Ruby Keeler

See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. She died in Los Angeles, California, and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Some of her better known films include:. "My present from mother.". She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6730 Hollywood Blvd. "This is my present, you know," she told June. Ruby Keeler died of cancer in Rancho Mirage, California and was interred in the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange, California. A smoker, she was diagnosed in 1969 with metastatic lung cancer.

Her first "show-business" job was as a chorine, working in a speakeasy for the Prohibition-era hostess Texas Guinan. Gypsy went on to host a television talk show, Gypsy. She was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Keeler, (August 25, 1910 - February 28, 1993), was an actress, singer, and dancer. June did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but was eventually persuaded not to oppose it for her sister's sake. Sweetheart of the Campus - (1941). Gypsy's memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957, and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable.

Mother Carey's Chickens - (1938). With their mother dead, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Ready, Willing and Able - (1937). When you get your own private kick in the ass, just remember: it's a present from me to you.". Colleen - (1936). I'll be right there. Shipmates Forever - (1935). As Rose was dying of colon cancer, her final words, in 1954, were for Gypsy: "Wherever you go..

Go Into Your Dance - (1935). This incident was explained as a suicide. Flirtation Walk - (1934). Rose shot and killed one of her guests, (according to Erik Preminger, she killed her own lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy). Dames - (1934). This property and a farm in Highland Mills, New York, had been rented for her by Gypsy. Footlight Parade - (1933). She and her sister June, who had also become successful, continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a lesbian boardinghouse in a ten-room apartment on West End Avenue in New York City.

Gold Diggers of 1933 - (1933). They eventually divorced. 42nd Street - (1933). Gypsy was married for a third time in 1948 to Julio de Diego. While married to Kirkland, she had a son with Otto Preminger; he was named Erik Lee, and has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Preminger. They divorced in 1944.

In love with Todd, and in an attempt to make him jealous, she married William Alexander Kirkland in 1942. Her style of intellectual recitations while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared. Gypsy's second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast. L.

Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. In 1941, Gypsy wrote a thriller called The G-String Murders. She eventually appeared as an actress in many of his productions. She returned to New York City and invested in Mike Todd.

Her acting was panned. She eventually went to Hollywood, where she was billed as Louise Hovick, and married Arnold "Bob" Mizzy on August 25, 1937 at the insistence of the film studio. She took the name Gypsy Rose Lee and stripped at Minsky's for four years, where she was frequently arrested and had relationships with unsavory characters such as Rags Ragland and Eddy Braun. Her innovation here was her sense of humor, for while she stripped quite as thoroughly as any burlesque star, she made the crowd laugh.

Eventually it became apparent that Louise could earn money in burlesque. Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. June left the act. She pulled the trigger, but the safety was on, and Bobby was freed.

Rose had Bobby arrested and met him at the police station carrying a hidden gun. At the age of 16 June married a boy in the act named Bobby Reed. Her two daughters earned the family's money by appearing in vaudeville, where June's talent shone, while Louise remained in the background. Their mother, Rose, had married John Hovick, a newspaperman, at the age of fifteen, and was the classic example of a smothering stage mother, though the more horrid details were whitewashed in Gypsy's memoirs.

Gypsy was initially called Louise. She was born in Seattle, Washington and initially named Ellen June Hovick, the same name that was later given to her younger sister, actress June Havoc. NOTE: There is no evidence shown here to support the 1911 birth year, yet Gypsy's grave stone bears the years 1914 - 1970. Gypsy Rose Lee (February 9, 1911 (not 1914, as is often falsely seen) - April 26, 1970) was an American actress and burlesque entertainer.

Doll Face - 1945 (play). Mother Finds a Body (novel) - 1942. The G-String Murders (novel) - 1942. Gypsy, A Memoir - 1941.

The Over-the-Hill Gang - 1969. The Pruitts of Southampton - 1966. Batman - 1966. Gypsy - 1965.

Who Has Seen the Wind? - 1965. The Gypsy Rose Lee Show - 1958. Think Fast - 1949. Around the World of Mike Todd - 1968.

The Trouble with Angels - 1966. The Stripper - 1963. Wind Across the Everglades - 1958. Screaming Mimi - 1958.

Babes in Bagdad - 1952. Belle of the Yukon - 1944. Stage Door Canteen - 1943. My Lucky Star - 1938.

Battle of Broadway - 1938. Sally, Irene and Mary - 1938. Ali Baba Goes to Town - 1937. You Can't Have Everything - 1937.