Hedy Jo Star - I Changed My Sex

1955, 1963, 1980, English, Hedy Jo Star, USA,

Full title: "I Changed My Sex" by Hedy Jo Star.

The book was published in 1955 but I was not able to find the original cover of the first publication. This cover comes from an edition that was published in 1963. The book was reissued as "I changed my sex!": the autobiography of stripper Hedy Jo Star formerly Carl Hammonds; with an introduction by Edwin Poole" in 1980.

Hedy Jo Star (1920-1999) was an American showgirl, costumier, and business woman. She was born Carl Rollins Hammonds in Prague, Oklahoma, the eldest of seven children. According to Zagria's blog, she grew small breasts as a teenager, and her mother took her to several doctors including a ‘brain specialist’, but her parents would not consent to exploratory surgery.

From age 17, she worked as a half-man-half-woman in cabarets and as an ‘exotic dancer’, and took the stage name Hedy Jo Star. In 1942, after she was drafted, she appeared in the press after making a fuss about not cutting her long hair and appearing as a female impersonator in the US Army shows. After the war, she returned to the cabaret life.

She underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1962. She is one of the first transgender pioneers in the USA. Hedy married a doctor from Boston, Dr. Ralph Bucinskas. They moved to Las Vegas where she developed her career as a costumier. She died in 1999.

Available via goodreads.com

and Zagria

and drroyerichmond.wixsite