RANSVESTIA

card. Anyway, it worked out much to her advantage being with me as we saw much more of the Fair than anyone else in the group.

In Tokyo my adventuresomeness again came to the fore when I shepherded her across town and back by subway. None of the stations had English names but with a map showing them you could follow progress by the appearance of the names even if you couldn't read them. So since I am a bug on subways I had to "do" the Tokyo system.

Back home by way of Hawaii where I gave a TV program and met a professor from the University of Hawaii who had been asked on the program for "professional balance." We did the program and then went out to a park and talked about it for a couple of hours. He became a good friend. Thus ended the significant events of 1970.

In June, 1971, before my next trip, I went to court and had my name legally changed. It was a very simple matter. My attorney, who had done this before, arranged to have it occur in Pasadena, a city on the outskirts of Los Angeles where cases didn't attract much atten- tion. Had it been done in L.A. there would have been some snoopy reporter around who might think it was an interesting story on account of my father. But in Pasadena-nothing. Case was called, the judge asked me why I wanted it changed, and since I was already living as Virginia and went to court that way, I said it was incon- venient having to sign legal papers, have a driver's license and other red tape in a man's name. He said, "You don't plan to use the new name for any illegal or immoral purposes, do you?" I said no and he said, "Petition granted."

That very same afternoon, armed with a photostat of the court order I went down to see the head of the L.A. Passport Office whom I knew from having gotten the "aka" passport through her several years previously. I shoved the old passport, the name change order and $10 at her and said, "Now give me a passport in my own legal name." She agreed and in about 10 days it came. It was a big help on this trip to the socialist countries because an aka passport would have attracted somebody's attention for sure and trouble would have ensued. More- over, it is customary for the tour director to collect and carry all the tour groups' passports so that he (or she) can handle tham all at once at hotels and airports. On the Pacific trip the year before I had to act

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