Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee | |
---|---|
Born | Rose Louise Hovick January 8, 1911 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
Died | April 26, 1970 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 59)
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1928–1970 |
Spouses | Robert Mizzy
(m. 1937; div. 1941) |
Children | 1 Erik Lee Preminger |
Parent(s) | John Olaf Hovick Rose Thompson Hovick |
Relatives | June Havoc (sister) |
Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper, actress, author, playwright and vedette famous for her striptease act. Her 1957 memoir was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy.
Early life
Rose Louise Hovick was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 8, 1911;[1][2][3][note 1] however, she always gave January 9 as her date of birth.[1][3] She was known as Louise to her family. Her sister, actress June Havoc, was born in 1912. Their mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, forged various birth certificates for each of her daughters—older when needed to evade varying state child labor laws, and younger for reduced or free train fares. The girls were unsure until later in life what their years of birth were.[1][4]
Their mother had married
After Hovick and Brennerman divorced, June supported the family by appearing in
Career
Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could make money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status as an elegant and witty striptease artist. Initially, her act was propelled forward when a shoulder strap on one of her gowns gave way, causing her dress to fall to her feet despite her efforts to cover herself; encouraged by the audience's response, she went on to make the trick the focus of her performance.[11]
Her innovations were an almost casual stripping style compared to bump & grind styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease"), and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well. She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her stripping style, and—changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee—she became one of the biggest stars of Minsky's Burlesque, where she performed for four years. She was frequently arrested in raids on the Minsky brothers' shows. During the Great Depression, Lee spoke at various union meetings in support of New York laborers. According to activist Harry Fisher, her talks were among those that attracted the largest audiences.[12]
In 1937 and 1938, billed as Louise Hovick, she made five films in Hollywood.[13] But her acting was generally panned, so she returned to New York City where she had an affair with film producer Michael Todd and co-produced and appeared in his 1942 musical revue, Star and Garter.[14]
Lee viewed herself as a "high-class" stripper, and she approved of
In 1941, Lee authored a mystery thriller called
Relationships
In Hollywood, she married Arnold "Bob" Mizzy on August 25, 1937, at the insistence of the film studio. She obtained a divorce in 1941, claiming cruelty, although biographer Noralee Frankel suggests the couple agreed that Lee could bring false charges so the divorce could go through uncontested.[19] In 1942, she married William Alexander Kirkland; they divorced in 1944. While married to Kirkland, she gave birth on December 11, 1944, to a son fathered by Otto Preminger. Her son was named Erik Lee, but has since been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Lee Preminger. Gypsy married a third time in 1948, to Julio de Diego,[20] but that union also ended in divorce.[21]
In 1940, she purchased a townhouse on East 63rd St in
Later years
After the death of their mother, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Gypsy: A Memoir was published in 1957 and served as inspiration for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents 1959 musical Gypsy. June did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but she was eventually persuaded not to oppose it for her sister's sake.[26] The show and the 1962 movie adaptation assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged for a period of time but reconciled. June, in turn, wrote Early Havoc and More Havoc, to tell her version of their history.
Gypsy Rose Lee went on to host a daytime San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, The Gypsy Rose Lee Show (754 episodes, aired 1965–1968).[27][28] The popular afternoon show featured such guests as Judy Garland, Agnes Moorehead, and Woody Allen, showcasing her love of people, pets and knitting among other interests.
Like well-known artists such as Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, Gypsy Rose Lee was a supporter of the Popular Front movement in the Spanish Civil War and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of Spanish children during the conflict. "She became politically active, and supported Spanish Loyalists during Spain's Civil War. She also became a fixture at Communist United Front meetings, and was investigated by the House Committee on un-American activities."[29] Lee was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election.[30] The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all reportedly given to her by the artists themselves.[citation needed]
In 1969, she performed for American troops in Vietnam, who, she said, "considered her their sexy grandmother".[31]
Death
Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 1970, aged 59. Upon her death, she left an estate valued at US$575,000 (US$4,000,000 in 2021).[32] She is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.[33]
Legacy
- The song "Zip" from the musical Pal Joey, written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, imagines the thoughts and musings that go through Gypsy Rose Lee's mind while she strips onstage as recounted by way of an interviewer who sings of their encounter with Miss Lee as being "the greatest achievement" she had had. Elaine Stritch regularly performed this song (as the interviewer) for many years.[34]
- Punk band The Distillers wrote "Gypsy Rose Lee", a song for their debut album in 2000.
