TC. Jones was a drag queen before they went by that name, reaching fame in the 1940s as a dancer on Broadway before becoming a female impersonator. As was the case with many female impersonators in his heyday, his work was mostly based around impressions. He was especially well known for being able to play both Judy Garland and Katharine Hepburn convincingly. Many commentators at the time saw him as comparable to, if not better than, Julian Eltinge.
As with several other performers, he got into drag by accident while working on a stage play that required a female part, but in a troupe with no women to play it. Before long he was a regular act at Miami's Jewel Box Revue. Such was his skill at convincing people he was a woman he appeared in several female parts on television. It was a major departure from his earlier career - in his youth he was in the army, and trained to be a minister in Virginia!