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Stripping Gypsy: The Life Of Gypsy Rose Lee (2009)

by Noralee Frankel(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0195368037 (ISBN13: 9780195368031)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

review 1: What a complex and interesting woman she was - author, playwright, friend to many famous artists and writers, collector of art, union activist, actress, TV personality, anti-Fascist, supporter of troops, animal advocate, fisherman.And she was entirely self invented and self supporting. Her childhood was a nightmare - the portrait of her mother in Gypsy was so softened as to be unrecognizable. He mother was greedy, neurotic, violent and a blackmailer, for starters. She was convinced that June was the pretty, smart, talented daughter, and that Gypsy would never amount to anything. That didn't stop her from extorting money from Gypsy as long as she lived, and threatening her on a regular basis.It's no wonder that Gypsy had her own shortcomings when she became a mother. T... morehe story of her efforts to escape from the world of burlesque into a more respectable career is full of irony. Legitimate theater and movies were more acceptable, but the earnings couldn't compete and she was supporting her horrid mother, her aunt and her grandmother. So her family responsibilities kept her taking her clothes off.She was a target of 50's moralists on all fronts - the Catholic Legion of Decency was after her for moral reasons, and HUAC had her blacklisted from TV for years as a rumored Communist sympathizer - in spite of all the time and money she had spent entertaining American troops over the years.The book is a well researched and fascinating picture of the evolution of women's roles as well as Gypsy's life. I was astonished to realize that Gypsy was born 5 years before my mother (who seemed immeasurably more old fashioned in comparison).
review 2: I've made it about halfway through. I've waited for this book for a year; the scholarship is superb, the writing aimed at the popular audience (some things explained several times). I find myself setting it aside not because of any lack on Frankel's part, but because I really wanted to read more about Lee's childhood and teen years, and her relationship with June Havoc. I'm not as interested in the later years.Reading about childhoods on the vaudeville circuit has been an on-going interest since I was a kid. less

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