This puzzled me a little.
As a child, she had no talent. This was fairly obvious, as evidenced in the beginning on the movie. As a young adult, she still had no talent. Also obvious, as evidenced by "Madame's Toreodorables." But then when she became the confident Gypsy Rose Lee, she sang ---- pretty well, in fact. Where did she suddenly learn how to sing, and become good at it? Did she suddenly become talented at something?
Umm I am just guessing but she probably just had more confidence in herself so she sang a little better. I mean, she was told her whole life that she wasnt good at anything, and when she finally found out she was, then her self esteem went up or something and sang better than she had ever before. Or something. lol
"Well if it isn't Ethyl Barrymore!"
I think she always had the talent, but her mother was so caught up in making her sister a star, she was ignored. Even as a child, she had talent, I'm surprised you said otherwise. She just wasn't given the support and the ability to shine like her sister had.
share I saw the real gypsy in the movie Stage door canteen
and what i notice that Gyps gimmick was she was a comic and a stripper!
Baby was cute but louise grew in to her beauty! she's a pretty girl momma!
check out gyspy in the stage door canteen she is great!
My take on it has always been that when Louise was backing up June and then in the toreodorables, she was trying to imitate June, to be like June. When she took the stage as Gypsy Rose Lee, she developed her own personality and with her own personality came her own voice, which was probably better than she or or her mother ever knew. Her mother certainly wouldn't have noticed because she was always focused on June.
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This, exactly.
People become what you expect of them. Rose expected June to be a star and Louise to be a mousy little nobody - so she lived down to her mother's expectations. She had virtually no confidence, after a lifetime of being told she wasn't as pretty or talented as her sister, and made into a BOY at that. She also had no interest in performing, and that showed on the stage.
I would disagree with the OP's statement that Louise had no talent as a child. In the version I know (which is this one, the 1993 movie), the actress has a very sweet voice, she is just very shy (which looks awful on stage), she has no desire to be there, and she gets off count because she's not particularly paying attention. That's not lack of talent, that's lack of confidence and lack of interest.
Which is not to say that passion and confidence will carry you all the way if you don't have talent - but talent won't show without passion and confidence, and Louise had neither as she grew up. Once she finally found her confidence, she developed the passion - I can understand that, when you are raised to believe you are nothing and you suddenly find that you are good at something, it is seriously heady stuff. Once she found her confidence and passion, her talent suddenly bloomed - and the rest is history.
Often with the singing it's less about talent and more about confidence. There's old videos of Gypsy Rose Lee singing in an act or a film and she isn't that great. But she's does it with style and confidence so it looks great. Much like Marlene Dietrich's singing in Stage Fright or Lauren Bacall's in The Big Sleep. None of them are heavily trained or fantastic singers, but dammit they do it with style and character, so it works.
It's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of his laughter