Gypsy: The Art of the Tease (23 page)

mother for reading early drafts. I would like to thank Erik Preminger for his sense of humor and graciousness. And Jonathan Santlofer.

A number of archivists and librarians were helpful during this project, especially Maryann Chach and Mark Schwartz at the Shubert Archive, Jeremy McGraw at the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, the University of Chicago interlibrary loan staff, Scott Landvetter, the staff at the Margaret Herrick Library, Edward Comstock at the USC Cinematic Library in Los Angeles, and

Heather Jagman at DePaul. At Yaddo, Lesley Leduc tracked

down the details about Gypsy’s visit to Marc Blitzstein’s studio.

DePaul University provided me with a small grant that helped offset the costs of doing research at the Billy Rose Theatre Collection in 2005, and John Culbert and Dean Corrin at the Theatre School gave me time off during 2005–6 and 2007–8. Part of that time was spent working on this book.

Finally, the corporation of Yaddo and Elaina Richardson have given me the space to work so many times over the past few years that I really cannot fully express my gratitude to them in this space. I will say this: Although I don’t use a blue ribbon to type, and I don’t sign my notes “The Naked Genius,” I hope that this book lives up to the spirit of its subject.

192

Notes

Gypsy Rose Lee (GRL) Collection, Billy Rose Theatre Collection (BRTC), New York Library for the Performing Arts

Gypsy Rose Lee (GRL) Clippings File, Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) MHL

Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences MPAA

Motion Picture Archives of America Collections

NYPL

New York Public Library

i n t r o d u c t i o n

Particles, Legends, Romance

p. 5 “Particles of eroticism”: Barthes,
Mythologies,
84.

p. 7 “The striptease unconsciously teaches”: Eco,
Misreadings,
31.

p. 7 “Some odd things”: Levy,
Female Chauvinistic Pigs,
2.

o n e

Undressing the Family Romance

p. 10 “The stage is 6 feet”: Gypsy to Lee Wright, May 15, 1941, press pack,
G-String Murders,
Harold Rome Biographical Series, Irving S. Gilmore Library, Yale University.

193

Notes to Pages 11–35

p. 11 “It makes me feel like a heel”: Gypsy to Hedda Hopper, n.d., Hedda Hopper Collection, MHL.

p. 12 “As common sense”: Flanner, Sub-Series 1, Personal Correspondence, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 12 “A comic savagery in her manner”: Havoc,
More Havoc,
96.

p. 12 “Witty, kind, very sensible”: McCullers,
Illuminations and Night Glare,
33.

p. 13 “Why don’t you wise up?”: Lee,
Gypsy,
240.
Harper’s Magazine,
March 1943.

p. 13 “Men just didn’t seem to last very long”: Havoc,
Early Havoc,
28.

p. 13 “She always told that story”: interview with Erik Preminger.

p. 15 “The midwife picked you up”: ibid., 126.

p. 19 “How could I learn anything”: Lee,
Gypsy,
75.

p. 19 “Brontë and Browning”: Preminger,
Gypsy and Me,
65.

p. 20 “They were all talking about books”: Lee,
Gypsy,
93.

p. 20 “My books had already broken”: ibid., 94.

p. 20 “Do you like to read?”: ibid., 139.

p. 21 “I knew that everyone”: Lee,
Gypsy,
227.

p. 22 “We’re usually on the road”: ibid., 2.

p. 23 “Was absolute misery”: Gypsy to Hedda Hopper, July 17, 1962, Hedda Hopper Collection, MHL.

p. 23 “Burlesque . . . centered”: Gilbert,
American Vaudeville,
5.

p. 24 “Cigarette butts”: Lee,
Gypsy,
181.

p. 25 “I’m no illusion”: ibid., 197.

p. 28 “ten yards of lavender net”: Lee,
Gypsy,
caption of photo insert.

t w o

The Queen of Striptease

p. 32 “More ladylike”: Lee,
Gypsy,
252.

p. 33 “All Dressed Up for Burlesque?”:
New York Evening Journal,
April 27, 1931, GRL Clippings Files, 1930–1939, BRTC.

p. 33 “She’s like a breath”:
Zit’s Theatrical Weekly,
May 11, 1931, BRTC.

p. 34 “Kidded the lacy underpants off”: Collyer,
Burlesque,
56.

pp. 34–35 “Six proposals of marriage”:
New York Evening Graphic,
May 6, 1931, 22.

p. 35 “My baby is innocent and pure”: quoted in Havoc,
More Havoc,
101.

p. 35 “I wasn’t naked”: ibid., 102;
New York Evening Graphic,
cover, May 23, 1931.

p. 35 “Her river did not run to the sea”: Minsky,
Minsky’s Burlesque,
140.

p. 35 “Gypsy Rose Lea has no following locally”:
Variety,
September 29, 1931, 54.

