69.

The fascination of a female impersonator show- I've memborized every gesture, every movement and look of the performers who form THE CHEVALIER REVIEW and I'm still entranced by those youngsters who make us TVs green with envy. Of course, they have one asset that all of us had once but have now lost: YOUTH. How easy it is to look like a girl when there is hardly any beard and wrinkles are non-existant. How much easier it is to exhibit round- ed non-muscular arms and legs, smooth as a baby's, when you haven't hit 25 yet. It is indeed tragic that to be an ac- tive TV takes money. When we are in our teens (at a time when we could really live the part) we are usually frust- rated by lack of funds and dependence on families. By the time we have achieved the necessary degree of financial and social independence to purchase a wardrobe and have a place of our own to dress in, our bodies have lost a good deal of the smooth feminine qualities we cherished. It's aw- fully hard to look and act the part of that young, viva- cious and seductive young girl we like to think of ourp selves as being. (I guess I'm just in a depressed mood this time.....sorry.)

(((ED. NOTE: Susanna, I hope you will forgive me for putting in my 2 cents worth right in the middle of your column, but you have said something that requires comment right here while it is fresh. You have, in fact, answered in the last paragraph the questions in- plied in the first. A true TV sets his sights on fem- ininity as a child or young adolescent at which time the women around him and from whom he takes his pat- terns ARE young and pretty-mothers, sisters, play- mates, etc. As a result he grows up chronologically but his fantasies do not. In later life he would still like to look as the girls looked at the time he was most interested in and probably most envious of them. Women have the problem of adjusting to advanc- ing years and "growing old gracefully" and those of us who enjoy "joining" them must learn to do the same thing. We must learn to act as well as look and in short BE as women of our age act, look and are. One of the main sources of reluctance to show up in dresses