Barbette

Vander Clyde was not only a female impersonator, he was also a high-wire performer and trapeze artist. Hislove of the circuswas born at an early age when his mother, Hattie, took him tosee a performance: “The first time she took me to the circus in Austin, I knew I would be a performer, and from then on I’d work in the fields during the cotton-picking season to earn money in order to go to the circus as often as possible.” He would practice tightrope walking along his mother’s washing line. Afte