194

Notes to Pages 36–60

p. 36 “He was reborn Irving Wexler”: Fried,
The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America,
98.

p. 37 “I fired my first shot”: Sobel,
Broadway Heartbeat,
128.

p. 37 “The meal had scarcely begun”: ibid., 129.

p. 38 “Delightfully melodious”:
Melody,
GRL Clippings Files, BRTC.

p. 38 “Gypsy Rose Lee’s career”: unpublished paper on burlesque, Irving Drutman, 1935, Personal Correspondence, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 38 “Miss Lee panicked the guests”:
New York Woman,
October 7, 1936, GRL

Clippings Files, 1930–1939, BRTC.

p. 39 “Our friend is much too pretty for me”: Gypsy to Charlotte Seitlin, July 7, 1941, press pack,
G-String Murders,
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University.

p. 47 “I’m a Lonesome Little Eve”: Lee,
Gypsy,
296.

p. 49 “Give Me a Lay”: ibid., 3.

p. 50 “Gypsy Rose Lee”: Mitchell,
My Ears Are Bent,
56.

p. 51 “A princess”: Carl Van Doren to Gypsy, May 25, 1942, f5, b7, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 51 “I would like to kiss you”: Rags to Gypsy, 1935, B2, f7, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 51 “Bum uterus”: telegram from Rags to Gypsy, May 22, 1935, B2, f7, GRL

Papers, BRTC.

pp. 51–52 “I’ll have to come back there”: Rags to Gypsy, May 27, 1935, B2, f7, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 52 “All she did was off her clothes”:
New Yorker,
June 8, 1935, 14.

p. 53 “Gypsy called our theater”:
Jewish News Weekly of Northern California,
March 14, 1997.

p. 53 “I want to be a legend”: Havoc,
Early Havoc,
160.

p. 54 “All the stuff they bring in with them”: Havoc,
More Havoc,
96.

p. 55 “Social position is now”: Winchell, quoted in Gabler, 185.

p. 56 “Lean, hatchet-faced”:
Time,
July 3, 1933.

p. 56 “There must be more to this sex-life”: Fiske,
Without Music,
3.

p. 56 “Clarissa”:
Time,
July 3, 1933.

p. 57 “The Artist in burlesque”:
New York Times,
Jan 4, 1936, 19.

p. 57 “Mae West of Park Avenue”: quoted in Shteir,
Striptease,
180.

p. 58 “A self-possessed lady”: O. O. McIntyre, quoted in Lee, 290–91.

p. 58 “Contain[ing] some of the toughest talk”:
Time,
November 4, 1935.

p. 59 “Their poor, misfit selves”: Ethan Mordden,
New York Times,
Q & A, April 8, 2007.

p. 60 “Wins you at once”: Davis, “Gypsy Rose Lee,” 51.

195

Notes to Pages 61–83

p. 61 “This was a takeoff ”: Geva quoted in Popular Balanchine, b. 9, binders 1–

4. Dance Collection, NYPL.

p. 61 Harvey, quoted in Garis, Robert,
Following Balanchine,
188.

p. 62 “Tormentedly yearning”:
Variety,
July 22, 1936.

p. 66 “Her striptease specialty”:
Variety,
September 16, 1936, 53.

p. 66 “Have you the faintest?”: lyrics from Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 script, Shubert Archives.

p. 73 “Nothing sensuous,” and “I play my striptease for laughs”: 1936, GRL

Clippings Files, MCNY.

p. 74 “An ethnological dance lesson”: Lee,
Gypsy,
300.

p. 74 “It’s said she”: 1936, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 Press Clippings File, Shubert Archives.

pp. 74–75 “She Stoops to Conquer”: Otis Chatfield-Taylor,
Town and Country,
October 1936; “Gene Tunney”: quoted in Lee,
Gypsy,
290.

p. 75 “They think I’m some kind of freak”:
Colliers,
December 19, 1936, 13.

p. 75 “Installed earphones for the dowagers”:
New York World,
November 19, 1936, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 Press Clippings File, Shubert Archives.

p. 77 “I was slamming”: quoted in Shout, “The Musical Theatre of Marc Blitzstein,” 414.

p. 77 “To satirize the rich”: undated ms., B45, f15, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 78 “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage”:
Variety,
October 28, 1936, GRL

Clippings Files, 1930–1939, BRTC.

p. 79 “The bandits adroitly stripped”:
New York Times,
November 29, 1936, 12.

p. 80 “Had Miss Lee been robbed”:
New York Times,
December 13, 1936, 55.