- In 1973, Tony Orlando and Dawn recorded "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" by W. M. Irwin Levine & L. Russell Brown. (The song refers to Lee's profession, but is about a fictional character with a similar name.)
- In January 2012, Seattle Theater Writers (a group of arts critics for various publications) awarded the first Gypsy Rose Lee Awards, celebrating excellence in local theatre.[35]
- The Academy Film Archive has preserved a number of Lee's home movies, including behind-the-scenes footage from films in which she appeared.[36]
Selected stage work
Stage | |||
---|---|---|---|
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1933 | George White’s Melody | herself under the name Rose Louise | Casino Theatre |
1936 | Ziegfeld Follies | herself | Winter Garden Theatre |
1939 | I Must Love Someone | Birdie Carr | Vanderbilt Theatre |
1940 | Du Barry Was a Lady | May Daly | 46th Street Theatre |
1940 | Panama Hattie | Panama Hattie substituting for Ethel Merman | 46th Street Theatre |
1943 | Star And Garter | herself | The Music Box Theatre |
1954 | The Naked Genius | Honey Bee Carroll | New Parsons Theatre, Hartford, CT |
1956 | Fancy Meeting You | Amanda Phipps | Casino Theatre, Newport, RI |
1958 | Happy Hunting | Liz Livingstone | Westbury Music Fair |
1961 | The Threepenny Opera | Jenny | Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto |
1961 | Auntie Mame | Auntie Mame | Kenley Players, Columbus, OH |
1961 | A Curious Evening with Gypsy Rose Lee | herself | Las Palmas Theatre, Hollywood, CA |
Filmography
Film | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Title | Role |
1937 | You Can't Have Everything | Lulu Riley |
1937 | Ali Baba Goes to Town | Sultana / Louise Hovick |
1938 | Sally, Irene and Mary | Joyce Taylor |
1938 | Battle of Broadway | Linda Lee |
1938 | My Lucky Star | Marcelle La Verne |
1943 | Stage Door Canteen | Gypsy Rose Lee |
1944 | Belle of the Yukon | Belle De Valle |
1952 | Babes in Bagdad | Zohara |
1958 | Screaming Mimi | Joann 'Gypsy' Masters |
1958 | Wind Across the Everglades | Mrs. Bradford |
1963 | The Stripper | Madame Olga |
1966 | The Trouble with Angels | Mrs. Phipps |
1969 | The Over-the-Hill Gang | Cassie |
Television | |||
---|---|---|---|
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1949 | Think Fast |
Herself - Host | |
1950 | What's My Line? | lost episode #4, Season 1[37] | |
1958 | The Gypsy Rose Lee Show | ||
1959 | What's My Line ? |
||
1963 | Fractured Flickers | Herself | episode 3—interview |
1964 | The Object Is |
Herself | game show - 5 episodes |
1965 | Who Has Seen the Wind? |
Proprietress | TV movie |
1965-1967 | Gypsy | Herself - Hostess | 26 episodes |
1966 | The Pruitts of Southampton | Regina | 4 episodes |
1966 | Batman | Newscaster | 1 episode, Uncredited |
1967 | Around the World of Mike Todd | Herself | TV movie documentary |
1969 | The Over-the-Hill Gang | Cassie | TV movie, (final film role) |
1969 | The Hollywood Squares |
Herself - Panelist | 114 episodes |
Recordings
Recordings | |||
---|---|---|---|
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1960 | An Evening with Gypsy Rose Lee | LP record | AEI Records |
1962 | Gypsy Rose Lee Remembers Burlesque | LP record | Stereoddities |
Works
Novels
- The G-String Murders (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1941).
- Mother Finds a Body (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1942).
Memoir
- Gypsy: A Memoir (New York: Harper & Bros., 1957)
Plays
- The Naked Genius (1943) (filmed and released as Doll Face in 1946). Her original title for the play was The Ghost in the Woodpile.[38]
Notes
- ^ Abbott (2012) presents a photocopy of an apparently non-certified certificate of live birth with some handwritten parts, from the King County Health Department, Record# 193, File # 1388, indicates January 8, 1911, although Lee always gave January 9 as her date of birth.
References
- ^ OCLC 608296594
- ^ Birthdate given as January 8, legacy.com; accessed September 16, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8129-7851-3.
- ^ a b c d e Laura Jacobs (March 2003) "Taking it all off", Vanity Fair, Vol. 511, p. 198.
