Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Zip! It's Gypsy

Much has been written, imagined and sung about Gypsy Rose Lee. Most of if has focused on how Mama Rose pushed Gypsy from a child performer on the vaudeville circuit to "gotta get a gimmick" burlesque star. Now, Rachel Shteir, who wrote a fabulous history of Striptease and the foreword to Gilded Lili, undresses the Gypsy mystery with Gypsy: The Art of the Tease. Shteir's biography follows Gypsy's start, but also looks at her time as a stripper, her botched trip to Hollywood, her transformation into "The Striptease Intellectual" and how she used striptease to sell, well, everything. I can't wait to peel open the book and find out what's revealed.

No comments: