CALAMITY JANE, the 1953 musical biopic with Doris Day and Howard Keel, is
a smorgasbord of cross-dressing--Most Westerns don't include a scene with
Wild Bill Hickok dressed as a Sioux mother, complete with papoose!  Not
only do both male leads appear at various times in drag, but the usually
peaches-and-cream female star was probably understood by 1953 audiences
(the same ones who watched Uncle Miltie instead of Bishop Sheen!) as
outfitted in male drag and performance style throughout the film.
Inversion of gender roles was usually Hollywood's way of making comedy
from the deadly serious masculine business of the Western genre (cf.,
DESTRY RIDES AGAIN).
 
Dennis Bingham
Indiana University-Indianapolis
 
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