Billy Tipton

Template:Short description Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Billy Lee Tipton (December 29, 1914 – January 21, 1989) was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and talent broker. He is notable for having been posthumously outed as a transgender man.

Tipton's music career began in the mid-1930s when he led a band for radio broadcasts. He played in various dance bands in the 1940s and recorded two trio albums for a small record label in the mid-1950s. Thereafter, he worked as a talent broker. He stopped performing in the late 1970s due to arthritis.

Tipton lived and identified as male for most of his adult life. After his death in 1989, paramedics discovered he was assigned female at birth, to the surprise of his friends and family. Tabloids and national newspapers picked up the story, scandalously reporting that "he was a she".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Tipton is considered a prominent figure in transgender history in the United States.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His story inspired various fictional retellings, including the 1998 novel Trumpet, and a 2020 documentary film, No Ordinary Man.

Early life

Billy Lee Tipton was born in Oklahoma City on December 29, 1914. Tipton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was raised by an aunt after his parents divorced when he was four.<ref name="HIST" /> As a high school student, Tipton went by the nickname "Tippy" and became interested in music (especially jazz), playing piano and saxophone.<ref name="HIST" /> Tipton was not allowed to join the all-male school band at Southwest High School. He returned to Oklahoma for his final year of high school and joined the school band at Connors State College High School.<ref name="HIST">Template:Cite news</ref>

Around 1933, Tipton started binding his breasts and presenting stereotypically masculine traits.<ref name="TDN" /> As Tipton began a more serious music career, he "decided to permanently take on the role of a male musician", adopting the name Billy Lee Tipton.<ref name="HIST" /> By 1940, Tipton was living as a man in private life as well.<ref name="TDN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Career

Early work

In 1936, Tipton was the leader of a band playing on KFXR radio.<ref name="HIST"/> In 1938, Tipton joined Louvenie's Western Swingbillies, a band that played on radio station KTOK and had a steady gig at Brown's Tavern.<ref name="HIST"/> In 1940 he was touring the Midwest playing at dances with Scott Cameron's band.<ref name="HIST"/> In 1941 he began a two-and-a-half-year run performing at the Joplin, Missouri, Cotton Club with George Meyer's band before touring with the Ross Carlyle Band for a while. He then played music in Texas for two years.<ref name="HIST"/>

In 1949, Tipton began touring the Pacific Northwest with Meyer.<ref name="HIST"/> While this tour was far from glamorous, the band's appearances at Roseburg, Oregon's Shalimar Room were recorded by a local radio station, and so recordings exist of his work during this time, including "If I Knew Then" and "Sophisticated Swing".<ref name="HIST"/> The trio's signature song was "Flying Home", performed in a close imitation of pianist Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman's band.<ref name="Middlebrook 1998">Template:Cite book</ref>

As George Meyer's band became more successful, they began getting more work, performing at the Boulevard Club in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, sharing the bill with others such as The Ink Spots, the Delta Rhythm Boys, and Billy Eckstine.<ref name="HIST"/>

Bandleader

Tipton began playing piano alone at the Elks Club in Longview, Washington, in 1951.<ref name="HIST"/> In Longview, he started the Billy Tipton Trio, which included Dick O'Neil on drums, and Kenny Richards (and later Ron Kilde) on bass.<ref name="HIST"/> The trio gained local popularity.

File:Press photo of the Billy Tipton Trio, c. 1966.jpg

Tipton (center) with the trio

In 1956, while on tour performing at King's Supper Club in Santa Barbara, California, a talent scout from Tops Records heard them play and got them a contract.<ref name="HIST"/> The Billy Tipton Trio recorded two albums of jazz standards for Tops: Sweet Georgia Brown and Billy Tipton Plays Hi-Fi on Piano, both released early in 1957.<ref name="HIST"/> Among the pieces performed were "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "Willow Weep for Me", "What'll I Do", and "Don't Blame Me".<ref name="HIST"/> In 1957, the albums sold 17,678 copies, a "respectable" sum for a small independent record label.<ref name="HIST"/>

In 1958, after the success of both albums, the Billy Tipton Trio was offered a position as house band at the Holiday Hotel casino in Reno, Nevada, as well as opening for fellow musician Liberace. Tops Records also invited the trio to record four more albums.<ref name="HIST"/><ref name="REMEMBERED">Template:Cite news</ref> Tipton declined both offers, choosing instead to move to Spokane, Washington, where he worked as a talent broker and the trio performed weekly.<ref name="HIST"/><ref name="REMEMBERED"/>

In the late 1970s, worsening arthritis forced Tipton to retire from music.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal life

Tipton was never legally married, but five women called themselves Mrs. Tipton during his life.<ref name="TDN" /> In 1934,<ref name="TDN" /> Tipton began living with a woman named Non Earl Harrell.<ref name="DOPE" /> The relationship ended in 1942.<ref name="DOPE">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="TRANSFORMATION">Template:Cite news</ref> Tipton's sex was reportedly concealed from the four women who would later call themselves "Mrs. Tipton".<ref name="TDN" /> Tipton kept the secret of his extrinsic sexual characteristics from them by telling them he had been in a serious car accident that resulted in damaged genitals and broken ribs.<ref name="HIST" />

