β
Don't compare her to sunshine and roses when she's clearly orchids and moonlight.
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
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I used to come home at night full of inspiration, and sit up with a bottle of Scotch. As I wrote, the words seemed wonderful, just too wonderful to be coming from me. Next morning I always found they were terrible and I could never use anything I wrote.
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Gypsy Rose Lee
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If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly... very slowly.
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Gypsy Rose Lee
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Praying is like a rocking chair - it'll give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere.
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Gypsy Rose Lee
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Mother was,' June thought, 'a beautiful little ornament that was damaged.' Her broken edges cut her daughters in ways both emotional and physical, and only sharpened with age.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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I am a wildflower in your perfect bed of roses.
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
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Kiss her gypsy soul and love her for the wild rose she is.
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
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Her mother was by turns tender and pathetic and terrifying, broken in a way that no one, in that time or place, had any idea how to fix.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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Well, just remember this. When my ma got me, she picked what she wanted. But when your ma got you, she had to take what she got.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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If you're afraid of the thorn, you truly don't deserve the rose.
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
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Sheβs not particularly fond of red roses;
too common, unoriginal, everyday-ish,
but give her the rare rose, black or blue,
to complement her melancholy spirit and dark soul
and she lights up
like the brightest star on the darkest night.
β
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
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He was just a taker. She was a taker in her way too. They were taking each other, and they loved each other for that. -June Havoc
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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Night time
Youβll find her there
Blooming
Like a night rose.
β
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
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And truth is malleable, something to be bent or stretched or made to disappear, but direct lies always find the path back to the one who tells them.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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He spent all of his twenty-three years operating at only one speed and in one direction, furious and forward, convinced that a collision could only improve the ride.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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Sheβs far from ordinary;
sheβs a rare breed,
a black rose,
a deep soul,
a gypsy heart,
a bright star.
Or you could simply say,
sheβs magic.
β
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Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
β
Of all the theaters I miss from the 1950βs and before, the Hudson Theatre tops the list. It was built in what was then called Union Hill, early in December 1907. It was actually known as βThe Hudson Burlesque,β and it featured striptease artists such as Lili St. Cyr, Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm. Being too young to get into the theatre on my own, I usually offered an adult standing in line some money to take me in. Once inside, I would head for the front of the theatre to the fire exit on the right side of the orchestra seating. It was all prearranged with my friends waiting outside! With one kick, the door would open, allowing them to come streaming in. There were not enough ushers to catch us all, so some of us would invariably be caught and evicted; only to try and gain access again. It was all great fun! Its demise came in 1957 after the theatre owners took out the comedy acts and replaced them with more featured strippers. Society balked, arrests were made and the curtain came down!
β
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Hank Bracker
β
The Hudson Burlesque
Of all the theaters I miss from that era, the Hudson Theatre tops the list. It was built in what was then called Union Hill, early in December 1907. We called it the Hudson Burlesque, and it featured striptease artists such as Lili St. Cyr, Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm. Being too young to get into the theatre on my own, I usually offered an adult standing in line some money to take me in. Once inside, I would head for the front of the theatre to the fire exit on the right side of the orchestra seating. It was all prearranged with my friends waiting outside! With one kick, the door would open, allowing them to come streaming in. There were not enough ushers to catch us all, so some of us would invariably be caught and evicted, only to try to gain access again. It was all great fun!
βI don't think there is such a thing as being too raunchy when it comes to the art form of burlesque.β Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter and actress.
From the upcoming book βSeawater One.
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Hank Bracker
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Sweet? Submissive? May as well be a housewifeΒ β¦Β it dims my luster, makes me resemble othersβthatβs the worst thing that could happen.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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pausing to consider your place meant you were already far behind.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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he insisted, since heβd earned something more useful than a GEDβa GE, his βgutter education.β He
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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The only time Iβd ever marry again is if someone beat on my door and said, βI have $27 million and Iβll live elsewhere.β βJOAN BLONDELL On
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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by a new burlesque trick: fish swivels affixed to her pasties. The mechanism allowed Finnell to pinwheel her tassels in any direction, from any position, at any speed,
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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discover what could make you famous, and then proclaim that it already has.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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Start thinkinβ about what youβre goinβ to be tomorrowβnot what you were yesterday.β For
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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It was a fairy tale, Hovick style, in which drama trumped veracity and the women always won. On
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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Big Lady, Rose, Louise, and June knew nothing of their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. βOf course, he was only a man,β June said, βso it didnβt much matter.β Big
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)
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Later, the sisters would remember things differently, as sisters do, old grudges and misunderstandings refracting each memory, bending them in opposite directions.
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Karen Abbott (American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee)