• Lodge of King Solomon's Temple lodge room, Hunter St, 1912
    Lodge of King Solomon's Temple lodge room, Hunter St, 1912
  • Lodge of King Solomon's Temple lodge room, Christleton, today
    Lodge of King Solomon's Temple lodge room, Christleton, today

Joining and Honorary members for this meeting

ERNEST A. FROST (stage name ‘THORA’)

ERNEST A. FROST (stage name ‘THORA’) was not only a great female impersonator but also a ventriloquist with a male dummy – I am not sure if the name of the dummy was Hugh Thorn or if it was Frost’s ‘in drag’ stage name. ‘Thora’ sang in a very pleasant soprano voice while Hugh growled in a rough voice. This type of drag ventriloquism is an illusion employing a kind of ‘reverse-difference’, and it effectively separates the two voices, relying on the gender construction that considers a woman incapable of producing a ‘physiologically deep’ male voice. At the end of the performance ‘Thora’ would pull off her wig to reveal that ‘she’ was actually a bald-headed man! In 1909 the New York Times reported that ‘Thora’ (ventriloquist) was appearing at the Alhambra Theatre. Ernest Frost was proposed as a Joining Member of the Lodge on 12 October 1912 by Bro. Frank Weston, a theatrical agent from Birkenhead.


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