The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. The Three Stooges, especially Curly ( Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films.
Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition from the English music halls when they came to America with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910.
Cross-dressing in film has followed a long history of female impersonation on English stage, and made its appearance in the early days of the silent films.
