Thursday, January 8, 2015

January 8 - Gypsy

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on January 8. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

GYPSY       

Rose Hovick’s dream is to make her beautiful blonde daughter June Hovick a vaudeville singing star as part of  “Baby June and her Newsboys”.  They travel around the country with June’s plain older sister, Louise in tow. After Herbie Sommers becomes June’s manger, her prospects improve.  He gets her shows in Chicago and then in Newark. On January 8, 192__  her family and the act celebrate Louise’s birthday [29:56 to 41:31] and learn they’ve got an audition for Grantzinger’s Tivoli theater, the top of the heap in vaudeville. However after the audition they only get a contract to play in a lesser venue. The act (now “Dainty June and her Farmboys”) continues to tour, even though they have aged out of the childlike image they project in the act. Then the boys in the act quit and June elopes with Tulsa, one of the boys in the act, in part so they can go solo together on the stage. Rose changes the act to all girls, but is horrified to learn the only venue Herbie can get for them is in a burlesque house. When one of the strippers is arrested Rose makes Louise very reluctantly take her place, telling her she doesn’t have to actually strip. Herbie leaves, disgusted at what Rose will do to fulfill her dreams of fame and glory.  Over time, Louise’s act, which works up to taking off more and more, but retaining her witty repartee with the audience propels her to stardom as “Gypsy Rose Lee”. Eventually she tells her mother to stop trying to control her life. Rose realizes she has spent her life trying to get attention for herself and reconciles with Louise.   
 
A decent musical. The storyline is a somewhat hackneyed about the domineering stage mother. However the songs are good and both Russell and Wood are outstanding in becoming their parts.

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee by Karen Abbott (Random House, New York, 2010) at page 10 gives her birthdate

Awards – The film was nominated for the Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Costume and Best Adapted Musical Score at the 35th Academy Awards

Producer - Mervyn LeRoy                               

Director - Mervyn LeRoy                                                 

Screenplay - Leonard Spigelgass   

Runtime – 2 hours 23 minutes       

Released – November 1, 1962                                                                                                                 

Starring –

Rosalind Russell as Rose Hovick
Natalie Wood as Louise Hovick
Karl Malden as Herbie Sommers
Paul Wallace as Tulsa
Suzanne Cupito as Baby June
Ann Jillian as Dainty June
Diane Pace as Baby Louise
Betty Bruce as Tessie Tura 
Faith Dane as Mazeppa
Roxanne Arlen as Electra


Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015. 



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