The Dumbells, “the Toast of Canada”, were a popular variety troop composed of Canadian ex-servicemen that toured Canada and the USA from 1918 to 1932. The group was originally organized in 1917 as the Canadian Army Third Division concert party, to entertain and boost the morale of Canadian and allied troops near the front. The Dumbell act included song and dance numbers, comic sketches, and female impersonations.

Private Ross Hamilton from Pugwash, Nova Scotia served briefly as an ambulance driver before becoming a founding member of the troop. He continued as one of the featured performers and audience favorites after the war. As ‘Marjorie’ he appeared on stage beautifully dressed and won over the audiences with sentimental songs sung in a convincing falsetto. Hamilton’s performance goal was to appear as a highly believable and attractive woman.

In Never Sleep Three in a Bed, a memoir of his youth in Saskatchewan, Canadian novelist Max Braithwaite described the excitement engendered by the performances of female impersonators and the particular appeal of ‘Marjorie’.

“Those were the more innocent – or perhaps the more short-sighted days. Words like "homosexual" and "transvestite" weren’t kicked around as freely as they are now. Dressing up like a woman and singing and dancing like one, was looked upon as a damned clever trick – something like sawing a female in half, or making a rabbit disappear – nothing more.”

During the 1920s Hamilton and the other Dumbells recorded many of their favorite songs for His Master’s Voice. Dumbell songs proved highly popular as well in sheet music distributed by the publishing company Leo Feist Ltd. In 1928 the Dumbells added biological women to their touring cast, a change which proved unpopular with some members of the audience.