June Havoc

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. Her two daughters earned the family's money by appearing in vaudeville, where June's talent shone, while Louise stood in the background. June at the age of 16, in 1929, married a boy in the act, named Bobby Reed. Rose had Bobby arrested and he was met at the police station by Rose, carrying a hidden gun. She pulled the trigger, but the safety was on and Bobby was freed. June left the act. Louise gravitated to burlesque[?], taking the name Gypsy Rose Lee.

June, adopting the name June Havoc, got her first acting break in Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey[?], and moved on to Hollywood roles in such movies as Gentleman's Agreement.

She married secondly, in 1935, Donald S. Gibbs. She married thirdly, in 1949, William "Bill" Spier.

June and Gypsy 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, the property rented for her by Gypsy, and a farm in Highland Mills, New York. Rose shot and killed one of her guests, (according to Erik Preminger[?], Gypsy's son, Rose killed her own lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy): this incident was kept quiet: Rose was not prosecuted.

Rose died in 1954 of colon cancer: the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. 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. 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. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy steady income.

June, however, to set the record straight, wrote two more mealistically based books of memoirs, titled Early Havoc and More Havoc. She still acts from time to time and lives on a farm in Stamford, Connecticut[?].

Filmography

• Hey There! - 1918
• Four Jacks and a Jill - 1942
• Powder Town - 1942
• My Sister Eileen - 1942
• Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6 - 1942
• Sing Your Worries Away - 1942
• Hello, Frisco, Hello - 1943
• No Time for Love - 1943
• Hi Diddle Diddle - 1943
• Timber Queen - 1944
• Casanova in Burlesque - 1944
• Brewster's Millions - 1945
• Gentleman's Agreement - 1947
• Intrigue - 1947
• The Iron Curtain - 1948
• When My Baby Smiles at Me - 1948
• Chicago Deadline - 1949
• The Story of Molly X - 1949
• Red, Hot and Blue - 1949
• Mother Didn't Tell Me - 1950
• Once a Thief - 1950
• Follow the Sun - 1951
• Lady Possessed - 1952
• Three for Jamie Dawn - 1956
• The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover - 1977
• Can't Stop the Music - 1980
• A Return to Salem's Lot - 1987

Television

• Willy - 1954
• Mr. Broadway - 1957
• The June Havoc Show - 1964
• The Boy Who Stole the Elephant - 1970
• Vaudeville: An 'American Masters' Special - 1997
• Marlene: Inventing Dietrich - 2000