Customer Reviews

Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper

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Gypse Rose Lee (nee Louise Hovick) had an incredible childhood, one that provided not only material for this wonderful book but the Broadway musical "Gypsy", later made into a classic film. She was the daughter of "Mama Rose", perhaps the most intense and certainly the most famous stage mother of all time. Gypsy spent her childhood in vaudeville, as a chorus "boy" in the act that starred her younger sister "Dainty June" (later June Havoc, Broadway star).

The book is written in a snappy, witty, anecdotal style, which is perfect for Lee's endless supply of anecdotes. Spending her childhood in an endless round of theaters, trains, cars, and cheap hotels, meeting an endless number of incredible characters. Actors, mountebanks, con artists, carnies, all seen through the eyes of a bright and observant child, and recounted by a witty adult with a talent for storytelling.

The book is deeply personal as well. This is THE classic ugly-duckling story as well as the quintessential book about vaudeville in its last days. Gypsy/Louise was very much the "other" child until she was fifteen, her little sister was blonde, pretty, talented, and The Star. While Dainty June was getting thousands a week as a vaudeville headliner Louse was ignored, used in the chorus and otherwise pretty much forgotten by her mother and everyone else. Even she wondered if she would ever by any good at anything, even though she was so bright that she educated herself fabulously with nothing more to work with than a little trunk space for books. Everything changed when June ran away to get married at age thirteen (a story told in her own book "Early Havoc", a good read) at the same time that vaudeville was dying out. It's here that Mama Rose revealed the depth of her obsession with stardom, trying to make her seemingly plain, talentless, and ungainly daughter a star in a medium that no longer existed. The truly amazing thing is that she succeeded, although not the way she intended.

All in all a fine read, a real-life comedy, the chronicle of a bygone era and vanished world, and the story of an ugly ducking becoming the most glamorous of swans.

Much like the style of her burlesque, Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir offers just a tantalizing glimpse of the real Louise Rose Hovick.

Breathlessly relating her childhood spent in the popular, family-oriented entertainment of the early 1900s vaudeville variety show circuit with her star younger sister, "Dainty" June, and their shrewd stage manager and mother, Rose, Lee easily engages readers. Pages fly by, from skits in front of local lodge brothers to shows before burgeoning audiences in lavish theaters across the country as they tirelessly shop their ever-polished singing, dancing and comedy act. A faint picture slowly emerges of Lee as a bright, introverted young girl yearning for more attention. Despite the rough road life and her own disappointment, not much self-pity shows.

What does show clearly is Lee's budding business savvy. After her sister leaves the act, Lee turns the tragedy into opportunity with a little peroxide and PR. Cleverly, she also leaves her hair dark, creating a distinguishing detail out of a common hair color. As vaudeville dries up and she transitions to burlesque, she again demonstrates uncanny sense in choosing her famous stage name. A shorter portion of the book details her rise to the top of the burlesque world, a story peppered with desperate scam artists, benevolent gangsters and jealous stars.

Disappointing is the absence of some relevant detail. Dates are rarely specified, which might otherwise allow readers to more easily trace Lee's story and place it in context with other historical events. No discussion is offered about burlesque and the law, or Lee's thoughts about it. Famous vaudevillians such as Abbott and Costello are mentioned, but only in passing. Significant details are also conspicuously absent. Despite mention of her son, Erik, no mention is made of his father, and hardly any of her relationships are discussed. Privacy, timing and taboo may account for these latter absences, however.

Perhaps, in not telling all, Gypsy Rose Lee suggests her greatest talent, grace.

I could not put this book down! I felt that Gypsy Rose Lee was talking to me directly. It was as if I was her friend, and she was just telling me her life story. I was captivated from beginning to end always wondering what the next adventure would be. From their childhood, where they toured Vaudeville to Gypsy's rise to stardom in Burlesque, there was never a dull moment.
Along the way you come across an incredible cast of characters. Starting with Rose Louise Havick (Gypsy's birth name), who lived her younger sister's shadow for years. June (her sister) was supposed to be the star not Louise. Mama Rose, Gypsy and June's mother who wanted nothing more than to have one of her daughters become a star. There are also many famous faces in this book, from Broadway's funny girl, Fanny Brice to gangster, Waxy Gordon. You even meet Gypsy's first love (of course you will have to read the book to find out who that is)!
Gypsy is the ugly duckling who discovered that she was really a beautiful swan. When June ran away to get married at 13, Gypsy's life turned upside down. She went from chorus "boy" to becoming the most well known stripper this country has ever known. And you can bet her mother was there every step of the way. This is a story for anyone who has ever been told they are not good enough. Gypsy Rose Lee was told that...and look where she ended up!

"Gypsy" is an autobiography by one of the most famous pair of sisters of the 1940's: Gypsy Rose Lee, born Louise Hovick, the stripper, actor, and eventual talk show host; sister to June Havoc, the actor, born June Hovick. In it, Lee covers some of the same material as does Havoc in her two-book autobiography: Their vaudeville childhood on the road with their monstrous stage mother Rose,and their adult struggles to continue their showbiz careers, and to deal with their mother. This book, furthermore, is the basis for the brilliant stage musical and movie, "Gypsy."

