Albert "Bert" Whitman and Whitman Sisters at Lincoln Theatre Theatrical Performance 1915-12-25 Lincoln Theater Alberta Whitman practiced gender passing by cross-dressing, performing strut and flash dancing, and adopting the stage name Bert. She became the best male impersonator of her time, showing up other male impersonators such as Vesta Tilley, the most famous British musical hall male impersonator. The Indianapolis Freeman wrote: "She made some handsome gentleman out of doing the the original strutter." Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts George-Graves, Nadine: The Royalty of Negro Vaudeville: The Whitman Sisters and the Negotiation of Race, Class, and Gender in African American Theatre: 1900-1940. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2000). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1616