p. 80 “An advertising man named Reimers”:
New Yorker,
November 28, 1936, 10.

p. 81 “Valse Fantastique”:
New York Times,
December 5, 1936, 14. This waltz was probably by Korsakov’s lesser known contemporary Glazunov, whose romantic ballet
Raymonda
told the story of a good girl in love with a bad guy.

p. 81 “The Duchess of Few Clothes”:
Chicago Daily Tribune,
December 13, 1936, 13.

p. 81 “Brief and cold-blooded”:
Chicago Daily Tribune,
December 1936.

p. 81 “The future Gypsy Rose Lees”:
New York Times,
December 26, 1936, 19.

p. 82 “Streamlined chassis”:
Variety,
March 6, 1935, 63.

t h r e e

To Hollywood and Back

p. 83 “Most prominent woman today”:
New York Times,
April 25, 1937, 37.

p. 83 “It will be to Newark”:
New York Times,
September 10, 1937, 25.

196

Notes to Pages 84–96

p. 84 “A young lady who proves”:
Daily Worker,
August 26, 1937, quoted in
The
Red Decade,
13.

p. 85 “Stripping is definitely”: Congressional Hearings, House Immigration Committee, February 17, 1937.

p. 85 “Really”: Ibid.

p. 86 “A stack of 20,000”: Gypsy, guest columnist for Walter Winchell, August 28, 1940.

p. 87 “Hollywood Tames Gypsy Rose Lee”:
Chicago Daily Tribune,
May 2, 1937, E1.

p. 87 “A case of the jitters”:
Chicago Daily Tribune,
May 19, 1937, 21.

p. 87 “Dramatic actress”:
Los Angeles Times.

p. 88 “Exemplar of what has most unfortunately”: Breen Collection, MPAA.

p. 88 “Why if she only”:
Los Angeles Times,
March 25, 1937, c1.

p. 88 “Bound to disappoint”:
Time,
August 16, 1937.

pp. 89–90 “The weakest link”:
World Telegram,
May 5, 1937, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 Clippings Files, Shubert Archives.

p. 90 “Died of an apparent self-inflicted bullet wound”:
New York Post,
June 2, 1937, Series One, Sub-Series 1, Personal Correspondence Files, b1, f1, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 91 “A lean, hungry wolf”: Series One, Sub-Series 1, b2, f8, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 91 “The most legitimate publicity”: Havoc,
More Havoc,
195.

p. 91 “Too busy”:
Chicago Daily Tribune,
August 18, 1937, 4.

p. 92 “Was changed by a certain Mrs. Hovick”: Alexander,
Striptease,
ix–x.

p. 93 “At the request of Miss Augustin’s mother”:
Los Angeles Times,
November 26, 1937, 3.

p. 94 “I am not at all well”: Rose to Gypsy, May 6, 1938, Sub-Series 1, Personal Correspondence, Family Correspondence, B1, f7, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 94 “Oil stove”: Lester Smith to Gypsy, May 7, 1938, b1, f1, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 94 “I was your slave”: Rose to Gypsy, May 6, 1938, Series One, Sub-Series 1, Personal Correspondence, Family Correspondence, b1, f 9, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 94 “I have no desire”: Gypsy to Rose, telegram, n.d., Sub-Series 1, b1, f9, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 94 “After I’d taken”:
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette,
November 6, 1938.

p. 94 “Swell collection of autographs”: 1937,
New York Herald Tribune,
GRL

Clippings Files, BRTC.

p. 95 “She’s been detained”:
Variety,
November 12, 1938, GRL Clippings Files, 1930–1939.

p. 96 “Making advances at a timid”:
Variety,
December 7, 1938, 45.

197

Notes to Pages 96–114

pp. 96–97 “I have not come to lift my skirts”: Abraham Lincoln Brigade pamphlet, Tamiment Labor Library, Bobst Library, New York University.

p. 97 “Clothes?”: ibid.

p. 97 “I’d seen Gypsy Rose Lee”: Balliet,
New York Voices,
147.

p. 97 “Promised”: Mrs. Mizzy to Gypsy, December 20, 1938, Series One, Sub-Series 1, b2 f8, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 97 “Extreme cruelty”: Series One, Sub-Series 1, b23, f3, GRL Papers, BRTC.

p. 98 “I’ll bare all if they come”: November 26, 1938, GRL Clippings Files, 1930–1939, BRTC.

p. 99 “Come and See Gypsy Rose Lee’s”: Schaffner,
Salvador Dali’s Dream of
Venus,
74.

p. 101 “A wholesome small town farm girl”: Mangione,
An Ethnic at Large,
259.

p. 101 “One of the roughest books”:
New York Times,
December 7, 1939, 34.