Perhaps because she was the elder sister, perhaps because she was more business-minded, Lee's book provides a much fuller, more accurate picture of their vaudeville years than do Havoc's. She cites actual contracts, salaries, and the logistics of their never-ending trouping, from Vancouver, Canada to Tiajuana, Mexico; from San Francisco, California, to Portland, Maine. She names the many animals that trouped along with them, including numerous dogs and guinea pigs, a cat or two; Gussie the goose; Waupie the lamb; Gigolo the monkey; and Porky the pig.

She gives more complete versions of incidents than June does, such as the time "Roxy" Rothfels, an influential New York theater owner-impresario, wished to buy June's contract to see that she got training in singing and dancing equal to her talents; he was repulsed by a hysterical Rose. (June's recounting of the story is so sketchy that it's puzzling.) Gypsy, moreover, seems to have monopolized the few pictures of their earliest years for her book; June's books are scantily illustrated.

Gypsy tells us about meeting the handsome young manager of a Detroit bookstore, George Davis. (It's beyond the scope of this book, but Davis was eventually to invite her to that famous literary boarding house in New York's Brooklyn Heights' Middagh Street, where she was to live with W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, and Benjamin Britten, almost everyone of them alcoholic and gay, though she was not. She was to bring the money and the cook that kept the enterprise going a few years more, and Davis, a highly-talented editor, was to midwife her phenomenal first book, "The G-String Murders.")

The author does tell us of the day she became Gypsy Rose Lee (Gypsy, a traveling entertainer;Rose, Mom's name; and Lee for Louise) on the marquee, and a burlesque star. She was fifteen years old. She talks about working with Fanny Brice, her years with the Minsky Brothers, and in Florenze Ziegfeld's "Follies." She mentions her frequent arrests, and the inspired publicity stunts that kept her in the public eye for many a year. She closes her book with the call to Hollywood. The attempt to extend her career to films was not ultimately successful, but her career as an entertainer was to last for quite a while yet.

Rose Louise Hovick is known to the whole world as Gypsy Rose Lee a highly respected top paid burlesque queen of her day. In the 1930's Gypsy turned stripping from sleaze into an art form, this was done with the main use of tease, quick wit and intelligence all done with her tongue in cheek style, quoting well known Literature phases even in French. This book is bewitchingly colourful; it keeps you engaged throughout each chapter with Gypsy's smart, comic storytelling.

This book takes you back to Vaudeville those wonderful days of the family oriented shows in there heyday. Gypsy describes what it was like to be part of the Orpheum circuit on stage and behind the scenes. Gypsy Rose Lee wants us to remember Rose Louise Hovick little miss nobody the talentless one. A girl with the bad teeth who played one of the boys in the back row of her little sister's show, Dainty June And Company.

Dainty June and co. was run by Mama Rose the famous of all show biz mothers. Mama Rose real name Rose Thompson married John Hovick, Rose was age fifteen she had her two girls then divorced him. A very shrewd woman who had an intoxicating and intimidating personality. Con artists, awkward jealous stars and gangsters would not get in the way of her plans, being a star that's what mattered. Vaudeville had been fading for sometime the talkies were taking off, although Mama Rose thought Vaudeville was just going through a bad patch much worst happened Dainty June runs away from her all consuming mother at thirteen and gets married. Mama Rose decides this is just a hiccup in the mean time it was all about making money; Rose Louise Hovick is now the money maker but how! They still had to find her talent. Determination, Mama Rose was unstoppable lies and deceit she would succeed however rough it gets, seedy hotels, living in a tent, where there was a will there was a way. Through the eyes of a young girl, silently watching, learning, waiting, waiting and waiting all Rose Louise needed was a chance, a chance to shine and it came in an expected way.

An array of real life comedy characters shine through in this book. None larger than life Mama Rose herself, tricks up every sleeve and woe betide anyone to cross her path. Grandpa and Big Lady (Grandma) always on hand to bail them out. June Horvick Sister to Gypsy (Was Dainty June became a Film Star in her own right without Mama Rose intervention) Fanny Brice famous stage star/Baby Snooks gave Gypsy her first acting role as a child (Barbra Streisand portrayed Fanny Brice in the film Funny Girl) Billy Minsky ran burlesque theatre shows in New York and gave Gypsy her break as a big star. Rags Ragland (John Lee Morgan Beauregard Ragland) had been a boxer, then a burlesque comedian, broadway performer, then Hollywood, Good Friend to Gypsy in her early days. Florenz Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Follies took on Gypsy. Waxey Gordon, bootlegger racketeer, gangster helped get her teeth fixed. Lastly and let me not forget those wonderful comedy animals that performed and travelled with them around the country one by one they lost their lives in a tragic way but bless them all.

