Annie Hindle: ca. 1847-19??

Annie Hindle was, according to theater historian Gillian Rodger, "the first woman to gain significant attention as a male impersonator in the United States, and most likely introduced this performance style to the American variety stage."

Research by OutHistory in online newspapers and other sources is adding important new details to her life story.Hindle's life is notable for allegedly marrying, while impersonating a man, a first wife, Annie Byan, and after Ryan's decease, a second wife, Louise Spangehl (or Spangehel).

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A story about Hindle in the Pittsburg Dispatch on July 5, 1892, on the occasion of her second marriage to a woman, gives a fairly detailed account of her life:

This story reports that for the second time in her life Hindle, the "'celebrated male impersonator'", then between 45-50 years-old, had married a woman. On June 26, in Troy, New York, Hindle had married Louise Spangehl (or Spangehel). The ceremony was performed by the Rev. G. C. Baldwin, a Baptist minister who at the time of the wedding claimed that he thought Hindle was a man. Hindle gave her name to the minister as Charles Edward Hindle.

Miss Hindle had been married three times previously. In December 1891, on the Jersey City Heights, Hindle had become a widower and buried her first wife, Annie Ryan, who she had married in the summer of 1886.

In the 1860s she had been the wife of Charles Vivian.

When Hindle was five years old, in England, the woman who adopted her put her on the stage in the pottery district of Hartfordshire. As an adult performer, Annie Hindle traveled to London, and on a whim, one day, put on male clothes and performed a song and became an acclaimed male impersonator.

About 1867 she had come to New York and triumphed on the stage as she had in London:

She was a blond, about 5 feet 6 inches, with a plump form, well-shaped hands, small feet and closely cropped hair, which on and off the stage she parted on one side, brushing it away from the temples as men do. Her voice was deeper than an alto, yet it was sweet and it sang true with great expression.

The paper says:

Annie Hindle was the first out-and-out 'male impersonator' New York's stage had ever seen. Ella Wesner had not yet ceased to dance obscurely in the ballet with her sister; Blanche Selwyn, was unheard of; Maggie Weston was yet to come along in the crowded ranks of Hindle's imitators.

The story continues:

It is a fact that this dashing singer was the recipient of as many "mash" notes as probably ever went to a stage in thsi country. Once she compared notes with H. J. Montague, that carelessly handsome actor at whose shrine so many silly women had worshiped, but Hindle's admirers far outnumbered his, and they were all women, strange as that may seem.

The papers says it was about 1867 that "Charley Vivian", the English comic, met Hindle and fell in love with her, and she with him, and they were married in the fall of 1868 by a Philadelphia minister. They started for the Pacific coast but in Denver they separated. Hindle claimed that they had been married several months and that he had physically abused her. They did not divorce, but went their own ways. Charles Vivian had died in March 1880, in Leadville [Colorado]. The report continues:

Hindle's next romance came six years later. In all her travels she had carried a "dresser." In the summer of 1886 her dresser was a pretty little brunette of 25 a quiet, demure girl, who made friends wherever she went. One night in June; 1886, Annie Hindle and Annie Byan left the Grand Kapids, Mich., theater, where Miss Hindle was then engaged and drove to the Barnard house.

A subhead in the paper declares: "Married One of Her Own Sort." The story continues:

In room 19 a minister of the Gospel, Rev. E. H. Brooks, awaited the couple. There was a best man, jolly Gilbert Saroney, a "female impersonator," but there was no bridesmaid. At 10 o'clock Mr. Brooks per formed the marriage ceremony, and solemnly pronounced Annie Hindle the husband of Annie Ryan.

The female groom wore a dress suit, the bride was in her traveling costume. The minister put a fat fee in his pocketbook, and Mr. Saroney, the female impersonator, and Miss Hindle, the new husband, opened a bottle of wine and smoked a cigarette or two.

The couple lived together happily five years, occupying a pleasant home on the Jersey Heights. They were respected by their neighbors, it appears, and they were welcomed at all the social gatherings in the vicinity of their home. Miss Hindle did not reappear on the stage until some months after her wife's death. Then she accepted several engagements, and it was during one of these engagements that she met Miss Spangehel, whom she has just married.

Timeline

1847, ca.

Hindle born.

1869, June 24

Advertisement for "Fox's American Walnut" theater. The Evening Telegraph. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. June 24, 1869, FIFTH EDITION, Page 3, Image 3

"Annie Hindle, female Lingardist", listed as one of the performers.

1869, June 26

Advertisement for "Fox's American Walnut" theater. The Evening Telegraph (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), June 26, 1869, FOURTH EDITION, Page 3, Image 3

"Annie Hindle, female Lingardist", listed as one of the performers.

1870, November 12

Advertisement for "Tony Pastor's Opera House-Bowery", New York City. The Sun (New York City), November 12, 1870, Image 4.

Advertising "THE GREAT ANNIE HINDLE" playing matinee performances.

