Career
Born Rudolf Schmid in Volary, Sudetenland (in what is now the Czechoslovakian Republic), 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. As Czechoslovakians began to take revenge against Sudeten Germans at the end of the war, Schmid was forced to flee to Munich where she began a career as a female impersonator.
She rapidly gained fame for her talent, bawdy material, and slinky outfits.
She instead whistled a Strauss polka and Offenbach"s Barcarole for the Shah and his court. Following her Iran performance, Schmid toured the world as a cross-dressing whistler, performing on stage with acts like Frank Sinatra, Édith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich while living in Cairo.
In 1964, Schmid underwent sex reassignment surgery and changed her name to Jeanette. Schmid moved to Vienna, the world capital of whistling, 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.
Schmid died in Vienna in 2005.
