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Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp
The Feminist Press at CUNY
June 2005
On Sale: June 1, 2005
240 pages
ISBN: 1558615032
EAN: 9781558615038
Paperback
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Fiction | Suspense
A mystery set in the underworld of burlesque theater, The
G-String Murders was penned in 1941 by the legendary queen
of the stripteasers—the witty and wisecracking Gypsy Rose
Lee. Narrating a twisted tale of a backstage double murder,
Lee provides a fascinating look behind the scenes of
burlesque, richly populated by the likes of strippers Lolita
LaVerne and Gee Gee Graham, comic Biff Brannigan and Siggy
the g-string salesman. This is a world where women struggle
to earn a living performing bumps and grinds, have gangster
boyfriends, sip beer between acts and pay their own way at
dinner. The story unfolds in a New York theater modeled on the
legendary Minsky’s, prone to raids by corrupt city cops and
fierce competition among strippers. When one performer is
found strangled with a g-string, no one is above suspicion.
But when a second murder follows, the trail—and the
action—really heats up. In the police procedural that
follows, a host of clueless coppers faces off against the
theater’s tough-talking guys and dolls, and it’s clear that
Gypsy and her cohorts will have to crack the case themselves. The basis of the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring
Barbara Stanwyck, The G-String Murders was the first of two
murder mysteries written by Gypsy Rose Lee. A natural-born
raconteur, Lee also contributed short pieces to The New
Yorker and hosted her own television talk show; even her
unparalleled stardom in the burlesque world was attributed
more to her witty banter than to her risqué moves. It is
this fabled wit, along with Gypsy’s brassy sociology, that
make The G-String Murders a must-read primer of sex,
commerce and urban living.
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Comments
1 comment posted.
Re: The G-String Murders
Oh, this sounds like a fun read!!
(Karen Cherubino 10:16am February 21, 2011)
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