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Early Havoc
She could dance on her toes when she was eighteen months old (and by heaven she had to!).
June Havoc is the famous younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, and the daughter of Mrs. Rose Hovick, whose life story was fancifully portrayed by Ethel Merman in the 1959 smash-hit Broadway musical Gypsy.
In Early Havoc, June tells quite another story, the inside story of a ruthless, conscienceless, ambition-driven woman who stripped her own daughters of their childhood. Early Havoc is a book that gets beneath the glitter of “show biz,”, and reveals the savage reality, as only the real autobiography of a trouper can.
“A remarkable show-business document that might be titled ‘How to Make Good in Spite of Mother, Men and Marathons!’—TIME
“Tensely dramatic…these are the years in which a child and a girl were beaten, pounded and shaped into womanhood.”—New York Herald Tribune
June Havoc is the famous younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, and the daughter of Mrs. Rose Hovick, whose life story was fancifully portrayed by Ethel Merman in the 1959 smash-hit Broadway musical Gypsy.
In Early Havoc, June tells quite another story, the inside story of a ruthless, conscienceless, ambition-driven woman who stripped her own daughters of their childhood. Early Havoc is a book that gets beneath the glitter of “show biz,”, and reveals the savage reality, as only the real autobiography of a trouper can.
“A remarkable show-business document that might be titled ‘How to Make Good in Spite of Mother, Men and Marathons!’—TIME
“Tensely dramatic…these are the years in which a child and a girl were beaten, pounded and shaped into womanhood.”—New York Herald Tribune
313 pages
First published October 15, 2011
32 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
June Havoc
5 books4 followersBirth name Ellen June Evangeline Hovick. Canadian-born American actress, dancer, writer, and stage director.
Havoc was a child vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother Rose Thompson Hovick.She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood, and stage-directed, both on and off-Broadway. She last appeared on television in 1990 in a story arc on the soap opera General Hospital. Her elder sister Louise gravitated to burlesque and became the well-known ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee.
Havoc was married three times & has authored books about her life.
Havoc was a child vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother Rose Thompson Hovick.She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood, and stage-directed, both on and off-Broadway. She last appeared on television in 1990 in a story arc on the soap opera General Hospital. Her elder sister Louise gravitated to burlesque and became the well-known ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee.
Havoc was married three times & has authored books about her life.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 7, 2017
June Havoc, also known as June Hovick, also known as Baby June, Dainty Baby June, or Dainty June, and finally known as "Gypsy Rose Lee's younger sister" wrote this book about her early years, spanning from her earliest memories through about the age of 14, after she had left the act and started on the marathon dance circuit.
The book switches back and forth between her time in Vaudeville and her first marathon dance. I had never really heard of or knew much about marathon dancing, and her descriptions of it is one of the most brutal unethical horrendous things I can imagine. I'm sure, much like her sister's memoir Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper it's highly fictionalized, but certainly the brutality and the heartlessness of the Vaudeville Circuit, marathon dancing, and (most infamously) June's mother Rose all ring true. June's mother comes off as especially unhinged - not just a delusional stage mother but a true narcissist.
Much like in Gypsy's book, there are a lot of descriptions of their mother and very little of the other sister - one gets the feeling that each one was writing her memoir while carefully circling the ring regarding what to say about the other. Also, interestingly, June's self-deprecation comes off as more truthful than Gypsy's - Gypsy was always willing to say something humble about herself...as long as it ended with a joke or a twist that ultimately gave her the high ground. June appeared to simply have self-awareness of her flaws and not a lot of compunction to hide them, even when they didn't flatter her.
Definitely an interesting memoir written by the overshadowed member of the Hovick family, and even if you don't know who ANY of these people are, reading about these dance marathons is enough to keep you hooked.
Unfortunately I think it's out of print - I got mine from a third hand seller on Amazon and it looks like an old library copy.
The book switches back and forth between her time in Vaudeville and her first marathon dance. I had never really heard of or knew much about marathon dancing, and her descriptions of it is one of the most brutal unethical horrendous things I can imagine. I'm sure, much like her sister's memoir Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper it's highly fictionalized, but certainly the brutality and the heartlessness of the Vaudeville Circuit, marathon dancing, and (most infamously) June's mother Rose all ring true. June's mother comes off as especially unhinged - not just a delusional stage mother but a true narcissist.
