Barbette

Vanders Broadway moved to Round Rock with his mother and stepfather around or before 1910. From early youth, he liked to stage shows with neighbourhood kids. As a young teen, he fell in love with the circus, and spend a lot of time perfecting an aerial act. He graduated from Round Rock High School in 1913, and headed out to make his fortune in the circus.

His first gig was with the "Alfaretta Sisters, World Famous Aerial Queens," with whom he performed as a woman. From there, he progressed to another female aerial act, and then to solo work. His act was part aerialist, part strip tease, and, at the end, the wig came off, and he revealed that he was a man. He made up to $2000 per performance, and became the toast of the European Demi-Monde. He played a woman in a Cocteau film, "Blood of a Poet," and was acclaimed by the likes of Noel Coward. Cocteau wrote essays about him.

In 1938, he caught a cold, which became polio. In four years he was back, working as a mentor. He became aerial director for Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, and worked as a consultant on circus films. He returned to Texas in 1963, and worked part time, choreographing and costuming circus acts. He died in 1973, was cremated and placed, by his wish, at the foot of his mother's grave in the Round Rock Cemetery.

What a fascinating character!

Thanks to "Historical Round Rock" for the story and black & white pictures. My story is bare bones compared to what they have in the book.