…. A World Famous "Burlesque Stripper"

…. seen here with the Original "Laptop"!

By David, USA

Ellen June Hovick was born in the US city of Seattle, Washington in 1911. Two years later her name was changed to Rose Louise Hovick, so that her new younger sister could have the name Ellen June… By the end of her career, Louise, as she was known to family and friends, had become a legendary strip-tease artist,  written two novels, a memoir which was the material for the Broadway hit "Gypsy – a Musical Fable", and a play which was released as the film "Doll Face" in 1946. She was featured in thirteen movies, and nine television shows, including her own San Francisco morning talk show in the 1960’s.

She was known as Louise to her closest, but fans across the USA knew her as Gypsy Rose Lee.

Gypsy Rose *rose* to stardom as a saucy burlesque stripper, a career highlighted by a four year stint at the famous New York City burlesque palace known as "Minsky’s".  Her strip shows were the cause of frequent police raids and arrests. Gypsy’s rise to national fame was driven by her quick wit – she was very clever, in fact smart, and always right there with a quick response to a remark from the audience… she would even make intellectual recitations as she stripped. Gypsy Rose got her on-stage "trademark" quite by accident – during a performance a snap broke and her entire dress fell to her feet – the audience loved it and she worked it into the act. Gypsy had a casual and relaxed style of stripping that contrasted with the more common mechanical style of stripping known as "herky jerky".

Gypsy was politically active, and supported the Loyalists during the Civil War in Spain. Her frequent presence at meetings of the Communist United Front made her the subject of an investigation by the US House Committee on un-American activities.  She founded one of the first kennels in the US for breeding Chinese crested dogs.

Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in 1970, and she is buried in Inglewood Park, California.

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly…very slowly”

– Gypsy Rose Lee