“When he appeared in a woman’s role he wore a corset tightly laced.”

Constrictive garments for women have never been healthy and the same holds true for men. A vaudevillian trying to pass for a damsel was killed by his unmentionables according to an article in the November 5, 1912 New York Times. The story:

“ST. LOUIS–Tight lacing caused the death last night of Joseph Hennella, a female impersonator, at the City Hospital, after collapsing on the stage of a South Side vaudeville theatre late on Sunday night.

In order to add to the illusion when he appeared in a woman’s role he wore a corset tightly laced, to give the effect of a small waist.

Hannella fell unconscious on the stage in the course of his act. He died three hours later. The hospital physicians said the tight lacing had caused a kidney trouble and induced a tendency to apoplexy. Hennella was of medium height, and inclined to be stout. He was 40 years old. In his younger days it was easy for him to get the feminine lines, but lately his increasing girth made it necessary for him to lace extremely tight to create the illusion. Usually he made several changes of costume in the course of an act, and the constriction caused by the corset rendered this a fatiguing and laborious process.”