By Noralee Frankel
In celebration of the anniversary of the first burlesque show in New York City on 12 September 1866, I reread a fun murder mystery, The G-String Murders, by Gypsy Rose Lee. “Finding dead bodies scattered all over a burlesque theater isn’t the sort of thing you’re likely to forget. Not quickly, anyway,” begins the story.
The editors at Simon & Schuster liked the setting in a burlesque theater and appreciated Gypsy’s natural style, with its unpretentious and casual tone. Her knowledge of burlesque enabled her to intrigue readers, who were as interested in life within a burlesque theater as in the mystery. Providing vivid local color, the novel describes comedic sketches, strip routines, costumes, and the happenings backstage. In a typical scene in the book, Gypsy muses about her strip act: “The theater had been full of men, slouched down in their seats. Their cigarettes glowed in the dark and a spotlight pierced through the smoke, following me as I walked back and forth.” Describing her band with precision, she wrote, “Musicians in their shirt sleeves, with racing forms in their pockets, played Sophisticated Lady while I flicked my pins in the tuba and dropped my garter belt into the pit.”
Gypsy worked as hard on her writing as her stripping, and The G-String Murders became a best seller. “People think that just because you’re a stripper you don’t have much else except a body. They don’t credit you with intelligence,” Gypsy later complained. “Maybe that’s why I write.”
Gypsy Rose Lee, full-length portrait, seated at typewriter, facing slightly right, 1956. Photo by Fred Palumbo of the World Telegram & Sun. Public rights given to Library of Congress. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The G-String Murders briefly describes Gypsy’s career as a burlesque queen at a fictitious theater, based on those owned by the Minsky family, in New York City. In the book someone strangles a stripper, La Verne, with her G-string. The police turn up an abundance of suspects, including Louie, La Verne’s gangster boyfriend; Gypsy; and Gypsy’s boyfriend, Biff Brannigan, a comic working in the club. After someone tries to frame Biff by placing the lethal G-string in his pocket, he aids the police in solving the crime. He’s also concerned that the police suspect Gypsy and he wants to clear her by finding the actual murderer. After deducing the identity of the murderer, Biff proves his theory by suggesting that Gypsy act as bait and remains in the theater alone to tempt the murderer to strike again.
More than just a page-turner, Gypsy’s novel stresses the camaraderie among the women. Sharing a dressing room, they throw parties with everyone contributing to buy drinks and food. The women joke, drink together, and confide in each other. The women also sympathize with each other over man problems and working conditions. Gypsy describes the strippers’ dressing room with a complete lack of sentimentality. The cheap theater owner is indifferent to the disgusting condition of the stripper’s dressing room toilet. To help the women, the burlesque comics pool their meager resources to buy the strippers a new toilet.
Gypsy expressed her conviction in the importance of organized labor through a character in The G-String Murders: Jannine, one of the strippers recently elected secretary to the president of the Burlesque Artists’ Association. When the strippers receive a new toilet, the candy seller suggested having a non-union plumber install it to save money. She refuses, forbidding any non-union member to enter the women’s dressing room. She snapped, “Plumbers got a union. We got a union. When we don’t protect each other that’s the end of the unions.” She reminded the other strippers of conditions before they joined a union, when they performed close to a dozen shows without additional compensation.
In the novel, Gypsy provided Jannine with another opportunity to talk about solidarity among burlesque performers and the unequal class structure in the United States. In a tirade against the police over the treatment of the strippers during the murder investigation, Jannine raged that the performers, both the strippers and comedians, might squabble but they were loyal and do not inform on each other. When a police sergeant tried to interrupt her, she retorted: “It’s the social system of the upper classes that gives you guys the right to browbeat the workers!”
Gypsy peddled the G-String Murders in the same clever ways that she publicized herself. In a prepublication letter to her publishers, she offered to “do my specialty in Macy’s window to sell a book. If you prefer something a little more dignified, I’ll make it Wanamaker’s window.” In an interview, she joked that if people did not know her in bookstores, she would remove an earring and ask, “Now, do you recognize me?”
