Gypsy

Who was Gypsy Rose Lee?

Born Rose Louise Hovick in 1914, she was to earn her fame as the world’s most famous stripper. Her early career consisted of touring the provinces in a vaudeville act costarring with her sister, and managed by her mother. Her sister, June Havoc, began a solo career, and Rose Louise became the Gypsy Rose Lee character, “intellectual stripper.” Soon she had made it to Minsky’s, the most famous burlesque house in the United States, where waitresses in French maid costumes sprayed the audience with perfume.

In 1937, when mayor LaGuardia shut down all of New York’s burlesque houses, Lee was forced to head west to Hollywood, and began her film career. In 1939, she returned to headline New York World’s fair. Initially appearing as Louise Hovich, she earned billing as Gypsy Rose Lee by 1943, and she excelled at comic roles in films such as ‘Belle of the Yukon’ in 1944. Through these films, however, Lee was to remain completely clothed at all times.

Lee’s talents were not to be confined to mere performing, however. A novelist and memoir writer, she also saw adaptations of her work storm the stage. Lee’s The G-string Murders was adapted as Lady of Burlesque in 1943, and her The Naked Genius adapted in Doll Face. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Lee became a television guest star, exhibiting a witty, self-deprecating character. She even succeeded in hosting her own talk show on at least two occasions.

It was her—admittedly fanciful—utobiography, Gypsy: A Memoir, published in 1957, which secured her fame. It was adapted for the stage by Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim. The motion picture adaptation of the tale of stripper, and brutal encouraging mother, became a great success. Starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood, the film was a great success, and cemented Lee’s legend.

Diagnosed with cancer in 1969 she died on April 26, 1970.

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