Yankee Doodle in Berlin

Comedic actors in the 1910's cinema loved to cross-dress as females, expanding their movies' campy possibilities. Former Keystone Studio president Mack Sennett realized the farcical humor in composing a story where he placed a male spy disguised as an alluring female behind German lines during World War One to steal documents from the Kaiser and other high Army officials. He secured popular vaudeville stage female impersonator Bothwell Browne for the role, dishing out the knockabout fare Sennett was known for. June 1919's "Yankee Doodle In Berlin" was Browne's only film appearance, playing Captain Bob White, the aviator who took the assignment of being that spy. He convincingly plays a seductive woman who flirts his way up to having an affair with the Kaiser, played by long-time Sennett associate Fred Sterling.

"Yankee Doodle In Berlin" consists of a who's who in the Sennett repertoire. Silent film comedians Ben Turpin, Chester Conklin and Bert Roach all play German soldiers, while former Sennett 'Bathing Beauty' Marie Provost, in a role of Belgium prisoner in a German labor camp, cross-dresses herself as a German soldier when rescued by Browne.

Bothwell was one of the most popular female impersonators in the early 1900's, eclipse only by Julian Eltinge, possibly because Browne acted more seductively and erotically on the stage, which was a turnoff to the more proper urbane audiences. He had appeared in his own production on Broadway in 1911 in 'Miss Jack.' After "Yankee Doodle In Berlin," Sennett lent Browne's vaudeville act his 'Bathing Beauties," creating one of the most sought-after tickets during the holiday season of 1919. The show proved to be the pinnacle highlight of his career as the popularity of vaudeville cross-dressers waned in the 1920's. Browne ended up teaching dancing classes in San Francisco once his performance days were over.