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Gypsy
Rose Lee (1914-1970), known as "The Most
Publicized Woman in the World" in her day, is still history's
most famous "stripper" in history. She head-lined Minsky's
Burlesque, and during one of its frequent raids, she famously told
the police, "I wasn't naked. I was completely covered by a blue
spotlight." She started life as a child star in the
Vaudeville circuits, alongside her sister, June Havoc (who would go on to
become a stage diva in her own right), pushed all the while by her
ruthless stage mother, Rose. (Some of those kiddie acts included
"Dainty June and Her Newsboy Songsters," "Madame Rose
and Her Dancing Daughters," and "Rose Louise and Her Hollywood
Blondes.") After debuting in 1932's Hot-Cha!, she went
on to headline The Ziegfield Follies of 1936, before turning to
Cole Porter's DuBarry Was a Lady (1939) and appearing in a Los
Angeles production of The Threepenny Opera (1956) in the
role of Jenny. She retired from stripping at age 42, and went to
write such books as The G-String Murders (1944) and Mother
Finds a Body (1942), before publishing her memoirs. These
were to serve as the inspiration for the famous musical Gypsy
(1959), which has proved to be Rose Louise Hovick's legacy. |
