Gypsy Rose Lee
- Possible birth name: Ellen June Hovick
- Probable birth name: Rose Louise Hovick
American
America's Most Famous Stripper
American burlesque entertainer, author and host of a terrific 1950's television show, The Gypsy Rose Lee Show - Phantom
Gypsy Rose Lee (1914-1970), the well-known entertainer, began her rise to fame as a child star in Vaudeville. At 15, under the tutelage of Tessie the Tassel Twirler, she became a burlesque star, and soon after came to New York where she was a great success, appearing first on burlesque stages then In Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies. She later appeared In Broadway musicals such as Star and Garter of 1942. Gypsy also appeared in films, among them The Belle of the Yukon, and wrote several books including The G-String Murders and Gypsy, a memoir which later was adapted to the stage where it was a hit Broadway musical. In her early years In New York, Gypsy was befriended by Walter Winchell and his circle, and later she was taken up by New York society. According to the New York Times, "Becoming fashionable, she operated a salon in a 26-room house (it had seven baths and a marble living room floor) on East 63rd Street." The house was elaborately decorated; trompe d'oeli paintings adorn the walls, the initials 'GRL' In gold ornament every door." - NYCLPC Landmark Preservation Commission
Lineage
- Mother Rose Thompson Hovick
- Son: Erik Lee Preminger