GAYLETTER

Can you imagine going to the flea market, opening a random box and discovering hundreds of photographs of men dressed as ladies from the late fifties to the mid sixties? Where, you’d wonder on earth did they come from. The answer, as it turned out, is a retreat in Hunter, New York called Casa Susanna for heterosexual transvestites. “Founded by Susanna, aka Tito Valenti, the resort embraced men who dressed like women providing a safe haven for the exploration of gender roles in a time when it was not common to do so.”

The archive consisting of 189 color photographs, 144 black and white photographs and 7 photographic Christmas cards now on view at Wright (980 Madison Ave. NY, NY.) is being auctioned off this Oct. 30 with an estimated value of $100,000-$150,000. The archive is owned by the collectors Robert Swope and Michel Hurst who originally unearthed the collection in the flea market. Please take this rare opportunity to pop uptown to see these miraculous photographs. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Robert on the eve of the auction to ask him some pointed questions about the archive.

If you don’t see the answer to one of the questions this body of work provokes for you please come to a talk the two collectors are having at Wright Oct. 28th from 6:00-8:00PM and ask away — I’m sure it will be a lively conversation — I’ll be there with bells on.

Did the dealer at the flea market where you purchased the archive have any idea of the value of the photographs? Did they mention where they procured the images from? No. They came from a self-storage unit.

What was your reaction when you discovered the first few photographs? Could you make sense of them? I knew immediately that they were something special and figured it out fairly quickly — I think when you see them altogether they speak for themselves and tell a story.

Briefly describe how you followed the trail back to Casa Susanna? We were contacted once the book came out by a P.H.D. candidate who was doing research in this field and clued us into the resort Casa Susanna.

What has become of the property? I believe the property is currently for sale and they are using the Casa Susanna connection as a selling point.

Do you believe that all these men were heterosexual? I think that some were probably gay.

 
Why are you selling the collection now? My partner and I are selling our design collection at the same time and decided to sell the Casa Archive as well  — we have taken it as far as we can.

 
Who do you think would be the ideal buyer for the archive? An institution would be a great place for the collection — somewhere that it could be made available to be seen.

 
How would you say the Casa Susanna drag is different from today’s drag? This is the thing — these guys were NOT drag queens — they were not doing a parody of women — as drag queens do — they were trying to be real women.

 
Were wives welcome at Casa Susanna? Did the men bring them along? Wives were welcome andmany participants did bring their wives.

How did all these images taken by various different photographers wind up in the same collection? I believe the collection was most likely the property of Susanna Valenti herself, particularly since one of the albums had her business card attached to the cover.

 
Will you miss the archive once it’s gone? Yes, I am quite attached to it.