Q 01/05

The first person known to call himself "the queen of drag" hosted balls in Washington, D.C. in which decade?

A) The 1880s

B) The 1920s

C) The 1950s

D) The 1960s

Answer · why

A) The 1880s

William Dorsey Swann was born enslaved and was later jailed for ten months on a trumped-up charge of keeping a disorderly house.

Q 02/05

The first recorded use of the word 'drag' in this sense dates from which year?

A) 1950

B) 1870

C) 1790

D) 1920

Answer · why

B) 1870

Some etymologies push it back to the Elizabethan stage, when boys played the women's roles.

Q 03/05

Which early 20th-century performer was the most famous of the era's 'female impersonators'?

A) Andrew Tribble

B) Bert Savoy

C) Julian Eltinge

D) Dan Leno

Answer · why

C) Julian Eltinge

Andrew Tribble found similar fame on Broadway and in Black vaudeville.

Q 04/05

The British Christmas pantomime tradition features a man playing which stock comic character?

A) The fairy godmother

B) The principal boy

C) The wicked stepmother

D) The dame

Answer · why

D) The dame

Dan Leno was the great Victorian pantomime dame.

Q 05/05

What was Divine's birth name?

A) Harris Glenn Milstead

B) Harvey Fierstein

C) Roy Haylock

D) Glenn Anderson

Answer · why

A) Harris Glenn Milstead

The Baltimore-born actor was described by People magazine as the Drag Queen of the Century.