Much like in Gypsy's book, there are a lot of descriptions of their mother and very little of the other sister - one gets the feeling that each one was writing her memoir while carefully circling the ring regarding what to say about the other. Also, interestingly, June's self-deprecation comes off as more truthful than Gypsy's - Gypsy was always willing to say something humble about herself...as long as it ended with a joke or a twist that ultimately gave her the high ground. June appeared to simply have self-awareness of her flaws and not a lot of compunction to hide them, even when they didn't flatter her.
Definitely an interesting memoir written by the overshadowed member of the Hovick family, and even if you don't know who ANY of these people are, reading about these dance marathons is enough to keep you hooked.
Unfortunately I think it's out of print - I got mine from a third hand seller on Amazon and it looks like an old library copy.
September 7, 2019
June Havoc was the younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee. Their mother was in vaudeville, and the girls were brought up in the life of troupers. My understanding is that June had the greater acting talent of the two and made a career of it, whereas her more famous sister was less of an actor and more of a personality. As such, the tales of Gypsy Rose Lee are said to be more legend than fact. I think Havoc wrote this book, along with her follow-up, More Havoc, to set the record straight. I think a third volume had been planned but was never published.
Havoc's two memoirs are stylistically distinct from each other, and in some ways contradict each other. If you want to read them, you'll want to take them in order, this one first. "Early Havoc" is somewhat fictionalized and told in intervals, switching between an endless marathon dance and her early life. The dance marathon was an entertainment craze of the era, and participants competed to be the last couple standing -- these went on for days, with only the briefest of breaks -- and win prizes. In her early days of marriage (a desperate escape from an overbearing mother) and striking out on her own, Havoc participated in dance marathons, and was apparently a winner. I was more touched by this immersion into the endless dance than I was by better-known They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?.
The follow-up "More Havoc" is a more brutal and straightforward tale of Havoc's struggle to grow beyond the influence of her dysfunctional family and her driven-but-mentally-ill mother.
It's interesting to read the various memoirs and viewpoints about this family and try to discern the underlying truth. My sense is "More Havoc" is probably the most honest, but it's hard to say.
This book will be of interest to people who are curious about the phenomenon of grueling dance marathon (it's quite a ride!) or want firsthand tales of trouping. Havoc also wrote a play about the dance, Marathon '33.
Havoc's two memoirs are stylistically distinct from each other, and in some ways contradict each other. If you want to read them, you'll want to take them in order, this one first. "Early Havoc" is somewhat fictionalized and told in intervals, switching between an endless marathon dance and her early life. The dance marathon was an entertainment craze of the era, and participants competed to be the last couple standing -- these went on for days, with only the briefest of breaks -- and win prizes. In her early days of marriage (a desperate escape from an overbearing mother) and striking out on her own, Havoc participated in dance marathons, and was apparently a winner. I was more touched by this immersion into the endless dance than I was by better-known They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?.
The follow-up "More Havoc" is a more brutal and straightforward tale of Havoc's struggle to grow beyond the influence of her dysfunctional family and her driven-but-mentally-ill mother.
It's interesting to read the various memoirs and viewpoints about this family and try to discern the underlying truth. My sense is "More Havoc" is probably the most honest, but it's hard to say.
This book will be of interest to people who are curious about the phenomenon of grueling dance marathon (it's quite a ride!) or want firsthand tales of trouping. Havoc also wrote a play about the dance, Marathon '33.
August 23, 2020
I came to this book because, while reading a biography of Gypsy Rose Lee, I became almost more interested in June than in Gypsy. How did she make her way after leaving? What were these dance marathons? I also had a lot of sympathy for her- more than for Gypsy, to be honest.
I learned a lot about June from this book, but it was also more well-written than I thought it would be, and I was pleasantly impressed by it as a work of literature. June juxtaposes her brutal experience in her first dance marathon with flashbacks/memories of her childhood with the sociopathic Mama Rose. Louise (Gypsy) is a rather distant and shadowy figure, but maybe that's how she felt to June in life. With everyone else, June is a sharp and detailed observer of character, funny, insightful, and sometimes (especially in the marathon) bleak.
