Gypsy Rose Lee
from the film Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Born	February 9, 1914 Seattle, Washington
Died	April 26, 1970 age 59 or 56 Los Angeles, California

Gypsy Rose Lee (also known as Rose Louise Hovick and Louise Hovick) (February 9, 1911 or 1914 – April 26, 1970) was an American actress and burlesque entertainer, whose 1957 memoir, which included a scathing portrait of her domineering mother, was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy. Image File history File links GypsyRoseLeeStageDoorCanteen. ... Stage Door Canteen is a 1943 film. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King County Incorporated December 2 1869 Government  - Mayor Greg Nickels Area  - City  142. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D)  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Photograph of Sally Rand, 1934. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gypsy: A Musical Fable is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. ...

Early life

Born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, Gypsy was initially known by her middle name, Louise. Her mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, was fifteen when she married John Hovick, who, according to Rose's 1914 birth certificate, was an ad salesman with a newspaper. Rose Thompson Hovick was the classic example of a smothering stage mother, though the more horrid details were reportedly whitewashed in Gypsy's memoirs. A second daughter, Ellen Hovick (better known as actress June Havoc), was born in 1916. She, too, would be known by her middle name, June (some sources indicate that Ellen Hovick's middle name was "Evangeline"). After Rose T. Hovick divorced her husband John, the girls earned the family's money by appearing in vaudeville where June's talent shone while Louise remained in the background. At the age of 16, June married a boy in the act named Bobby Reed, whom Mother Rose had arrested and met at the police station with a hidden gun. She pulled the trigger but the safety was on and Bobby was freed. June left the act and went on to give birth to April Reed. Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King County Incorporated December 2 1869 Government  - Mayor Greg Nickels Area  - City  142. ... Notorious as the ultimate stage mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, was the mother of two famous performing daughters: the inimitable burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee and the actress June Havoc. ... June Havoc (born Ellen Evangeline Hovick on November 8, 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) is an actress and dancer. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ...

Career success

Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could earn money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status. Her innovations were an almost casual strip style, compared to the herky-jerky 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 strip 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 against the Minsky brothers' shows. Minskys Burlesque refers to the infamous brand of burlesque presented by the four Minsky brothers between the years 1912 and 1937 primarily in New York. ...

Gypsy Rose Lee had relationships with an assortment of characters from comedian Rags Ragland to Eddy Braun. She eventually traveled to Hollywood, where she was billed as Louise Hovick and she married Arnold "Bob" Mizzy on August 25, 1937 at the insistence of the film studio. Her acting was generally panned. So, she returned to New York City and invested in Michael Todd (1909-1958). She eventually appeared as an actress in many of his film productions. John Lee Morgan Beauregard Ragland (known as Rags Ragland) (born August 23, 1905 in Louisville, Kentucky - died August 20, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) was an American character actor. ... ... August 25 is the 237th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (238th in leap years), with 128 days remaining. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... New York, NY redirects here. ... Michael Todd (real name Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen) (June 22, 1907 or 19091 - March 22, 1958) was an American film producer who is best known for his production of Around the World in Eighty Days 1956, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. ...

In 1941, Gypsy Rose Lee wrote, with Craig Rice, a mystery thriller called The G-String Murders which was made into the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck. Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared. Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitiation and all) in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen. Gypsy's second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942. For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... The G-String Murders is a detective novel by American stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, published in 1941. ... Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American film/television actress. ... i still feel like being nice H.L. Mencken who: journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker, what: most influential American writers of the early 20th century. ... For the book or movie Striptease see Striptease (book) and Striptease (movie) A striptease is a performance, usually a dance, in which the performer gradually removes their clothing for the purposes of sexually arousing the audience, usually performed in nightclubs. ... For more on his work with his two partners, see Rodgers and Hart and Rodgers and Hammerstein. ... Lorenz (Larry) Hart (May 2, 1895 - November 22, 1943) was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. ... Pal Joey Studio cast album 1950 Pal Joey is a 1940 Broadway musical by American writer John OHara, with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. ... Stage Door Canteen is a 1943 film. ...

