|
Gypsy Ballyhoo Show Says "$10,000 a
week I can afford to climb the slave block once in awhile."
|
GYPSY'S ADMIRERS fight to
purchase tickets for her strip tease show. The carnival
in which she is featured will play
this year for an estimated 17 million people. |
SHE GOES ON JUNKET WITH A GIRLIE SHOW
"I'm probably the highest paid outdoor entertainer since
Cleopatra," announced Gypsy Rose Lee recently, :and I don't have
to stand for some of the stuff she had to." Confidently taking
her place among history's great ladies, Gypsy has for the first
time in her life gone outdoors professionally. At Memphis, Tenn.
last month she began a six-months; tour with the world's largest
carnival, The Royal American Shows. For a minimum guarantee of
$10,000 a week, plus a fat percentage of the gross above that,
Gypsy will do her celebrated strip tease on the "carny" route all
across the country to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her salary is not
all gravy because she must pay for the roustabouts, musicians and
girlie line that work in her 40-minute show. But giving 8 to 15
performances a day in a 1,400-seat tent at one dollar admission,
Gypsy Rose Lee is doing all right.
As "carny" performers go, Gypsy has it soft. She lives in her own
trailer with her third husband, the noted Spanish painter, Julio
do Diego. With them is her 4-year-old son Erik and his nurse,
Julio, who loves to cook, sets up a stove behind their trailer and
does a wonderful job on fish and fried chicken.
Gypsy, who loves to fish, carries an elaborate angler's kit, and
whenever the show plays near a river, goes out and hooks fish as
ably as she does customers.
|
GYPSY
REHEARSES POLLY NELSON IN BALLET DANCE ROUTINE WHICH GIVES
CUSTOMERS ART ALONG WITH SEX |
IN A REVERSE STRIP-TEASE ACT,
GYPSY INTRODUCES |
|
GYPSY
IN ACTION romps through famous strip tease as if she were
kidding the audience instead of enticing it. |
GYPSY SEWS and designs all
costumes, coaches girls on how to saunter sexily, Here she
fixes up Dorothy Deake. |
GYPSY DICTATES a letter to her
secretary, Brandy Bryant, who doubles up by doing a strip bit
in the show. |
|
GYPSY'S SON Erik sat next to
Memphis censor at show. Delighted with the act, Erik piped up:
"That's my mommy! Can your mommy do that?" |
 |
|
NEAR-NUDES LIKE FLORENCE BAILEY,
AND DRESSES THEM ON THE STAGE >>>>>
|
|
GYPSY'S HUSBAND Julio, who also
has girlie show in the carnival, paints the entrance while
Gypsy and son watch. His attraction is called Dream
Show. |
GYPSY'S FRIENDS in carnival
include a sword swallower, fire-eater and this cheerful
bearded lady, Percilla Bejano, whose husband is Alligator Man. |
|
BETWEEN SHOWS Gypsy and family
manage to sneak off for sundown fishing on Wolf River, where
Gypsy caught a catfish. Gypsy thinks nomadie. |
carnival life has it all over
working on Broadway or in Hollywood. "I can live in my
trailer," she observes, "see the country, and also get a lot
more fishing done |
Article submitted by Jerry Willman
From - Life Magazine June 6,
1949
Gypsy Rose Lee Show on the Midway
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