Not
too many celebrity authors will find their book is still in print 75
years after publication, but Gypsy Rose Lee's is…and it has a blurb from
The New Yorker which reads "Pure ozone to those tired of ordinary
oxygen." Not only that, unlike, oh…say media whore and best-selling
fake history writer Bill O'Reilly, she actually wrote it herself!
Mother
Finds a Body was notable stripper Gypsy Rose Lee's second murder
mystery. The first publication was in 1942. It isn't unusual for a peeler to get in trouble...on the contrary. But Gypsy's problems were the lurid problems of true crime and mayhem. It was first anthologized
in Triple Detective Magazine in the same year, from which the lurid
drawings and cover above come. It followed her first novel, The
G-String Murders which is probably better known, so I'm doing this one.
I think Gypsy did actually write the thing, as she was bright as a
burlesque spotlight beam and could type. I've seen the picture of her
typing and you can too!
Gypsy had a few names, as all
strippers do. Rose Louise Hovick or Ellen June Hovick depending on who
you believe. Another thing Gypsy did common to strippers was eloping at
age 15. I could almost save that phrase and cut and paste it into my
burlesque posts.
Gypsy's first successful dancing was
apparently "marathon" dances, which were common around the Depression.
The last couple standing wins the prize and a pair of exhausted feet.
The grueling contest prepared Gypsy for years of hoofing…nearly naked on
stage but standing tall.
Another
notable thing Gypsy did was get pregnant from the film director Otto
Preminger, a filmmaker way before his time and one who challenged
convention often. The resulting spawn, her son Erik Lee Preminger,
untimely donated her papers to the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library, which apparently has the actual manuscript for this book. Preminger also wrote the introduction to the current edition HERE on Amazon.
Jim Linderman is author of ten art and photography books, you can browse them HERE
Lilly Christine isn't a bad stripper (excuse me, "belly dancer") name, especially when your real handle is Martha Theresa Pompender. Known far and wide (at least from Bourbon Street to Dumaine) as the Cat Girl, she is shown here tanned, flexing and greased. Lilly was born in 1923 and lived only 42 years. It was rumored she committed suicide, but it was Peritonitis which killed the 37C-22-35 cat. Guess what contributes to Peritonitis? Having a washboard stomach (diffuse abdominal rigidity) and excess flexing of one's hips. Clearly the Cat had some serious workplace disability. These moves do not come without flexing the abdominals. And that's what the Cat did.
Tribute to Lilly Christine by Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb
