I remember Gypsy Rose Lee as a talk show host. I had no idea who she was, but my mother told me she had been a very famous stripper. I believed her, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I just didn’t understand how this really nice, fun lady could take her clothes off in front of people.

Her story is fascinating.  I have to say, I found it quite disturbing how close it is to one portrayed in the play and movie, Gypsy.  Her mother really was ruthless in pursuit of her daughters’ careers and she really did push Louise, – she wasn’t Gypsy yet – into strip tease.  There was seemingly nothing to which she would not stoop to push her girls ahead and hold others back.  And off and on, she did a very good job.  They often got $750 a week on the vaudeville circuit and this was in the 1920s!

In fact, the way Gypsy portrays her mother, it’s hard to have much sympathy for her.  Yet when she was going to leave Louise with rich relatives for a while, Louise begged to come on the road with them.  To her, this was a great life.  But normal is what’s normal for you.

As the play shows, Rose did volunteer Gypsy to strip when a producer needed someone to fill in for the star of the show.  True, she didn’t really strip, she just dropped a shoulder strap at the end, and the crowd ate it up.  It was classy.  It is also true that she did actually strip not long after that, but Gypsy doesn’t say just how that happened, it just becomes clear it has.  One thing that’s not accurate in Gypsy is that she herself changed her name, not her mother, and she doesn’t say where she got the “Gypsy” part from.  She also doesn’t say where her son came from, but that’s another story, one that she does not tell in this memoir.

Gypsy Rose Lee was a pistol!  The woman inherited Mama Rose’s guts, that’s for sure, and she learned well from her how to direct her own career.  She was a lot nicer and more ethical about it than her mother, though.  But this book is as much about vaudeville and burlesque as it is about Gypsy herself.  Mama Rose was sure vaudeville wasn’t going anywhere, but go it did, and its demise and the rise of burlesque are chronicled in the book as well as Gypsy’s life.

Unlike many celebrities, I think Gypsy actually wrote this book, as opposed to having a ghostwriter do it.  She always loved to write and to read, and she has other books out.  She writes well, it’s a smooth read.  And she was a helluva gal!  This book is worth the read.