Born Rudolf Schmid in a German family in
Volary,
Czechoslovakia, Schmid began to dress in feminine clothing at a young age and loved singing and dancing. Schmid did not fit in with the
Nazi ideal of the Aryan male but enlisted in the
Wehrmacht in 1941 and was posted to
Udine,
Italy until sent home due to
typhoid fever. At the end of the war, Schmid fled to
Munich where she began a career as a female impersonator. She rapidly gained fame for her talent, bawdy material, and slinky outfits. The
Shah of Iran,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife
Queen Soraya, saw Schmid perform in
Hamburg and invited her to
Tehran, but Schmid's material and dress were considered inappropriate by many in
Iran, and she was forced to devise a new routine. She instead whistled a
Strauss polka and
Offenbach's "
Barcarole" for the Shah and his court. Schmid moved to
Vienna to continue her whistling career. Schmid continued to tour the world under the stage name Baroness Lips von Lipstrill, including a successful stint on
Broadway. She was awarded the
Austrian Decoration of Merit in Gold in 2004. Schmid died in Vienna in 2005. == References ==