It’s the birthday of Gypsy Rose Lee; the bawdy and the divine. She was born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle.
...No one had ever heard the word "ecdysiast" until Gypsy Rose
Lee taught it to ‘em. To the world at large, self-proclaimed ecdysiast Lee was a striptease artist -- indeed, the most celebrated of that sorority.
Lee's early life (fancifully recounted in her autobiography, which served as the source of the play and film Gypsy) consisted of touring the provinces in a vaudeville act managed by her mother.
Her Mamma was the classic example of an obsessive stage mother.
She pushed Louise up on any stage. The star attractions of "Madame Rose's Dancing Daughters" were little Rose Louise Hovick and her younger sister June.
Strippers had to walk a fine line between titillation and propriety – going too far (let alone "all the way") could land them in jail for corrupting public morals. She took a comically intellectual take on the craft. She gave stripping an artistic twist and graduated to sexy-hot stardom.
...Most people think that "burlesque" means female strippers walking a runway to a bump and grind beat. But that only fits the form in its declining years. At its best, burlesque was a rich source of music and comedy that kept America, audiences laughing from 1840 through the 1960s.
I am a fan of the Burly-Q. Ya’ always hear me touting the Lucha Va Voom, or reminiscing about the golden days of Velvet Hammer (before the dames got too skinny and unimaginative).
But at its core, burlesque articulate a common yearning to live in ease with our instincts and to reject pretension. It proclaims our individuality beautiful.
I love that it’s sexy, bold, brash, and unafraid to show some leg, while always maintaining subtle modesty.
Burlesque isn't based on beauty that comes from a bottle or a scalpel. It celebrates a wide range of body types, personal expression, and a whole lotta’ flouncing flesh.

“If a thing is worth doing,
it is worth doing slowly . . .
very slowly”
Gypsy Rose Lee: Ecdysiast
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