Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World - Ann Shen (2016)

Gypsy Rose Lee

The world’s most famous stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee (1911-1970) made her debut in one of New York’s top burlesque clubs at the age of nineteen after previously playing second fiddle to her talented dancer sister June. Her sister June had run off with a dancer from her troupe, leaving their domineering stage mother with sister Gypsy to support the family. Lee innovated a new, casual striptease style and became just as famous for her onstage wit and banter as for her stripping. Lee was smart with her career, building on her stardom to appear in five feature films; she also wrote a series of successful mystery novels including The G-String Murders. After her mother died, Lee wrote her memoir, Gypsy, which was made into one of the most popular Broadway musicals of all time, and a subsequent film starring Natalie Wood. At thirty-eight, she took her two-year-old son on the road with her for a cross-country tour with the world’s largest carnival, Royal American Shows. She was paid ten thousand dollars a week to appear—which pretty much epitomizes Lee’s brilliance with her business. Lee was so beloved by the people that she was voted over Eleanor Roosevelt in a popularity poll—and Roosevelt sent her a congratulatory note that read, “May your bare ass always be shining.”