Musicians - June Havoc

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	Musicians - June Havoc

June Havoc (born Ellen Evangeline Hovick on November 8, 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) is an actress and dancer. Some sources indicate that her birth name was Ellen June Hovick, and that she was actually born in 1913..

Her older sister, Rose Louise Hovick, is best known as Gypsy Rose Lee. Their mother, Rose Thompson, had married John Hovick, a newspaper ad man, at the age of fifteen, and was the classic example of a smothering stage mother, though more horrid details were reportedly whitewashed in Gypsy's memoirs.

Following the parents' divorce, the two sisters 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 13 in 1929, planned to elope with Bobby Reed, a boy in the act. 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 and married Bobby. Apparently, he fathered her only child, April Reed (born circa April 1930). Louise gravitated to burlesque, taking the name Gypsy Rose Lee.

June, adopting the name June Havoc, got her first acting break on Broadway 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 to Donald S. Gibbs, and thirdly, in 1949, to William 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 (who, according to Erik Preminger, Gypsy's son, was Rose's lover) who had made a pass at Gypsy. The incident was explained away as a suicide and Rose was not prosecuted.

Rose died in 1954 of colon cancer. The sisters 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 a steady income. Gypsy died of cancer at the age of 59 in 1970.

To set the record straight, June wrote two memoirs, Early Havoc and More Havoc. She also wrote a play, "Marathon '33," based on her memoirs, Early Havoc.

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

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for June Havoc ]

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