Relationships

In love with Michael Todd and in an attempt to make him jealous, Gypsy Lee married William Alexander Kirkland in 1942. They divorced in 1944. While married to Kirkland, she gave birth to a son fathered by Otto Preminger; he was named Erik Lee, and has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Preminger. Gypsy Lee was married for a third time in 1948 to Julio de Diego, but they eventually divorced. Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Otto Ludwig Preminger (December 5, 1906 – April 23, 1986) was a film director. ... Erik Lee Preminger (born 11 December 1944) is an American writer and actor. ...

Gypsy Lee and sister June, who also became a successful performer, continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a lesbian boardinghouse in a ten-room apartment on West End Avenue in New York City. This property and a farm in Highland Mills, New York, had been rented for Mother Rose by Gypsy Lee. Mother Rose shot and killed one of her guests (according to Erik Preminger, she killed her own lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy) at the boardinghouse. This incident was explained as a suicide. As Mother Rose was dying of colon cancer, her final words, in 1954, were for Gypsy Lee: "Wherever you go... I'll be right there. When you get your own private kick in the ass, just remember: it's a present from me to you." New York, NY redirects here. ... Erik Lee Preminger (born 11 December 1944) is an American writer and actor. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Later years

Gypsy Rose Lee in 1956

With their mother dead, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Gypsy's memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957 and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. Sister 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. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 477 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2386 × 3000 pixel, file size: 868 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Gypsy Rose Lee... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 477 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2386 × 3000 pixel, file size: 868 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Gypsy Rose Lee... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jule Styne (December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was a British born American songwriter. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Arthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director. ... Gypsy: A Musical Fable is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. ...

Gypsy Rose Lee went on to host an AM San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, Gypsy. A smoker, she was diagnosed in 1969 with metastatic lung cancer, which prompted her to reconcile with June before her death. "This is my present, you know," she told June. "My present from Mother." KGO-TV (ABC7) is an owned-and-operated television station of The Walt Disney Company-owned ABC, based in San Francisco, California. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Lung cancer is the malignant transformation and expansion of lung tissue, and is the most lethal of all cancers worldwide, responsible for 1. ...

The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves. Joan Miró (April 20, 1893 - December 25, 1983) was a painter, sculptor and ceramist born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. ... Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. ... Marc Chagall as photographed in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten. ... Max Ernst Max Ernst (April 2, 1891 – April 1, 1976) was a German Dadaist and surrealist artist. ... Tannings Etched Murmurs (etching) 1984 Dorothea Tanning (born 25 August 1910) is an American painter, printmaker, sculptor and writer. ...

In 1970, she died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 56 or 59, and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D)  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... Inglewood Park Cemetery is located at 720 E. Florence Avenue in Inglewood, California. ... Location of Inglewood in California and Los Angeles County. ...

Trivia

She was referenced in the 1973 Tony Orlando & Dawn hit "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose". 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Tony Orlando and Dawn was a pop music group that was very popular in the 1970s. ...

Filmography

• You Can't Have Everything - 1937
• Ali Baba Goes to Town - 1937
• Sally, Irene and Mary - 1938
• Battle of Broadway - 1938
• My Lucky Star - 1938
• Stage Door Canteen - 1943
• Belle of the Yukon - 1944
• Babes in Bagdad - 1952
• The Screaming Mimi - 1958
• Wind Across the Everglades - 1958
• The Stripper - 1963
• The Trouble with Angels - 1966
• Around the World of Mike Todd - 1968

Ali Baba Goes to Town is a 1937 movie starring Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, and Roland Young. ... Screaming Mimi (1958) is a Columbia Pictures release directed by Gerd Oswald and based on the novel by pulp novelist Fredric Brown. ...

Television

• Think Fast - 1949
• The Gypsy Rose Lee Show - 1958
• Who Has Seen the Wind? - 1965
• Gypsy - 1965
• Batman - 1966
• The Pruitts of Southampton - 1966
• The Over-the-Hill Gang - 1969

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Bibliography

• Gypsy, A Memoir - 1957
• The G-String Murders (novel) - 1942
• Mother Finds a Body (novel) - 1942
• Doll Face - 1945 (play)

The G-String Murders is a detective novel by American stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, published in 1941. ...

External links

• [1]Rose and June
• Gypsy Rose Lee at the Internet Movie Database