June Havoc, Stage Star Whose Life Became Legend in Gypsy, Dies at 96
Matthew Kruk
June Havoc, Stage Star Whose Life Became Legend in Gypsy, Dies at 96
By Robert Simonson
March 28, 2010
June Havoc, a show-business legend whose hard-knocks childhood as a
stage performer was depicted in the classic musical Gyspy, died March
28, according to the Village Voice. She was 96.
Driven by an ruthless stage mother, young Ellen Evangeline Hovick and
her sister Louise-who would become legendary stripper Gypsy Rose
Lee-were forced into Vaudeville at an early age. Ms. Havoc was billed as
"Baby June," and later "Dainty June," and played the West Coast Pantages
circuit, but she abandoned her mother's world when she eloped at 13 with
fellow performer Bobby Reed. The two teenagers scraped by entering, and
winning, dance marathons.
All this, and more, was told in Ms. Havoc's two autobiographies, "Early
Havoc" (1959) and "More Havoc" (1980). But it was her sister's 1957
book, "Gypsy," that became part of America's permanent show-business
tapestry when it was adapted by composer Jule Styne, lyricist Stephen
Sondheim, librettist Arthur Laurents and director Jerome Robbins into
the stage musical Gypsy. The show, considered one of the most
hard-boiled backstage stories in theatre history-and one of the best
constructed and most entertaining-debuted on Broadway in 1959. Though
based on Gypsy Rose Lee's book, the central figure is not the stripper
but her monstrous mother, Rose, based on June and Louise's mother, Rose
Thompson Hovick.
Despite her embittered upbringing, Ms. Havoc persevered in the trade
into which she was born. She found her first Broadway part in Sigmund
Romberg's Forbidden Melody in 1936, and would later star in Rodgers and
Hart's classic Pal Joey, playing Gladys Bumps. Other roles of the 1940s
included Mexican Hayride, Sadie Thompson, The Ryan Girl and Dunnigan's
Daughter. The next decade brought Affairs of State, The Infernal
Machine, The Beaux Stratagem and The Warm Peninsula.
Her film career began in 1942 and was littered with mainly "B" material.
A few credits stood out, however, including the comedy "My Sister
Eileen" and "Gentleman's Agreement," in which she played a racist
secretary.
In 1963, Ms. Havoc turned her book "Early Havoc" into the play Marathon
'33, which she both wrote and directed. Set in 1933, it starred Julie
Harris as June. Ms. Havoc was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award as Best
Director, and Harris as Best Actress in a Play. The show ran only 48
performances, but it did provide the basis for the hit movie "They Shoot
Horses, Don't They?," set at a Depression-era dance marathon.
In 1982, she made her final Broadway appearance, as one of the last Miss
Hannigans in the long-running hit Annie. She also toured the country as
Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd.
June Havoc was born Nov. 8, 1913, in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada. Her father, a reporter for a Seattle newspaper, and her mother
divorced when she was very young. She was coached for the stage from the
time she could walk, dancing with Anna Pavlova and appearing in silent
films with Harold Lloyd. Blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, she danced and
sang and high-kicked her way through four shows a day on the Keith
Orpheum Circuit and earned $1,500 a week (a fortune during the
Depression-and still not bad today) for her family at the peak of her
popularity.
Though Gypsy went a long way toward making Ms. Havoc a famous, even
mythical figure in her latter career, she was not happy with the way she
was portrayed in her sister's autobiography, and the two were long
estranged. They reconciled shortly before Gypsy Rose Lee's death in
1970.
"All I wanted was the truth to be told," she told the New York Times in
2003. "That the little kid went out and killed the people. That she was
a gold mine and Louise wasn't there at all. I disappear. Nothing is ever
mentioned about the fact that I went out and became somebody. No one
understands the loss of professional dignity with which I grew up, the
dignity which I have cherished and protected all these years."
All of Ms. Havoc's three marriages ended in divorce. After Bobby Reed,
she married Donald Gibbs. They divorced in 1942. She was married to
William Spier from 1948 to 1959. Reed fathered her only child, April
Kent. Kent died in 1998.
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Evan Hulka
> In 1963, Ms. Havoc turned her book "Early Havoc" into the play Marathon
> '33, which she both wrote and directed. Set in 1933, it starred Julie
> Harris as June. Ms. Havoc was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award as Best
> Director, and Harris as Best Actress in a Play. The show ran only 48
> performances, but it did provide the basis for the hit movie "They Shoot
> Horses, Don't They?," set at a Depression-era dance marathon.
Playbill needs better fact-checkers ... the novel "They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?" came out almost three decades before Havoc's book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Shoot_Horses,_Don%27t_They%3F_%28novel%29
Hulka
KingDaevid
'n sez:
> > In 1963, Ms. Havoc turned her book "Early Havoc" into the play Marathon
> > '33, which she both wrote and directed. Set in 1933, it starred Julie
> > Harris as June. Ms. Havoc was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award as Best
> > Director, and Harris as Best Actress in a Play. The show ran only 48
> > performances, but it did provide the basis for the hit movie "They Shoot
> > Horses, Don't They?," set at a Depression-era dance marathon.
>
> Playbill needs better fact-checkers ... the novel "They Shoot Horses,
> Don't They?" came out almost three decades before Havoc's book.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Shoot_Horses,_Don%27t_They%3F_%28no...
...I was wondering about that. I have some airchecks of January 1964
"Arthur Godfrey Time" radio programs on which a ton of stars guested
each day (it was the week of Godfrey's 30th anniversary with CBS), and
on one, Jackie Gleason was one of the guests. The subject of MARATHON
'33 and star Julie Harris came up, and Gleason started talking about
the wonderful experience he'd had with her while working on the film
REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT a couple of years earlier. From the
description of MARATHON '33 on that broadcast, I wondered if there
were any actual connections between that and THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T
THEY?; then I checked my VHS of that movie and noticed Havoc's name
wasn't anywhere in the credits at all. (I'll have to check when I get
home, but I think Havoc was herself on another of that week's Godfrey
programs)...
kdm