American Rose - Gypsy Rose Lee

AMERICAN ROSE by Karen Abbott (Random House, 978-1-4000-6691-9)  in American  recalls another era in American entertainment and culture.  For those too young to recall, Gypsy  Rose Lee was the subject of GYPSY, the Broadway musical, a witty denizen of late night talk shows, an author, and above all, a striptease artist par excellence.  She excelled more with the tease in her act than the bump and grind  and made removing long gloves and silk stocking a tantalizing adventure.  That was back in the days when vaudeville and burlesque was king and girls, girls, girls were big attractions.  Long before MTV and music videos made most strippers redundant.  But then I digress.  This biography strips away a lot of the hype that surrounded Gypsy (most of which she created for herself ) and looks at her rather bizarre and tawdry early like.  Her mother Rose was a piece of work who did dedicate herself to getting her daughters to be stars by any means possible.  And some means were pretty despicable.  June Havoc, Gypsy's sister, was better known as an actress and probably was really the talented one.  Evidently Gypsy was willing to do more to keep Mama Rose happy.  Or maybe she was more ambitious.  The back street back story of the gritty existence of the vaudeville performers is well described.  Besides chronicling the life of Gypsy, the book is a popular history of the entertainment circuit life.  You had to be tough.  Abbott has researched Gypsy's childhood, if she really had one as she started on stage before most kids were in kindergarten, through to her death.  We see her clawing her way to stardom and trying to please and placate Mama Rose.  Money motivated Gypsy more than most anything else, but she did have one great love in her life.  Mike Todd.  Yes, the same Mike Todd who later was with Liz Taylor.  But that was doomed to fail.  She had one son, by a father she chose and never looked back.  She had a complicated family life in her adulthood.  She and her sister both had a love hate relationship with their mother and were prickly with each other.  They were all tough characters whose lives had more than a few unsavory moments.  Most people now think of Gypsy, if they do at all, as the witty ex exotic dancer they saw on talk shows or the glamorized version from the musical.  Abbott presents Gypsy and her family warts and all.  In fact some of the aspects of her life I would just as soon bypassed.  Sex habits,  Affairs. Suspicious deaths.  Mobsters.  It is all there to read about.  The attention to detail is overwhelming.  And the source citing is amazing.  Abbott may write sensational and titillating biographies but they are well researched.  Besides being a very open and in depth look at an American pop icon from the past, this is a colorful coverage of a slice of Americana long gone from our cultural scene.  Back in the fifties when I lived in Hammond, Indiana the neighboring town of Calumet City was famous (infamous) for its plethora of strip clubs.  Visitors would often ask about visiting some of them.  I doubt if that would be the case today.  I suspect the shows that might have drawn interest then are have present day counterparts that are easily available on TV or at least in Vegas..   Abbott also wrote the bestseller, SIN IN THE SECOND CITY.