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Mama Rose's turn : the true story of America's most notorious stage mother / Carolyn Quinn.
Van Pelt Library PN2287.L29 Q56 2013
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Quinn, Carolyn.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Lee, Gypsy Rose, 1914-1970.
- Lee, Gypsy Rose.
- Entertainers--United States--Biography.
- Entertainers.
- Mothers of entertainers.
- United States.
- Hovick, Rose Thompson, 1892-1954.
- Hovick, Rose Thompson.
- Havoc, June.
- Mothers of entertainers--United States--Biography.
- Mothers and daughters--United States.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Actors--United States--Biography.
- Actors.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 311 pages, 26 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2013]
- Summary:
- "Hers is the show business saga you think you already know--but you ain't seen nothin' yet. Rose Thompson Hovick, mother of June Havoc and Gypsy Rose Lee, went down in theatrical history as "The Stage Mother from Hell" after her immortalization on Broadway in Gypsy: A Musical Fable. Yet the musical was 75 percent fictionalized by playwright Arthur Laurents and condensed for the stage. Rose's full story is even more striking.Born fearless on the North Dakota prairie in 1892, Rose Thompson had a kind father and a gallivanting mother who sold lacy finery to prostitutes. She became an unhappy teenage bride whose marriage yielded two entrancing daughters, Louise and June. When June was discovered to be a child prodigy in ballet, capable of dancing en pointe by the age of three, Rose, without benefit of any theatrical training, set out to create onstage opportunities for her magical baby girl--and succeeded.Rose followed her own star and created two more in dramatic and colorful style: "Baby June" became a child headliner in vaudeville, and Louise grew up to be the well-known burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. The rest of Mama Rose's remarkable story included love affairs with both men and women, the operation of a "lesbian pick-up joint" where she sold homemade bathtub gin, wild attempts to extort money from Gypsy and June, two stints as a chicken farmer, and three allegations of cold-blooded murder--all of which was deemed unfit for the script of Gypsy. Here, at last, is the rollicking, wild saga that never made it to the stage"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Part 1 Hospitality
- Chapter 1 Resilience on the Prairie 11
- Chapter 2 Wild Prairie Rose 25
- Chapter 3 The Unvanquished Seattle Schoolgirl 32
- Part 2 Rose: The Woman
- Chapter 4 Hovick v. Hovick 43
- Chapter 5 The Baby Stands on Her Toes 56
- Chapter 6 Madam Hovick: The Developer of Children 71
- Chapter 7 The Act Gets Curbed 88
- Chapter 8 Dainty Bolshevik 101
- Chapter 9 Half a Dozen Junes 114
- Chapter 10 Front and Center 127
- Chapter 11 Bathtub Gin 138
- Chapter 12 The Malevolent Cipher 150
- Chapter 13 Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hovick 165
- Chapter 14 Hot Soup 178
- Chapter 15 The Legal Debacle Follies 192
- Chapter 16 West Coast Whirlwind 206
- Chapter 17 Bed Rest and Blackmail 219
- Chapter 18 One Last Laugh 227
- Part 3 Rose the Legend
- Chapter 19 Gypsy, A Musical Fable 239.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-306) and index.
- Other Format:
- Online version: Quinn, Carolyn. Mama Rose's turn
- ISBN:
- 9781617038532
- 1617038539
- OCLC:
- 837957537
- Online:
- Cover image
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