Noralee frankel biography sample
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Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee
About this eBook
Whenever stripper Gypsy Rose Lee encountered public criticism, she spoke frankly in her own defense. "Thousands have seen me at my--ah--best; and thousands have made no objections." Noralee Frankel's lively biography, Stripping Gypsy, the first ever published about the highly mythologized Gypsy, examines the struggles Lee faced in making a lucrative and unconventional career for herself while maintaining a sense of dignity and social value. Frankel shows that the famous Miss Lee was an enigma, clearly struggling with her choices and her desire to be respected and legitimized. Those who know Gypsy Rose Lee only from the musical and film based on her rise to stardom will be surprised by what they uncover in Stripping Gypsy. In all ways, Lee trafficked in the incongruous: she was at once sex object, intellectual, and activist. In addition to her highly successful strip-tease act and film career, she published two mystery novels and a memoir, wrote two plays, and showed her original artwork in famed Modern Art-impresario Peggy Guggenheim's gallery. Lee also gained notoriety for her participation in liberal politics. As photographer Arnold Newman said, "She was a lady, a brilliant, bright w
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Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee
And she was entirely self invented and self supporting. Her childhood was a nightmare - the portrait of her mother in Gypsy was so softened as to be unrecognizable. He mother was greedy, neurotic, violent and a blackmailer, for starters. She was convinced that June was the pretty, smart, talented daughter, and that Gypsy would never amount to anything. That didn't stop her from extorting money from Gypsy as long as she lived, and threatening her on a regular basis.
It's no wonder that Gypsy had her own shortcomings when she became a mother. The story of her efforts to escape from the world of burlesque into a more respectable career is full of irony. Legitimate theater and movies were more acceptable, but the earnings couldn't compete and she was supporting her horrid mother, her aunt and her grandmother. So her family responsibilities kept her taking her clothes off.
She was a target of 50's moralists on all fronts - the Catholic Legion of Decency was after her for moral reasons, and HU
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