June Havoc, 1912-2010
Actress and writer June Havoc, whose childhood in vaudeville as Baby June was immortalized in Gypsy, died of natural causes on March 28, 2010, at her home in Stamford, Conn. She was 97.
If you know anything about American musicals, you probably know June Havoc. She is a vivid character in one of the most famous musicals of all time: Gypsy, the 1962 film based on the memoires of June’s sister, Louise, better known as Gypsy Rose Lee. In the film, June is the more talented of two daughters forced into vaudeville by their domineering mother. Billed as "Baby June" and then "Dainty June," she continues to perform until she can no longer stand her mother’s controlling ways. Then she elopes and runs off with a boy from the act. Those elements of the story are in fact true.
Left: Sisters Louise and June Hovick, performing on vaudeville as children. Right: Natalie Wood as Louise and Ann Jillian as June, flanking their mother Rose (Rosalind Russell), in the film Gypsy.
"Baby June" was born Ellen June Hovick, probably in 1912. Even she was uncertain of her birthdate, as her mother carried five different birth certificates to circumvent child labor laws. It is unclear if she was older or younger than her sister, who was born Rose Louise Hovick and whose year of birth has been reported between from 1911 to 1914.
Their mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, thrust them onstage as "Mama Rose's Dancing Daughters" after separating from their father, a newspaper ad salesman. June soon knew who was responsible for the act's success. "I earned $1,500 a week when I was 6, and I knew exactly how I got the laughs and the applause," she said. "There were nine numbers in our act. I did seven of them."
She lived an exhausting childhood, being dragged from town to town and forced onstage even with chicken pox. Her mother ground through whatever money her daughters earned. Pushed to her limit, June said she suffered a nervous breakdown at age 10, and at age 13, to break free from her mother, she eloped with Bobby Reed, a vaudeville performer. The union did not last.
After the vaudeville era, June fell on hard times, sleeping in public parks while her sister rose to the heights of burlesque and lived in luxury as Gypsy Rose Lee. To earn enough money to eat, she worked the grueling Depression-era dance marathon dance circuit, which she later depicted in her critically acclaimed play Marathon '33, which had a short Broadway run and earned her a Tony award nomination.
Over the years, June took strong exception to Gypsy and wrote three memoirs to make her point. She resented that Gypsy made her mother seem abrasive but ultimately good-hearted when, June said, her mother was a "man trap," physically threatening, and emotionally disturbed. Moreover, June was aghast at how Gypsy demoted her to a secondary character when she was in fact the high-kicking star of the act.