- ^ "This is a story of three women whose dreams clashed" (July 16, 1980), Boston Globe, p. 1.
- ISBN 978-0-19-536803-1
- ISBN 978-1-58394-096-9, p. 186.
- ^ King County Department of Executive Services, Records and Licensing Division, Marriage Returns, 1891–1947, Marriage Certificates, 1855–1990, Office of the Secretary of State, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, Source: King County Auditor, Marriage Certificates, 1855–1969; Marriage Returns, 1891–1947. King County Archives, Seattle, WA.
- ^ National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 2708; Volume #: Roll 2708 - Certificates: 513300-513899, February 12–14, 1925; Ancestry.com (U.S. Passport Applications, 1795–1925).
- ^ Ancestry.com. Washington, Marriage Records, 1865–2004 from Washington State Archives. Olympia, Washington: Washington State Archives.
- ^ Helen Welshimer (February 14, 1937) "Burlesque's strippers graduate to Broadway", Laredo Times, TX, p. 13.
- ISBN 978-0-80322-006-5
- ^ "Gypsy Rose Lee", IMDb.
- ^ Profile, historylink.org; accessed August 7, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-61871197-0
- ISBN 0-8240-9219-8
- ^ Nevada State Journal, 24 December 1942
- ^ New York Daily News, 24 December 1942
- ISBN 978-0199709786. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
- ^ "Gypsy Rose Lee: Rare and Classic Photos of a Burlesque Legend". LIFE.com. January 8, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
- ^ Noralee Frankel (2009) Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 62, 68, 121–22, 147, 154–66, 195–96.
- ISBN 978-1-62087-691-6
- ^ Anonymous (July 9, 2015). "Lost Womyn's Space: Rose's Lesbian Boarding House". Retrieved June 28, 2017.
- ^ Jacobs, Laura (March 2003). "Taking It All Off". Vanity Fair.
- ISBN 978-1617038532., pp. 152–64.
- ^ "The Women Who Inspired Gypsy". Vanity Fair. March 1, 2003.
- ^ Weatherwax, Tom (May 22, 1967). Gypsy Rose Lee. Episode #526: Paul Lynde and Gretchen Wyler. Seven Arts Television. Retrieved August 16, 2023 – via The New York Public Library.
Videotaped for KGO-TV, San Francisco, Calif., May 22, 1967.
- ^ Baker, James F (1968). Gypsy Rose Lee. Episode #721: Chita Rivera and Paul Lynde. American International Television, Inc. Retrieved August 16, 2023 – via The New York Public Library.
Videotaped for KGO-TV, Channel 7, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 20, 1968
- ^ "The Monday Interview with Karen Abbott". Publishers Weekly. January 3, 2011.
- ^ Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, p. 33, Ideal Publishers
- ^ A revealing look at Gypsy Rose Lee, cbsnews.com. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
- ISBN 9780060162603– via Internet Archive.
- ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 27219-27220). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- ^ "A Guide to Rodgers & Hart's 'Zip'". Playbill. January 6, 1998. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
- ^ Amador, José (January 26, 2012). "The First Annual Gypsy Rose Lee Awards Have Arrived". The Seattle Star. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- ^ TV.com. "What's My Line?: EPISODE #4". TV.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
- ^ Oakland Tribune, 4 November 1943
Further reading
- OCLC 671810568.
- Frankel, Noralee (2009). Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 223876642.
- Abbott, Karen (2010). American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee. New York: Random House. OCLC 608296594.
- Strom, Robert (2010). Lady of Burlesque: The Career of Gypsy Rose Lee. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. OCLC 601050289.
External links
- Gypsy Rose Lee at Washington State History Online Encyclopedia
- Biles, Jan (June 17, 2017). "Before burlesque, Gypsy Rose Lee performed at Jayhawk Theatre". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Topeka, Kansas.
- "Gypsy: Rose and June". The Quotable Stephen Sondheim Page. Archived from the original on November 6, 2005.
- Papers
- Gypsy Rose Lee papers, 1910–1970, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Gypsy Rose Lee scores, 1909-1967, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Gypsy Rose Lee. Produced for KGO-TV San Francisco (video, 1966-1968), held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Gypsy Rose Lee at the Internet Broadway Database
- Gypsy Rose Lee at IMDb
- Gypsy Rose Lee at the TCM Movie Database
- Gypsy Rose Lee at TVGuide.com