The G-String Murders

infobox Book |
name = The G-String Murders
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of 1943 hardcover edition.
author = Gypsy Rose Lee or possibly ghost-written by Craig Rice (authorship in dispute)
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Mystery, Detective Novel
publisher = Simon & Schuster
release_date = 1941
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

The G-String Murders is a 1941 detective novel commercially attributed to American burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee. There have been claims made that the novel was in fact written by Craig Rice [,Hubin, Allen J. "Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1984, p. 243] but others have suggested that there is enough documented evidence in the form of manuscripts and correspondence to prove Lee wrote at least a large portion if not the whole of the novel herself under the tutelage of editor/friend George Davis with some essential guidance from her good friend Rice. [Tippins, Sherill. "February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof in Brooklyn. Houghton Mifflin Company Publishing, 2005."] The novel has also been published under the titles "Lady of Burlesque" and "The Strip-Tease Murders". Set in a burlesque theater, Lee casts herself as the detective who solves a set of homicides in which strippers in her troupe are found strangled with their own G-strings.

In 2005, Feminist Press of the City University of New York republished the book as one of its "Women Write Pulp" series.

Plot summary

Gypsy Rose Lee narrates her way through a tale of a double murder, backstage at the "Old Opera" burlesque theatre on Forty-Second Street, New York.

In a world populated by strippers, comics and costume salesman. A world where crime is part of the norm and where women struggle to earn a living and have gangster boyfriends.

The narrative is a "wise-cracking" and humorous tale of murder in a burlesque house, and with the unusual weapon of the title.

Characters in "The G-String Murders"

*Gypsy Rose Lee – herself, narrator
*Lolita LaVerne – stripper
*Gee Gee Graham – stripper
*Biff Brannigan – comedian
*Siggy – costume salesman

Literary significance and criticism

"Anyone keen about sex in fiction will admire this workmanlike job for its account of a performing group, its use of technicalities -- if that's the word -- about stripping, and its handling of the clues by a likeable lieutenant. ... This is one of a handful of books about backstage murder that are tolerable. It is not made worse by being told in the first person, or by a bit of sentimental lovey-dovey between the narratrix and one of the cast of characters."Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. "A Catalogue of Crime". New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8]

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel was filmed in 1943 as "Lady of Burlesque", directed by William Wellman, starring Barbara Stanwyck as "Dixie Daisy" (the Lee character), Michael O'Shea as her romantic interest, and Pinky Lee, among many notable supporting players. It is a fairly faithful, if bowdlerized, representation, but notable for the addition of music and songs, including the indescribable "Take it off the A string, play it on the G string" rendered by Stanwyck. The film attempts to show what the censors of 1943 would allow it to show with respect to the precise nature of "bumps" and "grinds", and the slapdash nature of burlesque shows.

Footnotes

References

*Lee, Gypsy Rose: "The G-String Murders": New York: Feminist Press of the City University of New York: 2005: ISBN 1558615040