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Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton.


by Diane Wood Middlebrook (Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. The company's headquarters is located in Boston's Back Bay. It publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers , $25)

When jazz musician Billy Tipton Billy Lee Tipton (December 29 1914 - January 21, 1989) was an American jazz pianist and saxophonist. Early life
Tipton was born as Dorothy Lucille Tipton in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.
 died in 1989 at the age of 74, he was found to be a woman. This came as quite a surprise to his five ex-wives and three adopted sons.

Born Dorothy Tipton in pre-Dust Bowl Oklahoma, Billy had been passing as a man since he was 16, partly to further his jazz career and partly, it seems, because it was a great way to get girls. But oh, the effort. He never allowed himself to be seen naked; every morning he bound his breasts with Ace bandages Ace bandage Ace wrap Orthopedics A proprietary elastic bandage used to ↓ swelling and protect contused joints; if placed too tightly, may ↓ circulation and cause pain and paresthesia  and pulled on a jockstrap with some kind of a "gadget (1) Slang for any hardware device, typically small. Synonymous with "gizmo."

(2) A mini application that resides on a computer desktop or personal home page, typically found in the Windows environment.
" inside.

It paid off, though. He was never caught, and several of his wives considered him quite a lover. (Yes, Billy's amatory am·a·to·ry  
adj.
Of, relating to, or expressive of love, especially sexual love: an amatory mood; an amatory embrace.



[Latin am
 techniques are discussed. I suggest you keep a pencil handy, since there are several excellent ideas you might want to adapt.)

Diane Wood Middlebrook, an accomplished biographer and poet, does an excellent job of illuminating a life of deception and concealment by a person who turns out to have been admirable--talented, hardworking, funny, loving. Still, something's missing from Suits Me. Billy never divulged his secrets. His story cries out for dramatic interpretation by a skilled and talented artist. In other words--k.d. lang, call your agent.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Liberation Publications, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1998, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Author:Plunket, Robert
Publication:The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)
Article Type:Book Review
Date:Jun 9, 1998
Words:218
Previous Article:Fighting Fire: A Personal Story.
Next Article:Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir.
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