Trailer | Casa Susanna

Now for reasons which will become very clear, we're going to use first names only.

Would you please introduce yourselves?

Misty.

Vicky.

Sonia.

Simone.

Misty, what do you do?

I'’’m a bank teller.

And Vicky?

Cosmetician.

Sonia?

Hairdresser.

Window display.

Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only is that right now each one of them is breaking the law.

You see, each of our contestants is a man.

The times were middle fifties through sixties.

You know, if someone was perceived as being gay, it was a crime.

They were rolling the dice every time that they became their alter ego.

I was very isolated in Iowa, where literally you cannot talk to anyone about this at all.

I need to know more about myself.

I need to know what it would be like to live as a woman for an extended period.

Visiting Casa Susanna was almost a necessity for me.

The property was a beautiful place, very private.

It was magical.

Tito used to dress as a woman and become Susanna, and every Saturday night they'd throw a female impersonator show.

So, it became like the bed and breakfast of the cross-dressing community.

My mother drove my father to Casa Susanna every weekend of the summer.

My father believed that that was the greatest group of cross-dressers that ever gathered in the history of humanity.

This was so powerful for me and so important that I had to figure out a way to allow it to bloom.

I didn't want to be afraid.

I just loved it being here.

I had total freedom, total chance to be themselves for a change.