Gypsy Rose Lee
It's easy to understand why Gypsy Rose Lee was such a legend when you see her performance in this musical. She's fabulous and funny and comes across as having a light heart made of solid of gold.
Yes, I was in the middle of reading American Rose, Karen Abbott's biography of GRL, when TCM aired this, and was pleasantly surprised--as the movie only merits a paragraph in the book. (Her cameo 22 years later in the big hit The Trouble With Angels isn't mentioned at all.) More time is given to her first few films in which she tried really acting under her real name.
I gathered that, like Madonna, she was best as variations of herself. As for this film, I agree with the one review posted which states that it's pleasant enough, but seems to lack a plot altogether--just a bunch of characters passing through saloon/parlor/dancehall.
One other thing I learned was that, despite claiming herself to have no real talent outside of burlesque, she was a huge household name in the 1930s. I wonder what she would think of these famous-for-being-famous celebrities with even less talent today. Of course she always had her wit and intelligence, unlike the Kardashians, who have neither.
"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns, I was in the mo