By the end, I very much wanted to keep following her story, and so will probably read her second memoir as well.
I learned a lot about June from this book, but it was also more well-written than I thought it would be, and I was pleasantly impressed by it as a work of literature. June juxtaposes her brutal experience in her first dance marathon with flashbacks/memories of her childhood with the sociopathic Mama Rose. Louise (Gypsy) is a rather distant and shadowy figure, but maybe that's how she felt to June in life. With everyone else, June is a sharp and detailed observer of character, funny, insightful, and sometimes (especially in the marathon) bleak.
By the end, I very much wanted to keep following her story, and so will probably read her second memoir as well.
Read
December 28, 2021Hmmmmm. Biographies are very revealing -- even if you doubt their truth, even if you think their voice is not sincere. I read another book that mentions "Early Havoc" and that author said it was full of dramatic, mis-remembered incidents. I still found value in the subtext.
July 2, 2022
This 1959 memoir of June Havoc (a.k.a. Baby June, a.k.a. Dainty June of Dainty June and her Farmboys, a.k.a. baby sister of Gypsy Rose Lee) offers Havoc's own take on her juvenile years in vaudeville—which by the time of its publication had been addressed much more famously in her sister's book and the musical based upon it, Gypsy. Havoc's narrative alternates, however, with the actress' subsequent career—carved out of financial desperation—in marathon dancing, that Depression-era spectacle in which contestants attempted to remain on their feet for thousands of hours at a time for a decidedly average cash prize.
Early Havoc is hardly a literary masterpiece. It often feels, in fact, as if it's been ghost written by committee. What's most remarkable in it is Havoc's memories of the teenaged Rose Louise as a statuesque beauty, graceful and cultured, swanning about with perfect posture and a volume of Baudelaire eternally in her hand. It's not exactly the gangly tomboy in a cow costume intoning "Moo-moo, moo-moo," that the musical would have us envision.
The stories Havoc share of her mother in Early Havoc might have once come off as colorful or humorous. Now, though, they mostly read as appalling. Madame Rose driving a down-on-his-luck female impersonator nearly to suicide, after she steals his wildly expensive wig and flushes it down a toilet, seems less impish than outright horrifying; Havoc presents her mother's and grandmother's hinted involvement with organized crime and (maybe?) murder as mere character quirks, instead of as problematic, and consistently downplays the dangers and exploitation that were her childhood norm.
As a vintage show business autobiography, Early Havoc is a fun read. But its glimpses into the vanished world of marathon dancing are ultimately more interesting than the retread of the material popularized by Gypsy.
Early Havoc is hardly a literary masterpiece. It often feels, in fact, as if it's been ghost written by committee. What's most remarkable in it is Havoc's memories of the teenaged Rose Louise as a statuesque beauty, graceful and cultured, swanning about with perfect posture and a volume of Baudelaire eternally in her hand. It's not exactly the gangly tomboy in a cow costume intoning "Moo-moo, moo-moo," that the musical would have us envision.
The stories Havoc share of her mother in Early Havoc might have once come off as colorful or humorous. Now, though, they mostly read as appalling. Madame Rose driving a down-on-his-luck female impersonator nearly to suicide, after she steals his wildly expensive wig and flushes it down a toilet, seems less impish than outright horrifying; Havoc presents her mother's and grandmother's hinted involvement with organized crime and (maybe?) murder as mere character quirks, instead of as problematic, and consistently downplays the dangers and exploitation that were her childhood norm.
As a vintage show business autobiography, Early Havoc is a fun read. But its glimpses into the vanished world of marathon dancing are ultimately more interesting than the retread of the material popularized by Gypsy.
May 7, 2011
The real 'Dainty June' of 'Gypsy' writes beautifully about enduring the grind of a Depression Era dance marathon.
June 21, 2020
A lovely story about early show business. Compellingly told with vivid descriptions. Well worth a read.
