Overview

"Whenever stripper Gypsy Rose Lee encountered public criticism, she spoke frankly in her own defense. ""Thousands have seen me at my-ah-best; and thousands have made no objections."" Noralee Frankel's lively biography, Stripping Gypsy, the first ever published about the highly mythologized Gypsy, examines the struggles Lee faced in making a lucrative and unconventional career for herself while maintaining a sense of dignity and social value. Frankel shows that the famous Miss Lee was an enigma, clearly struggling with her choices and her desire to be respected and legitimized. Those who know Gypsy Rose Lee only from the musical and film based on her rise to stardom will be surprised by what they uncover in Stripping Gypsy. In all ways, Lee trafficked in the incongruous: she was at once sex object, intellectual, and activist. In addition to her highly successful strip-tease act and film career, she published two mystery novels and a memoir, wrote two plays, and showed her original artwork in famed Modern Art-impresario Peggy Guggenheim's gallery. Lee also gained notoriety for her participation in liberal politics. As photographer Arnold Newman said, ""She was a lady, a brilliant, bright woman who was the friend of many writers and intellectuals."" Though she wasn't above using her femininity to full advantage, Lee aspired to much more than admiration for her physical beauty. Frankel places Lee's life in social and political context while detailing a fascinating entertainment career, in which Lee created and recreated her own identity to fit changing times. Frankel's biography transcends the sensationalism of stripping and asks the public to see the woman beneath the costume, a woman who always kept a little of herself shrouded in mystery."

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9780195368031

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Frankel's thoroughness is admirable. Amy Larocca, London Review of Books. Impeccably researched...highly readable. Emmanuelle Smith, Financial Times It's quiet a page turner. Susan Elkin, Independent on Sunday Her's is a fascinating story... admirably revealed in this endlessly fascinating biography of an extraordinary woman and her 40-year career. Peter Burton, Daily Express

A biography of a 1930-40s burlesque artist who amounted to far more than the sum of her parts.The notion that Gypsy Rose Lee (1911 - 1970) was a might-have-been seems misguided, but Frankel (Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Mississippi<\i>, 1999, etc.) convincingly argues that Lee's talents could have taken her beyond stardom as a stripper for Minsky's Burlesque. To be sure, Frankel shows that Lee created a witty act that was more tease than strip. But Lee encountered barriers when she tried to step beyond Minsky's. In the '30s, she filmed several middling comedies, for which Fox producer Darryl Zanuck, fearful of censors, billed her by her real name, Louise Hovick, lest anyone recognize the lady of burlesque. (Zanuck was particularly worried about any appearance of nonmarital sexual activity. ) Lee also authored two mysteries, a bestselling biography and a play for Broadway (where she also acted), exhibited her paintings at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery, followed the opera and read voraciously. However, puritanical Americans never let go of the girl from Minsky's; a condescending book reviewer labeled Lee The Jane Austen of the striptease set. Frankel has less success arguing that Lee revealed more of her body than she did of her psyche. Beneath details of Lee's tortured relationship with her mother, her failed marriages and her forceful work on behalf of unions, readers will see only a fiercely determined, confidant Lee, not someone hiding her inner life. The author mined published accounts and Lee's private papers and correspondence, but the bibliography lists not a single personal interview. Words from Lee's sister (June Havoc), her son (Erik Preminger, who is forthcoming in a recent biography of father Otto) and from surviving co-workers may have brought readers closer to the great entertainer.Gypsy gets the extra bow she deserved. (Kirkus Reviews)

Frankel's thoroughness is admirable. Amy Larocca, London Review of Books. Impeccably researched...highly readable. Emmanuelle Smith, Financial Times It's quiet a page turner. Susan Elkin, Independent on Sunday Her's is a fascinating story... admirably revealed in this endlessly fascinating biography of an extraordinary woman and her 40-year career. Peter Burton, Daily Express

Author Information

Noralee Frankel is the Assistant Director, Women, Minorities, and Teaching at the American Historical Association. Her books include Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi and Break Those Chains at Last: African Americans, 1860-1880 (OUP, 1996). She lives in the Washington, D.C, area.

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