Product Code Database
Gene Malin (born Victor Eugene James Malinovsky; June 30, 1908 – August 10, 1933), also known by Jean Malin and Imogene Wilson, was an American actor, emcee, and drag performer during the Jazz Age. He was one of the first openly gay performers in Prohibition-era Speakeasy culture.
As a child, Malin attended P.S. 50 in Brooklyn and then went on to Eastern District High School. As a teenager, he was already winning prizes for his costumes at the elaborate Manhattan drag balls of the 1920s. By his late teens, Malin had worked as a chorus boy in several Broadway theatre shows including Princess Flavor, Miami, and Sisters of the Chorus. Around the same period, Malin worked at several Greenwich Village clubs as a drag performer, most notably the Rubaiyat.
Malin moved on stage and amongst the audience members as an elegant, witty, wisecracking emcee, affecting a broad exaggerated swishing image associated with the "Pansy acts" that followed. In doing so, Malin and other such performers as Karyl Norman and Ray Bourbon ignited a "Pansy Craze" in New York's speakeasies and later in other cities as well. (He once punched a disruptive patron during a performance, prompting Ed Sullivan to write, "Jean Malin belted a heckler last night at one of the local clubs. All that twitters isn't pansy.") One theatrical publication, Broadway Brevities, declared "the pansies hailed La Malin as their queen", and Vanity Fair magazine published a caricature of the celebrated Malin in 1931. Among his fans was actress Ginger Rogers and he was the frequent escort of actress Polly Moran.
Malin reportedly was the highest-paid nightclub entertainer of 1930, "a six-foot-tall, 200-pound bruiser who also had an attitude and a lisp". He also appeared in Broadway productions such as Sisters of the Chorus (1930) and The Crooner (1932).
After headlining numerous New York clubs such as Paul and Joe's, Malin took his act to Boston and ultimately, in the fall of 1932, to the West Coast, where he was employed at popular nightclubs such as the Ship Café in Venice.Mann 1998 p. 30 He also performed at a club that bore his name. While in Hollywood, he appeared in Arizona to Broadway (1933); in the movie, he portrayed Ray Best, a Drag queen who dressed in the manner of Mae West and sang "Frankie and Johnny"."Pictures and Players in Hollywood", The New York Times, June 18, 1933 Malin was cast in a third movie, Double Harness (1933), but his performance was discarded and he was replaced by a less effeminate actor; the president of RKO Pictures, B. B. Kahane, disgusted by Malin's flamboyance, noted, "I do not think we ought to have this man on the lot on any picture—shorts or features."
Malin also recorded at least two songs, "I'd Rather be Spanish than Mannish" and "That's What's the Matter With Me".
Between 1936 and 1943, Malin's widow served stints in prison for operating high priced (which the press called "exclusive call houses") on Central Park West, Park Avenue, and 57th Street and for violating the Mann Act."Guilty on Vice Charge", The New York Times, June 5, 1943
Malin's funeral was held on August 17 at St. Mary's Queen of the Angels Church in Brooklyn, New York. He is buried at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Personal life
Despite being gay, Malin married former showgirl Lucille Heiman/Helman in New York City in January 1931. Malin and Heiman had known each other from his days performing in drag at the Rubaiyat. Malin filed for divorce in Mexico in November 1932. At the time of his death, the couple still were married."Jean Malin Asks Mexican Divorce", The New York Times, November 15, 1932"Jean Malin Killed In Auto Accident", The New York Times, August 11, 1933"Obituary: Jean Malin", The New York Times, August 15, 1933
Death
In the early hours of August 10, 1933, Malin was involved in a fatal automobile accident. He had just performed a "farewell performance" at the Ship Café in Venice, Los Angeles. He piled into his sedan with Jimmy Forlenza (newspapers referred to Forlenza as Malin's "close friend") and comedic actress Patsy Kelly. Malin apparently confused the gears, and the car lurched in reverse and went off a pier into the water. Pinned under the steering wheel, Malin was killed instantly; Forlenza sustained a broken collarbone and severe bruising, and Kelly suffered from shock and serious injuries from the submersion in the water.
See also
Notes
(2025). 9780313393488, ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313393488
External links
Categories: 1908 Births, 1933 Deaths, 20th-century American Male Actors, 20th-century American Singers, American Drag Queens, American Male Film Actors, American Male Stage Actors, American Male Musical Theatre Actors, American Gay Actors, American Lgbtq Musicians, Lgbtq People From New York, Male Actors From Brooklyn, Road Incident Deaths In California, 20th-century American Male Singers, Eastern District High School Alumni, 20th-century American Lgbtq People
|
|
