carla rey
VFG Member
Perhaps best known as the author of the memoir “Gypsy” on which the famous musical and film were later based, Gypsy Rose Lee was a self-created character and multi-talented woman: author (her memoir and 2 murder mystery novels), actress (vaudeville and Hollywood), playwright, and, perhaps most dramatically, striptease artist extraordinaire!
She brought her trademark snappy patter and humor to the act of disrobing for an audience, and made it into a new art form. In an interview about her biography of Lee, author Karen Abbott described her act: “ ‘Oh, boys, I couldn't,’ she'd tease when the crowd would howl for more. ‘I'd catch cold.’ She took a full 15 minutes to peel off a single glove…Her great accomplishment…was the idea of blending sex and comedy…the overriding sense she left audiences with was that of a stripper who puts on more than she takes off — and uses her wit to entice people.”
Join us this week in celebrating the birth of a Hollywood and burlesque icon, by sharing your most slinky, sexy clothing and lingerie from the 1930s to the 1960s—including sheer fabrics, fringes and feathers, and sparkling, stage-worthy sequins or beading--plus gloves, of course!
(large photo: Ralph Steiner. Gypsy Rose Lee and Her Girls 1944. Sam Wagstaff Collection.)
She brought her trademark snappy patter and humor to the act of disrobing for an audience, and made it into a new art form. In an interview about her biography of Lee, author Karen Abbott described her act: “ ‘Oh, boys, I couldn't,’ she'd tease when the crowd would howl for more. ‘I'd catch cold.’ She took a full 15 minutes to peel off a single glove…Her great accomplishment…was the idea of blending sex and comedy…the overriding sense she left audiences with was that of a stripper who puts on more than she takes off — and uses her wit to entice people.”
Join us this week in celebrating the birth of a Hollywood and burlesque icon, by sharing your most slinky, sexy clothing and lingerie from the 1930s to the 1960s—including sheer fabrics, fringes and feathers, and sparkling, stage-worthy sequins or beading--plus gloves, of course!
(large photo: Ralph Steiner. Gypsy Rose Lee and Her Girls 1944. Sam Wagstaff Collection.)
