America's Prettiest Girl: The Remarkable Story of Gender-Bending Trailblazer Lionel 'Iron Mike' Ames

When gender performance captivated America long before drag became political

Anni Arbour

Published: May 23, 2025 | Last Updated: May 23, 2025

News LGBTQ+ History Theater RuPaul's Drag Race Opinions Trans Lucent Lansing Detroit Sarah McBride Detroit Free Press Associated Press University of Michigan

In an era decades before "RuPaul's Drag Race" or political battles over drag performers, a University of Michigan student named Lionel "Iron Mike" Ames became a national sensation for his stunning performances in women's roles. His story reveals how gender performance in early 1920s America existed in a complex social space — celebrated as entertainment while performers carefully navigated rigid boundaries of sexuality and identity.

College performances launch a star

University of Michigan yearbook photo, 1923. Public domain image

Born on May 15, 1902, in Bay City, Michigan, Lionel was destined for the stage. His father Adelbert "Dell" Ames was a professional actor, while his mother Blanche performed in amateur productions. After Dell passed away, Blanche remarried George M. McBride, who managed the Majestic Theater and owned the town's pioneering radio station.

At Michigan, slim, red-haired Lionel joined the all-male Mimes club production of "Make It For Two" in 1921, initially assigned to the girl's chorus. The Michigan Daily noted that Ames was "so effective in his makeup that he would have no trouble in gaining admittance to the Junior Girls' play."

With the 1922 production of "In And Out," Ames was promoted to lead women's role. The Daily singled out his acting for its "finished perfection that shows long training and natural talent."

Photos showcasing Ames' startling feminine transformation were distributed to newspapers nationwide. A famous opera singer who saw Ames perform commented in the Detroit Free Press, "You don't tell me that lovely, that adorable girl is a man... Such a figure; such grace; such beauty; surely no man ever could be that little girl."

One syndicated photograph boldly claimed: "A new beauty may be a contender for the honor of being America's Prettiest Girl."

The delicate dance of dual identities

Syndicated photo of Ames and his wife, Beulah, June 25, 1924. Public domain image

By the mid '20s, Ames had adopted the more masculine name of "Mike" to affirm his manhood. Following the example of Julian Eltinge (a female impersonator more highly paid than Charlie Chaplin), Ames' public image carefully balanced masculine and feminine qualities.

An interviewer in the Port Huron Times Herald revealed how Ames "daintily touched a perfumed cigarette to her lips," while explaining that he "drove a huge motor truck all last summer" to achieve his feminine figure.

The attention brought unexpected consequences. Male admirers became so taken with his stage persona they "would have been glad to take him out to supper," according to the Indianapolis Star. One wrote that Ames combined "all the attributes and charms of enchanting, alluring, fascinating womanhood," calling him "truly a 'modern Venus.'"

Like Eltinge, Ames maintained he was heterosexual. His marriage to Beulah S. Brown in early 1924 certainly helped. "Michigan's Female Impersonator Weds," announced the Associated Press wire story, noting the couple had "attempted to keep the marriage a secret."

In University of Michigan senior superlatives, Ames came in second for "prettiest girl" in his class, losing by only one vote.

Vaudeville success and manufactured masculinity

Publicity photo, March 16, 1927. Public domain image

After graduating in June 1924, Ames immediately began his professional career. By early 1925, he was touring vaudeville theaters nationwide with his show, "Fascinating Feminine Fancies," consisting of jokes and songs performed as he changed into stylish fashions behind a screen.

A feature in the Battle Creek Enquirer detailed the whiplash of seeing Ames in both personas: "[Ames portrayed] a ravishingly pretty young girl in a dazzling gown which was — blushingly admits — cut rather low in the back," the article noted. "When next seen this beautiful young girl had been suddenly transformed into a conservative appearing young man with a collegiate cut in his clothes. And on close scrutiny it was easily seen that a razor was necessary almost every day to halt the uprising of a very uneffeminate beard."

The F.N. Arbaugh Co. department store of Lansing featured Ames in its "Learning to Dress" program, with ads that invited women to "Let Lionel Ames Teach You How To Dress!"

Arbaugh’s ad, Lansing State Journal, March 12, 1925. Public domain image

To maintain his public masculinity, a syndicated biography was distributed in 1925. This feature was almost entirely fictional, concocting a story about Ames' reluctant entry into vaudeville and claiming he "never really liked dressing up like a girl" and devoted "every spare minute to studying electrical engineering." In reality, Ames had announced his intention to pursue acting while still in college and was enrolled in the Literary Department, not engineering.

The likely truth in this fabricated narrative was its claim that Ames was making $500 a week as a female impersonator. When the Keith vaudeville circuit merged with the Orpheum, Ames began appearing in West Coast venues, expanding his fame.

Julian Eltinge himself recognized Ames' talent, telling the Wisconsin State Journal in 1924 that he would "sponsor Lionel Ames" after he finished at Michigan, calling him "the best female impersonator I have seen in college dramatics."

Brief fame during the 'Pansy Craze'

In 1926, Ames and Beulah moved to Long Island. He began appearing on the Loew's film theater circuit, headlining vaudeville acts that appeared on-stage before movie showings.

The Tulsa World quoted him on his beauty regimen: "It takes a lot of exercise to keep the old waist line at 27 inches and no more." The interviewer sarcastically added, "Mike's just like all the rest of us girls, he paints a new face on the one nature gave him, gets a Ponjola bob and wears shoes a size too small."

Ames' career peaked during the short-lived "Pansy Craze" of the early 1930s. As mainstream nightclubs shuttered during the early Depression, drag clubs saw business boom. Mae West had scandalized America with her 1927 show, "The Drag," a play with an entirely gay cast, bringing the subject of same-sexuality to mainstream attention.

Warner Bros. released a short film starring Ames in 1930 called "Varsity Vamp," a six-minute talkie featuring him singing two songs from his act.

From cultural icon to private citizen

“Cotton Stockings” ad, Detroit Free Press, April 13, 1924. Public domain image

But tolerance of gay culture soon waned. Morality overseers pushed for movie censorship and laws against same-sex activity. Female impersonation shows became illegal in parts of the country.

By early 1934, Ames stopped performing in drag. Later that year, the Loew's Theatre chain barred all such acts from its stages. Public sentiment had turned against crossdressing performers, as noted in a 1935 syndicated column: "Deservedly or not, audiences began to look on female impersonators as pathetically psychopathic. They either jeered or walked."

Ames' personal life suffered too. In January 1935, he and Beulah separated. Ten days after their divorce was granted, she married Ames' former piano accompanist.

After briefly trying theatrical producing, Ames returned to Detroit as sales manager at the Book-Cadillac Hotel. He remarried a woman named Marie Morris, but they divorced within a few years. During World War II, he served in the Navy and rose to the rank of Lt. Commander.

Upon returning to civilian life, he married a woman named Kathryn, and they had two children. In 1955, the family moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where he spent his remaining years in anonymity. Most of his later friends and acquaintances were unaware of his early fame as a female impersonator.

Lionel Eugene Ames, “America's Prettiest Girl,” died on May 5, 1986.

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Topics: News LGBTQ+ History Theater RuPaul's Drag Race Opinions Trans Lucent Lansing Detroit Sarah McBride Detroit Free Press Associated Press University of Michigan

About the Contributor

Anni Arbour

Anni, a transgender professional writer from Ann Arbor, moderates the Reddit subreddit, MI_Transgender_Friend.

America's Prettiest Girl: The Remarkable Story of Gender-Bending Trailblazer Lionel 'Iron Mike' Ames