Tipton's next relationship, with a singer known only as "June", lasted for several years.<ref name="TRANSFORMATION"/> For seven years, Tipton lived with Betty Cox, who was 18 or 19 years old when they first met, and eventually became involved. Cox remembered Tipton as "the most fantastic love of my life".<ref name="REMEMBERED"/><ref name="SALON">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1954, Tipton's relationship with Cox ended, and he then entered a relationship with a woman named Maryann.<ref name="TRANSFORMATION"/> The pair moved to Spokane, Washington, in 1958. Maryann later stated that in 1960, she discovered that Tipton had become involved with nightclub dancer Kathleen "Kitty" Kelly.<ref name="TRANSFORMATION"/>

Tipton and Kelly settled down together in 1961.<ref name="TRANSFORMATION"/> They adopted three sons, John, Scott, and William;<ref name="REMEMBERED"/> the adoptions were not legally recognised.<ref name="Seattle" /> After they separated around 1977, Tipton resumed a relationship with Maryann.<ref name="TRANSFORMATION"/> Maryann reportedly discovered Tipton's birth certificate and asked Tipton about it once, but was given no reply other than a "terrible look".<ref name="TRANSFORMATION"/>

Death, post-mortem outing, and aftermath

In 1989, Tipton had symptoms which he attributed to the emphysema he had contracted from heavy smoking and refused to call a doctor. He was actually suffering from a hemorrhaging peptic ulcer which, left untreated, was fatal. On January 21, 1989, his son William called emergency services. While paramedics were trying to save Tipton's life, they, alongside Tipton's son William, discovered he was born female. This information "came as a shock to nearly everyone, including the women who had considered themselves his wives, as well as his sons and the musicians who had traveled with him".<ref name="STANFORD"/><ref name="REMEMBERED"/> Later, following financial offers from the media, Kelly and one of their sons went public with the story.<ref name="SPOKESMAN" /> The first newspaper article was published the day after Tipton's funeral and it was quickly picked up by wire services. Stories about him appeared in a variety of papers, including tabloids such as National Enquirer<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Star<ref name="STRANGE">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as People,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="SWING">Template:Cite news</ref> The New York Times<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and The Seattle Times.<ref name="Seattle">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Members of Tipton's family made talk show appearances as well.<ref name="STRANGE"/><ref name="SPOKESMAN">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Tipton left wills: one handwritten and not notarized that left everything to William Jr.; and the second, notarized, leaving everything to John Clark, the first child the Tiptons adopted.<ref name="SPOKESMAN"/> A court upheld the first will, and William inherited almost everything, with John and Scott receiving one dollar each.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to a 2009 episode of the documentary program The Will: Family Secrets Revealed, which featured interviews with all three sons, it was revealed that a final court judgment awarded all three sons an equal share of his wife Kitty Tipton's estate (not Billy Tipton's), which, after lawyers' fees, amounted to $35,000 for each son.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Two of his adopted sons changed their names not long after learning of Tipton's assigned gender, as they felt Tipton behaved deceptively.<ref name="Seattle" />

Works inspired by Tipton

• Stevie Wants to Play the Blues was a play based on Tipton's life written by Eduardo Machado and performed in Los Angeles, directed by Simon Callow and starring Amy Madigan and Paula Kelly.<ref name="Drake">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• "The Legend of Billy Tipton", by the punk band The Video Dead, is about the story of Billy Tipton.<ref name="DEAD">Template:Cite news</ref>
• Soita minulle Billy (Call me Billy), a Finnish play with Joanna Haartti playing Tipton, presented at Theatre Jurka in 2011<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and again at the 2012 Helsinki Festival.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

• The Slow Drag (1996), by Carson Kreitzer, a "jazz cabaret" with a live band onstage featuring the character, Johnny Christmas, based on Tipton.<ref name="Middlebrook 2013">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Tipton Kreitzer Criswell Sadovy 1998 p. ">Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref name="Dalglish 2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Trumpet, a 1998 novel by Jackie Kay, tells the story of fictional Scottish jazz musician Joss Moody, inspired by Tipton.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• The Tiptons Sax Quartet, previously known as The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet, is a jazz saxophone quartet from Seattle, Washington. The name of the quartet was inspired by Tipton.<ref name="cabaret" />
• A cabaret musical called A Girl Named Bill, starring Nellie McKay, tells the story of Tipton.<ref name="cabaret">Template:Cite news</ref>
• No Ordinary Man, a documentary film about Tipton by Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt, premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Discography

• Template:Cite AV media
• Template:Cite AV media

External links

• Billy Tipton photo timeline
• {{#if:Billy Tipton|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs|{{#if:Template:Wikidata|Template:Wikidata Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at DiscogsTemplate:EditAtWikidata|Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs}}}}