This book is sheer Entertainment, In the prologue Gypsy mentions that although her memory of things are sharp and clear for the trivia; her memory of names and dates escape her in certain places but you can deduce from historic events what year you are actually in. Maybe for yourself as a reader you may find this irritating especially with the lack of dates but after reading the whole story you begin to understand, date juggling became part of life when Gypsy was a child.

Example: Gypsy birth date changed frequently depending on what town and theatre they worked that month or week and they were endlessly trouping around. Gypsy was constantly underage (Mama Rose went to great lengths to change documentaion when need be). Newspapers were only read for reviews of their performances of their shows. Dates on a day to day basis were not necessary or a requirement to gypsy as a child she was to busy trying to remember her new date of birth and different details to keep the authorities at bay.

A few other pointers the publication of this book was back in 1957 taboo's were still out there, this book is based on Gypsy's early days. Relationships with men therefore were few and only briefly covered.

Gypsy only son Erik Lee Preminger although was introduced in the Prologue was still only young at the time of publication and out of respect for him absent details in certain places may have been for that reason. Another reason may have been for Gypsy's own privacy and precautions of those times. Take all this into account when reading.

Even though I have mentioned the above points this does not take anything away from the book, it's completely fascinating to read what shines through was Gypsy Rose Lee's incredible Zest for life and her intelligence. It's Irresistible.

If you're a fan of the musical Gypsy, like me, you'll read this book. I've read from various websites, that the book is not entirely factual and that you need to read Gypsy's sister June's book, early Havoc, to get a clearer picture of what life on the road was like. But, entirely accurate or not, it's highly fascinating and an excellent look at the theatre of the time.

The book bears small resemblances to the show: There really was a monkey named Gigalo, Louise was given farm animals as pets for her birthday, there is a man that Rose links up with for several years who manages the troup, they did eat Chinese food constantly, make coats out of blankets, and a cow really talked to Rose in a dream.

There are major differences between the show and the book: The switch from Vaudeville to Burlesque was less dramatic in the book than the show -almost natural. "Herbie", Rose's companion and manager, left long before the act went Burlesque. And one very 'big' difference: you'll notice in the show that Grandpa calls Louise "Plug" but we dont' really know why. The little girl playing Louise was too adorable for words and grew up to be the stunning Natalie Wood. But, Gypsy got the name plug because she was a large child. And she grew up large. It wasn't until a couple years in Burlesque that she became more svelte. This is also a major point in the books, detailing the diets she was on and how it destroyed her self-esteem as a child.

Gypsy, the movie, is a fun-filled version of life on the road for a vaudeville troupe. Yes, there are hard times, but nothing so bad. Gypsy the memoir describes eviction, near starvation, nights of sleeping in the cars, almost frozen, con artists - real life struggle.

It's a quick read that is terribly fascinating. I highly recommend it.

This is one of the best books I have ever read! Never have I experienced such drama and entertainment. There was no spot in this book that I wanted to stop and do anything else. This kept me interested right through the last sentence. This is a book about a girl raised in vaudeville who becomes the queen of the strip tease. But her act is just that, tease. She was incredible.

Gypsy is one of the most well written memoirs I have read. It is definitly a must read.
For anyone who wants to get taken back to the "good" old days, of the traveling Vaudeville circuit, and the risky days of burlesque. Gypsy is the book for you. The memoirs of America's most celebrated stripper are a hilarious account of her childhood in vaudeville, and her rise to stardom in burlerque.

The inspiration for the hit musical/movie(s) Gypsy, this memoir is a great story. Covering Louise Hovick's childhood in Vaudeville up to her early years in Burlesque, Gypsy is Lee's answer to how she became the world's most celebrated stripper. This is not to say that it's exactly what happened, but it makes for a great read that only gets better over time. I first read this book in an old library copy 25 years ago and have read it several times since. Without question, the rise of the "untalented" Louise is the most true and most important part of the story and that's really the part that resonates through time.

Gypsy Rose Lee was a beautiful and spirited woman and her memoir provides the reader with a fascinating glimpse into the rough and tumble glory days of American vaudeville. The reader is literally taken on the road with Gypsy, or Louise Hovick, her demanding, neurotic stage mother, Mama Rose, and precocious younger sister, Baby June,(who later became actress June Havoc) as they crisscross America with a troupe of young boys in a quest for stardom on the stages of the vaudeville theater circuit. Louise, the older, more neglected sister, "an ugly duckling" compared to her more popular sister, becomes the focus of her domineering mother's attention after the much put upon Baby June elopes with a boy from the show troupe at the tender age of thirteen. It is not the dream of Mama Rose for Louise to become a stripper, but the age of vaudeville has ended abruptly with the coming of talking motion pictures and live burlesque shows are all the rage. Mama Rose realizes for the first time that taken out of her sister's shadow, Louise is a natural performer. Thus, the ugly duckling emerges as a truly beautiful swan and the legend of Gypsy Rose Lee was born. Personally, I found this book hard to put down. Gypsy's life story could easily be described as "Aunt Mame In A G-String." She would make an interesting next door neighbor.