Editing Gypsy Rose Lee (section)

==Career==
Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could make money in [[American burlesque|burlesque]], which earned her legendary status as an elegant and witty striptease artist. Initially, her act was propelled forward when a shoulder strap on one of her gowns gave way, causing her dress to fall to her feet despite her efforts to cover herself; encouraged by the audience's response, she went on to make the trick the focus of her performance.<ref>Helen Welshimer (February 14, 1937) "Burlesque's strippers graduate to Broadway", ''Laredo Times'', [[Texas|TX]], p. 13.</ref>

Her innovations were an almost casual stripping style compared to bump & grind styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease"), and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well. She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her stripping style, and—changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee—she became one of the biggest stars of [[Minsky's Burlesque]], where she performed for four years. She was frequently arrested in raids on the Minsky brothers' shows. During the Great Depression, Lee spoke at various union meetings in support of New York laborers. According to activist Harry Fisher, her talks were among those that attracted the largest audiences.<ref>Fisher, Harry (1998) ''Comrades: Tales of a Brigadista in the Spanish Civil War'', p. 10, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln; {{ISBN|978-0-80322-006-5}}</ref>

In 1937 and 1938, billed as Louise Hovick, she made five films in Hollywood.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0497346/ "Gypsy Rose Lee"], IMDb.</ref> But her acting was generally panned, so she returned to New York City where she had an affair with film producer [[Mike Todd|Michael Todd]] and co-produced and appeared in his 1942 musical revue, ''[[Star and Garter]]''.<ref>[http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5686 Profile], historylink.org; accessed August 7, 2014. </ref> Lee viewed herself as a "high-class" stripper, and she approved of [[H. L. Mencken]]'s term ''"[[ecdysiast]]"'', which he coined as a more "dignified" way of referring to the profession. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" in [[Richard Rodgers|Rodgers]] and [[Lorenz Hart|Hart]]'s ''[[Pal Joey (musical)|Pal Joey]]'', a musical in which [[June Havoc]] had appeared on Broadway, opposite [[Gene Kelly]]. Lee performed an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitation and all) in the 1943 film ''[[Stage Door Canteen (film)|Stage Door Canteen]]''.

In 1941, Lee wrote a mystery thriller called ''[[The G-String Murders]]'', which was made into the sanitized 1943 film, ''[[Lady of Burlesque]]'' starring [[Barbara Stanwyck]]. While some assert this was in fact ghost-written by [[Craig Rice (author)|Craig Rice]], there are those who claim that there is more than sufficient written evidence in the form of manuscripts and Lee's own correspondence to prove that she wrote a large part of the novel herself under the guidance of Rice and others, including her editor [[George Davis (editor)|George Davis]], a friend and mentor.<ref>Tippins, Sherill. ''February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof in Brooklyn''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005; {{ISBN|978-0-61871197-0}}</ref><ref>Hubin, Allen J. ''Crime Fiction, 1749–1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography''. New York: Garland, 1984, p. 243; {{ISBN|0-8240-9219-8}}</ref>

Lee's second murder mystery, ''Mother Finds a Body'', was published in 1942. In December 1942, preliminary papers alleging breach of contract were filed in the Supreme Court against Lee by Dorothy Wheelock, associate editor of ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' magazine,<ref>''Nevada State Journal'', December 24, 1942.</ref> alleging that in August 1940 she and Gypsy entered into what Wheelock described as ''"an oral agreement to collaborate on a joint venture involving the conception, construction, development, writing and exploitation of a literary work with a burlesque background. The agreement, Miss Wheelock went on, called for a 50:50 split on all income from sale of the book. She charged that she had lined up a publisher for the book when, in November 1940, Gypsy called off the collaboration… Lee said she turned over notes and other material to Miss Wheelock and that the latter had then written 'a sample book'. However, this sample book is not the book that was published, Gypsy declared. She denied any resemblance between Miss Wheelock's book and the book published under her own name, except such similarities as might stem from the notes Gypsy turned over to Miss Wheelock. Simon & Schuster agreed to publish the book, Gypsy said, after the first three chapters were shown to them by [[Janet Flanner]], a New York writer"''.<ref>''New York Daily News'', December 24, 1942.</ref> The case was settled out of court.