Customer Reviews

Gypsy: The Art of the Tease (Icons of America)

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This is a brilliant study of the world's most famous stripper, though Gypsy Rose Lee was so much more than that. In her personality and long career, she symbolized a new era of feminism and sexual liberation, and the impact of her life on American culture still resonates. Stellar creative non-fiction is illusive; it is very hard to find a writer who combines the perseverance for research, the deep background knowledge of a subject, and sheer narrative skill. This author has it all. I was mesmerized from the first page to the last.

Rachel Shteir is an academic who writes on popular enteratinment. (Her book on burlesque, for example, is very enjoyable.) She is solid in her research and focused on Gypsy's years in NYC, which may have more solid information than her life elsewhere. And, unlike many academics, she writes in a very interesting way. A very entertaining AND informative work. I recommend it highly. Now, if she'll just publish on the rest of Gypsy's life, we'll be all set!

My brother served as Gypsy Rose Lee's escort officer in Vietnam. For a unique perspective of her January 1969 USO tour, here is an extract from from the longish chapter titled "Gypsy" in my latest book, A Hundred Feet Over Hell:

"A week into the tour we were in a ward reserved for senior NCOs. She went from bed to bed, greeting each soldier with a few light words until she reached one who must have been in his late forties. Badly wounded, he started to cry as soon as she touched him, whispering that he'd been in love with her since World War II. The feeling that we were intruding on something very personal saw everyone back away to give Gypsy and this scarred veteran their privacy. She stayed with him a long time, leaning close, stroking his hair. I couldn't hear what she said, but the look that came over his face said that a lifelong dream had come true.

What truly impressed me was how gentle and sincere Gypsy was when she met these long-standing fans who had been wounded. It was difficult for her, but I think she accepted that they had voluntarily chosen this path. Yet, while she was by turns warm, caring, and flirtatious with them, her entire persona changed when she visited wards filled with very young draftees with terrible injuries. She once said that every time she spoke with these boys all she could think was, "That could have been my son," and how grateful she was that he hadn't had to serve. There were times traveling from one hospital to the next when, if no one could see, she would weep quietly.

Passing through an amputee's ward one day, she heard a teenager snarl that she was "an old has-been trying to get publicity." Afterwards, she said she understood his anger and might well have said the same thing if she'd been in his place. Regardless of the horror she saw, she maintained her composure, treating them all with a dignity untainted by pity. Only once, while talking to a youngster who'd just come out of surgery, did she almost break down. Most of this boy's face was gone, yet even in his pain he smiled as she spoke with him. When we emerged from the hospital, she suddenly turned and clung to me, sobbing heartbrokenly."

www.jimhooper.co.uk

"Gypsy" couldn't decide whether it was a biography of Gypsy Rose Lee or an examination of her role in the history of stripping and of female sexuality in general. As a result, it failed to interest me on either level.

I am a big fan of Gypsy Rose Lee and was excited to read this over-due biography of Miss Lee's. Unfortunately, this is not the book I was hoping to read. This biography reads more like a text book rather than your typical bio. It doesn't delve into her everyday life or even give us samples of her letter writing of which she wrote many. Although there are a few interesting facts such as Mike Todd's family had denied(until very recently) that he had any relationship with Gypsy until the author was given permission to by the estate of GRL to her letters. Sure enough there were love letters from the man himself to our girl. Ultimately, I see this book on the syllabus of a women studies class rather than in the library of someone who collects biographies of mid-century celebrities, such as myself.