1872, March 30

"Broom [opera house] gives a grand matinee at two o'clock this afternoon, for ladies and children, on which occasion Miss Annie Hindle, the London vocalist, will appear." Memphis Daily Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), March 30, 1872, Image 4

Advertising "The great original protean change vocalist, Miss Annie Hindle."

1872, November 12

Advertisement for "Tony Pastor's Opera House-Bowery", New York City. "Bowery, Opposite Spring St." [1] The Sun, November 12, 1872, Image 4]

Advertising "The great original protean change vocalist, Miss ANNIE HINDLE."

1872, November 16

Advertisement for "Tony Pastor's Opera House", New York City. The Sun, November 16, 1872, Image 4

Advertising "Annie Hindle's Songs and Changes."

1875, October 6

Anon. "GENERAL NEWS OF THE CITY . . . Annie Hindle and Harry Brooks". National Republican, Washington, D.C., October 06, 1875, Image 4

A story is headed: "ANNIE HINDLE CHALLENGE. The Champion of the World Accepts It.":

September 27 we published a card from Miss Annie Hindle, dated Cumberland, Md, September 24, challenging Harry Brooks, "champion pedestrian of the world," to walk a match or endurance for from $1,000 to (5,000 a side and the championship of the world, the match to take place in Washington. Miss Hindle requested Mr. Brooks to reply through the Clipper. Whether he has or not we have no means or knowing, but ha sends us the following letter and his form or acceptance. If Miss Hindle desires, the courtesy of replying through The Republican is extended to her:

270 Pennsylvania Avenue

Baltimore, October 6 1875

To the Editor of the National Rebublicanl:

Sir: A friend or mine has just handed me a copy or your valuable paper of September 27, containing a copy of Miss Annie Hindle's challenge to me. In reply, will you kindly insert the inclosed from me to Miss Hindle? And allow me to state that I do not like the Idea of a lady challenging me, but claiming the championship or the world, which I think I have honestly and fairly won, I am in duy:: bound to answer the same. Yet I wish Miss Hlndle to know that I claim to be a gentleman, and am willing she shall win the championship of the world If she is able so to do, I therefore offer her the following: reply.

Your Inserting the inclosed will greatly oblige yours, respectfully, Harry Brooks,

Champion pedestrian ot tho world.

HARRY BROOKS' REPLY TO MISS ANNIE HINDLE.

BALTIMORE, MD., 270 PENNSYLVANIA AVE.

In reply to Miss Annie Hindle's challenge of September 27, to walk me a match of endurance, end bearing In mind that a lady has challenged me, I hereby agree to walk Miss Hindle for any amount, from $1,000 to $5,0O0 a side, to suit her. I will also give her five hours, or, in other words, I will start five hours In advance of her, and give her every fair chance to bear off the honors consistent with a fair match. If Miss H. means business, let her address me as above.

Yours, very respectfully, Harry Brooks, Champion of the World.

P. S. 1 will either walk her distance or endurance, giving her five miles In fifty or one mile in ten. H. B.

1886, June 7

Anon. "Man or Woman?" Grand Rapids Evening Leader (June 7, 1886): 4.

Anon. "Married Her Maid: The Strange Story of Charles and Annie Hindle, a Man Masquerading as a Woman." Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald (June 7, 1886): 4.

1886, June 8

Anon. "Married as a Man." Grand Rapids Daily Democrat (June 8, 1886): 5.

1886, June 10

Anon. "A Curious Marriage." St. Paul Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 1886, Page 3, Image 3

1891, December 27

Anon. "Stranger than Fiction: The True Story of Annie Hindle's Two Marriages." New York Sun (December 27, 1891): 13

1892, July 5

Anon. "WEDDED TO A WOMAN. Annie Hindle Gives the Idle Variety Actors on the Rialto SOMETHING NEW TO TALK ABOUT. She Becomes a Bridegroom for the Second Time in Her Life. ONCE HAVING BEEN A FAIR BRIDE. Special Telegram to The Dispatch. New York, July 4." Pittsburg Dispatch. (Pittsburg [Pa.] July 05, 1892. See version of this story detailed above.

1886, July 6

The Salt Lake Herald., July 06, 1892, Page 2, Image 2

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Anon. "Man or Woman?" Grand Rapids Evening Leader (June 7, 1886): 4.

Anon. "Married Her Maid: The Strange Story of Charles and Annie Hindle, a Man Masquerading as a Woman." Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald (June 7, 1886): 4.

Anon. "Married as a Man." Grand Rapids Daily Democrat (June 8, 1886): 5.

Anon. "Stranger than Fiction: The True Story of Annie Hindle's Two Marriages." New York Sun (December 27, 1891): 13

Secondary Sources

Duggan, Lisa. Saphic Slashers: .........

Rodger, Gillian. "Annie Hindle". GLBTQ.com. Date Last Updated: August 5, 2004.

Rodger, Gillian. Male Impersonation on the North American Variety and Vaudeville Stage, 1868-1930. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1998.

Senelick, Lawrence. "Male Impersonation." The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Martin Banham, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 674-675.

Notes

[[Category:theater] [[Category:transgender]