bruto
Penultimate Amazing
I get the feeling it appeared as a description of stage cross dressing, of the "Charley's Aunt" sort, before it was applied to men off stage, but I could be mistaken, since it's clear that the origin is fuzzy. It probably doesn't matter, since what is important these days is what the term implies these days.That's why I think it will have originated in the gay-subculture, we don't have records of that apart from when it occasionally impinged on mainstream culture - usually in the courts.