As an added bonus, Gypsy put a lot of herself into this book, so the reader learns quite a bit about her burlesque work life, her sense of humor, her political beliefs, and sense of independence. Spending time with this mystery is a perfect way to celebrate a New York City burlesque anniversary.
Noralee Frankel is author of Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee. She recently co-edited the U.S. History in Global Perspective for National History Day. Dr. Frankel is a historical consultant and can be reached through LinkedIn or Facebook.
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The post Burlesque in New York: The writing of Gypsy Rose Lee appeared first on OUPblog.
really cute! :)
Biff have a good life with you :) the drawing is mangnificent
Oh how I love this painting - the colors and patterns are amazing! It also reminds me of my big orange cat, Harvey, who was "adopted" in much the same manner as your dear Biff.
Sending good wishes as you adapt to the new job and hours. xoxo
Oh yay on the new job and its where you want to be too. I have missed you...just so you know. Annie is doing great now. She limps sometimes but walks normal a more often then limping. Love the drawing.
Hellooooo..it's your Sisters, Marianne and Robin. We're here in my apartment, getting ready to take the Ferry to Sausalito for lunch.
We MISS YOU....but we are so proud of you for getting through your first three days of work with flying colours!
Marianne knew about Biff - just from your first words of *Stripes and Sunshine*...but this was my first time seeing her....she was gorgeous!
Try to ring us on my cell later today if you can....
Love to all 4,
♥ Marianne and Robin ♥
What a great painting!!! I am happy you are enjoying your job!!! Bliss looks marvelous in the previous post.
dear lo,
love the stripes, and the sunny drawing. it's such a cozy thing to look at on this rainy grey day.
i hope your not working too hard, and the days shorten a little for you. that's a lot of hours.
xoxo
So happy for you LO, and you were a GOOD SOUL to steal the poor cat from the neglectful owners!
Hope things continue good at work; I am sure that all the animals love you!
XXOO~~
Anne
Nice subject matter and colours!
Such a beautiful cat
Beautiful story or love and beautiful job news.
So good to see you around again.
I love Biff - what a gorgeous kitty he was. And congrats on the new job (getting to hold puppies? nice. :) Happy weekend - xox!
look at those shadow stripes! that is my favorite: how the shadow stripes and biff's stripes create a whole.
haha, i can just see you rescuing that kitten, and holding those puppies. love appears in so many ways. virginia satir's research says we humans need eight hugs a day to be grounded and happy. and animals count.
so you're grounded and happy. ♥
love you, lo
kj
So glad you have a new job to enjoy! Henry spent a lot of time in my lap today while I knit or tried to while he tried to sit on my arms! But I love him and the sweater will get done eventually!
Those are some long days Lolo. So glad you are doing what you want to be doing. If not it would be intolerable. Best of luck. Love seeing some of your art again.
sweet drawing. glad the new job is going well and feeling satisfying for you. Blessings, Suki
That is truly the look of contentment from napping in the sun! Good luck with your new job.
Well, you are not the only one, with work and painting and a new fur baby to train blogging gets pushed to the back. This is a wonderful cat :-).
Congrats on the new job, doing what you love, but I must have missed something I thought you were working at the store?
Have a most wonderful weekend!
xoxo
You're a lucky girl! Have fun at the new job.
I can't seem to keep up with your life anymore, so many changes. But at last you are back where you belong- with these animals who adore you. Best of luck and am so happy for you!!!
I'd like the puppy holding but I think I'd die of an allergy attack.
So glad you've found your 'place', lo, it must be great to hold puppies and kittens again...and then give them back, haha! Sort of like grandkids...
Biff was one lucky cat when you "stole" him! I love his face...so indicative of a very relaxed kitty! xx
Love this, Laurel!
Oh my! I love the colors, perspective and shadowing! :) Congrats on your new job and just think, you can add all your furry new friends to your creative work! :)
This is really cut e:D i love the shadows.
Working in a vet hospital is awesome - one of my past favorite jobs (as long as you don't have to collect money from the parents of the pets). What is your job? Tell us all about it!!!
love ginger kitties!! good luck with the new job. e