Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 47 inflatable dirigible balloon he sailed over Butte in 1915, George Lowry was a versatile and audacious performer. At a time when flight was still in its embryonic stages, he had the gumption to cross two of Montana's highest passes without the luxury of powered, motored support—the Wright Brothers invented the first successful powered airplane in 1903—descending the Con- tinental Divide by parachute several miles east of Butte and carried by the wind across the Bozeman corridor, landing east. He once parachuted with a team of monkeys and another time he released white leghorn chickens from high in the air of a dirigible balloon, with tags for various prizes attached to their claws. After- wards, Lowry said that he enjoyed both the balloon ride and the jumping, and that the chickens and the monkeys seemed to enjoy their adventure, too. George Lowry was born on January 11, 1886 at Homestake, Montana, his first years spent in the Katy O'Brien log boarding house. His parents then shifted to Butte. Accord- ing to Lowry's own account, he became transfixed with a Chinese paper balloon he was given as a kid, and this object sparked an unyielding interest in aeronautics. Lowry owned at least three large balloons during the time between 1908 and 1917 that he toured the country making exhibition flights. He performed at a number of engagements, sometimes returning to the same town or place, in Montana cities and elsewhere. And on top of this, he followed an annual fair circuit in the Midwest which, according to Lowry's later account, included "the cities of Mi- not, North Dakota; Davenport, Iowa; Rock Island and Chicago, Illinois." Lowry made his final balloon ascension in Deer Lodge in 1926, before apparently retiring at the urging of his wife. He worked as an electrician at the Montana Power Company. Lowry died in Butte in January of 1965 at the age of seventy-nine. GENDER BENDER OF SILENT FILMS, JULIAN ELTINGE, 1881-1941 "Women went into ecstasy about him," the comedian W.C. Fields once remarked about Julian Eltinge. "Men went into the smoking room." He was the buzz of 1900s Broadway and a gender bender of silent films. Long-forgotten actor and female impersonator Julian Eltinge was especially popular in Butte, where he accepted his first theater position as an usher at the old John Maguire Opera House at Butte. During a two-day engagement in Butte at the height of his popularity in the mid-1910s, Eltinge noted that he was first smitten by the showbiz glitz while he and his friends hung around the Caplice Hall (a dance hall and perfor- mance theater in Butte). A native of Newtonville, Massachu- setts, Eltinge was born William "Bill" Julian Dalton on May 14, 1881, the only child of Michael and Julia (Baker) Dalton. When the Daltons left Butte, they headed for Boston, where they finally settled. According to some stories, a Boston dance teacher named Mrs. Wyman encouraged Eltinge to work toward becoming a female impersonator after she caught him mimicking the female students and making silly faces behind their backs. Other accounts depict him as playing his first female role even earlier, at the age of ten with the Boston Cadets' Revue. Either way, allure was something that wouldn't be denied Eltinge, even if he had to don a wig and makeup and a padded bra for it to be treasured. By 1904, "Julian Eltinge"— he lifted the stage name from a classmate in Butte—had made his first Broadway stage appearance as a female impersonator, and only two years later, Eltinge was delighting international audiences at London's Palace Theatre. Soon after, he gave a royal command performance at Windsor Castle for King Edward VII. Purportedly once the highest paid actor in the world, it's hard to overstate Eltinge's popularity at the pinnacle of his appeal. Theatres and children were named after him; tabloids hounded him for quotes or insightful passages; autograph seekers coveted ink from the notoriously reticent drag queen. Eltinge continued to perform on stage and in films through- out the 1920s and early 1930s. Yet, by this time the novelty had dimmed and the spotlight had set on another acts. In this denouement, his audiences grew smaller, and his popularity dis- sipated. According to contemporary news sources, the soft-spo- ken ascetic spent much of his final years at his California ranch, where his mother, Julia, resided. In 1940, he made his last film appearance. He died in New York City on March 7, 1941. George Lowry Julian Eltinge Meet another Montana eccentric... www.distinctlymontana.com/eccentric211 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL

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