BAM Affiliation In 1874, famed male impersonator Ella Wesner appeared at BAM two years after she eloped to Paris with Helen "Josie" Mansfield, mistress of both the Gilded Age Robber Baron Jim Fiske, and his murderer Edward S. Stokes. Read more about Brooklyn’s early LBGTQ + history in Hugh Ryan’s recent book, When Brooklyn Was Queer.