Books
Gypsy Rose Lee was born Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, and became the most famous burlesque actor and striptease artist of her day, renowned as much for her witty repartee on stage as for removing her clothes.
The G-String Murders
Afterword by Rachel Shteir
Narrating a twisted tale of a backstage double murder, Gypsy Rose Lee, the queen of the strip-tease, provides a fascinating look behind the scenes of burlesque, richly populated by the likes of strippers Lolita LaVerne and Gee Gee Graham, comic Biff Brannigan, and Siggy the G-string salesman. When one performer is found strangled with a G-string, no one is above suspicion. In the police procedural that follows a second murder, a host of clueless coppers face off against the theater’s tough-talking guys and dolls, and it’s clear that Gypsy and her cohorts will have to crack the case themselves.
The basis of the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck.
"Burlesque is the background . . . [and] the background is perfect. Recommended for the readers who feel better when their eyebrows are raised."
"[Lee's] novel is a rich and lusty job, brimming over with infectious vitality and a hilarious jargon of her own."
"A lurid,witty and highly competent detective story . . . Rich show business vocabulary and stage door gags make her book almost a social document. . . . The G-String Murders build up to a hair-raising climax."
Also Of Interest
- Laura
- Vera Caspary
- Mother Finds a Body
- Gypsy Rose Lee
NEA Grant will help fund the digitization of 15 Feminist Press classics, and the publication of three extraordinary literary works: Savage Coast by Muriel Rukeyser, Kissing the Sword: A Prison Memoir by Shahrnush Parsipur, and The Silent Woman by Monika Zgustova.
