parents Arthur and Mary, and brother, Eugene, were getting ready to move in. While his father and brother found work mining underground, Boyle, who was born in Santa Cruz, California, found clerical work, eventually getting a position with the Montana Liquor Co. Of the two, Dalton as Eltinge was by far the most successful as he would become known as America's best female impersonator.
He and his family returned to Massachusetts.
