The Classy Stripper who turned her life into an ultra successful play and film used to have a talk show that I vaguely remember from when I was a kid. I always liked her. Seemed borderline ADHD but I Thought she was sophisticated and elegant. Apart from "Gy[sy", wasn't "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" also based on her childhood with her sister Baby June? There are so many similarities. And what about Mame? I know that was Patrick Dennis but still more similarities. She was very Mame-like. Shame she died young from cancer. It was probably that evil stage mother of hers who put her in an early grave. Her actress sister, June Havoc hated her for not giving her a share of "Gypsy." But they made up when Gypsy was diagnosed. The book by her son Erik Preminger is just as fabulous as she was. And it's out on Kindle.
I remember her on Hollywood Squares when I was a kid, I couldn’t understand what she was famous for.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | January 12, 2019 1:41 PM |
"Shame she died young from cancer. It was probably that evil stage mother of hers who put her in an early grave."
OP, I really don't think her stage mother gave her cancer.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | January 12, 2019 1:43 PM |
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane based on her life? No.
Even Gypsy her memoir and the musical only bear a distant relationship to her real life.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | January 12, 2019 1:44 PM |
What's the matter OP? Did you get kicked out of the Broadway thread for talking about this ho too much?
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | January 12, 2019 1:44 PM |
OP, if there is a prize for the most ill-informed and pointless thread on DL, you are a contender--beginning with the misstatement that she turned her life into a successful play and film (Arthur Laurents did that) and continuing with the non-parallels between her life and Mame and/or Whatever Happened to....
Or maybe you are joking?
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | January 12, 2019 1:55 PM |
No, sadly, r5, I think OP thinks all those things are true.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | January 12, 2019 1:56 PM |
Oh, dear.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | January 12, 2019 2:33 PM |
Bitch bitch bitch. R5 are you R 3 on the Baby Jane thread. LOL.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | January 12, 2019 9:34 PM |
Nope, r8, I'm not r3. Our OP, however, bears a striking resemblance to r2 on the Baby Jane thread.
LOL
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | January 12, 2019 10:09 PM |
Her sister June Havoc was pretty bitter about that musical. I have her book; it's either called "Early havoc" or "More Havoc" I can't remember because I haven't read it in awhile.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | January 13, 2019 12:38 AM |
I think that "Days of Wine and Roses" and "The Subject Was Roses" were also based on her life! Not to mention the song "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves"...
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | January 13, 2019 12:43 AM |
The Slipper and the Rose was another musical about her life.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | January 13, 2019 1:10 AM |
Spike Lee bought her townhouse on E 63rd Street.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | January 13, 2019 1:12 AM |
How?
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | January 13, 2019 1:12 AM |
[quote]Spike Lee bought her townhouse on E 63rd Street.
It's nice that he was able to keep it in the family.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | January 13, 2019 4:27 AM |
Oh for fuck's sake... the musical "Gypsy" was not written by GRL herself, but it was based on her extremely entertaining autobiography, called of all things, "Gypsy". Which actually seems to have been written by Gypsy herself, she'd written a murder mystery earlier in her career, called "The G-String Murders", which was adapted into the movie "Lady of Burlesque" with Barbara Stanwyck as the mystery-solving burlesque star.
I have a copy of "Gypsy" around somewhere, it's a heck of a read. June Havoc also wrote a very autobiography about her early years, it was largely concerned with the marathon dances she entered as a teenager on her own, and as such is pretty grim in places. I think the movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They" was largely inspired by it.
Any other questions?
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | January 13, 2019 5:13 AM |
Oh for fuck's sake...the movie "They Shoot Horses Don't They" was inspired by the novel "They Shoot Horses Don;t They."
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | January 14, 2019 12:12 PM |
She probably got ovarian cancer from the talc in the talcum powder she used to help her clothes slide off.
Her son was Otto Preminger's.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | January 14, 2019 12:16 PM |