Have you ever wondered what the burlesque world used to be like? Then why not read the first novel written by Miss Gypsy Rose Lee, the intellectual stripper, herself. Written in 1941 and a natural best-seller, the novel tells of the relationships between strippers, comics, salesman, stagehands, gangsters, bartenders and of course, the cops. It is a very funny novel and tells the backstage world of stripping down to the smallest detail of their costumes and includes an accurate depiction of how the burlesque performers talked, used slang and how they were treated by the comics and the general public. Plus, there are one or two murders thrown in, which are solved by the fictional version of Gypsy Rose Lee, who's the narrator, in her trademarked wit and frank attitude.
It was filmed in 1944 as The Lady of Burlesque, starring Barbara Stanwyck as "Dixie Daisy" and is quite accurate to the book and shows quite a lot of the events and language, even for a Code film.
The book had recently been reprinted and the film is on DVD and is also, at this moment, on YouTube in twelve parts.
Here's Miss Stanwyck herself singing the title song:
1 comment:
You can actually watch the entire movie on
http://www.archive.org/details/LadyofBurlesque
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