 After World War I and World War II, the theatre and movie scenes were changing, and the use of pantomime dames declined.The first person to describe himself as "the queen of drag" was William Dorsey Swann, who in the 1880s started also hosting drag balls attended by other men who were former slaves, and often raided by the police, as documented in the newspapers.In 1896, Swann was convicted and sentenced to 10 months in jail on the false charge of "keeping a disorderly house" (euphemism for running a brothel) and demanded a pardon from the president for holding a drag ball (the demand was denied).