Noralee Frankel

Part of the ladies of exotic dance reading program that started with Lili St. Cyr. (Next up – Candi Barr). Gypsy Rose Lee is certainly the most famous stripper who ever lived, and probably the most famous that ever will live, considering that the art of taking your clothes off in public is now more or less gone to video. Ms. Lee appears on the dust jacket wearing high heel pumps, seamed fishnet stockings, a hat, and a dachshund. (She was very fond of wiener dogs). She is looking off into the distance with a wistful, pensive expression. So is the dachshund. I never realized the utility of dachshunds as an exotic dance accessory before – lightweight enough to be held in the arms but long enough to provide essential wardrobe coverage. Kind of a shame they never caught on with anyone but Gypsy; otherwise the ranks of fan dancers, balloon dancers, and dove dancers could have been joined by dachshund dancers.


Judging only from the introduction, author Noralee Frankel seems to be intent on a hack job. The title, Stripping Gypsy, is supposed to be a double entendre implying that Gypsy is to be “stripped” of her mystique, especially as created by her autobiography and the Broadway musical. “Gypsy hid the truth or lied so often that the fabrication of illusions is central to her life story” is a typical comment.


Once entering the biography proper, however, I don’t see that Frankel expresses anything but admiration for her subject. Gypsy did do quite a bit a fabrication in her autobiography, but it’s clear the intent was not to further her own career but to whitewash her mother’s and sister’s behavior. Frankel is pretty rough on Mama Rose, who tried to give the young Gypsy (then Louise Hovic) away to relatives, then after Gypsy’s success repeatedly stole from her, and tried to blackmail her and her sister June by threatening to reveal extramarital affairs unless paid off. Rose also set up what was essentially a lesbian brothel in the house Gypsy bought for her. Nothing wrong with being a lesbian; however, setting up a house of assignation for your friends and then threatening to blackmail them if they didn’t pay you off is a little over the top. Not much like Ethel Merman or Rosalind Russell in the musical and movie.


Gypsy traded a lot on her intellectualism, incorporating it into her act; there weren’t and aren’t a lot of women who discussed Schopenhauer with an audience while undressing. (At least I’ve never met any. Not that I have a really large sample size). I am impressed, since Gypsy had no formal education at all - education being discarded by Mama Rose as a useless luxury - and picked up what she learned by haunting used bookstores (something I can identify with). She wrote a successful mystery novel and a couple of other books and plays which were not exactly Shakespeare but at least got published. She also turned her New York apartment into sort of an avant-garde artist colony.


She was never much of a success as a housewife, despite marrying several times and giving it a try. One of her most controversial life choices occurred when she decided to become a mother – she just went out and seduced Otto Preminger and didn’t bother (until later in life) telling either Preminger or son Eric the paternity details. I’m not sure if that’s an admirable display of independence for a woman of her times or callous and selfish.


There are, of course, lots of unknown women from the era that led equally colorful lives but never achieved any fame or notoriety because they didn’t take their clothes off on stage. Well, that’s the breaks. An interesting read.… (more)