Portrait of American burlesque performer and author Gypsy Rose Lee (1914 - 1970) (nee Rose Louise Hovick) seated on a pedestal, wearing a slit gown, circa 1938. (Photo by Frederic Lewis/Getty Images) ...

In the nineteen-thirties, Gypsy Rose Lee, perhaps the world’s most famous stripper, helped transform burlesque from a vulgar pastime to café-society entertainment, simply by acting refined. She ...