April 15, 2023
The little sister of Gypsy Rose Lee
When their oddball mother who was a handful passed away, Gypsy wrote her memoirs, which led to the musical Gypsy, and her little sister wanted to correct the narrative.... and for a short while they wouldn't even be on speaking terms with each other.
Gypsy born a year earlier in Seattle, Washington
June born a year later in Vancouver, British Columbia
Norwegian father - German mother
June outlived her sister by 40 years by laying off the Lucky Strikes.
June was in
1942 Four Jacks and a Jill [with Ray Bolger and Desi Arnaz]
1942 Sing Your Worries Away [with Bert Lahr and Buddy Ebsen]
1942 Powder Town [with Edmond O'Brien]
1942 My Sister Eileen [with Rosalind Russell]
1943 No Time for Love [with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray and Yvonne De Carlo]]
1943 Hi Diddle Diddle [with Pola Negri]
1944 Casanova in Burlesque [with Joe E. Brown]
1945 Brewster's Millions [with Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson and Neil Hamilton]
[The Jack Benny Program and Batman]
1947 Intrigue [with George Raft]
1947 Gentleman's Agreement [with Gregory Peck]
1948 The Iron Curtain [with Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney]
1948 When My Baby Smiles at Me [with Betty Grable]
1949 Red, Hot and Blue [with Victor Mature and William Demarest]
[Uncle Charley from My Three Sons]
1949 Chicago Deadline [with Alan Ladd and Donna Reed]
1949 The Story of Molly X
1950 Once a Thief [with Cesar Romero]
1952 Lady Possessed [with James Mason]
1954-1955 Willy [TV Series]
1957 Studio One [TV Series]
1960 The Untouchables [TV Series]
1964 Burke's Law [TV Series]
1964 The Outer Limits [TV Series]
1971 McMillan & Wife [TV Series]
1979 The Paper Chase [TV Series]
1987-1989 Murder She Wrote [TV Series]
---
She even did a 1954 Sitcom for Desilu called Willy
which got reruns in the 1950s and was never seen on the television again
maybe it's still in the Desilu vaults
18 September 1954-7 July 1955
---
In the 1950s, Havoc was a frequent performer on the anthology television series, both filmed, such as General Electric Theater, and live, such as the Peabody Award-winning Celanese Theatre, the Emmy Award-winning Robert Montgomery Presents and Omnibus.
She starred in a weekly half hour series Willy during the 1954–1955 television season.
In some respects, the show was ahead of its time in that Havoc's character, Willa “Willy” Dodger, was an unmarried lawyer with her own legal practice in a small New England town.
Lucille Ball had encouraged her to star in a weekly series, and the show was a Desilu production.
Like I Love Lucy, Willy was filmed before a live studio audience.
Her husband, William Spier, was the producer.
Willy was broadcast on CBS at 10:30 p.m. on Saturdays opposite the popular NBC series, Your Hit Parade. Midway through the season, an attempt was made to increase ratings by having Havoc's character relocate to New York to represent show business clients; however, the show lasted only one season.
---
Quotes
I admire education so much. Intelligence, erudition. But this is just where I want to be. I have respect for skill, for craft, the way the vaudevillians did. I adored Liberace. He and my sister drew attention to themselves with sequins and rhinestones, which I love in the right role. But it is a very small club, the people I want to be associated with. The life I want is not special in any sense of the word. The approval I've worked for is in very small print. I drive a Honda, I don't wear jewelry. I guess, in that way, I'm like my mother.
I wish my sister [Gypsy Rose Lee] hadn't died at an early age. That she could have had the exquisite joy of growing old. It's just not fair to be cheated out of that.
Everybody died. My sister, my mother, my husband. Almost all at the same time. I have no family nearby, I don't have anyone, I guess, to depend on. It turns out I've always been the one. People think you're so self-sufficient if you're good at what you do. It gets you the title of a strong woman and being one can be many things. It attracts people who need strength. I'm not against that. Everything good feeds back.
I wasn't the beauty mother dreamed of. When I finally left, I said, "Look at me, Mom. I'm not dainty. I'm not a baby. It's all gone. Where do I go now? Because I am a gawky 12-year-old with no education. I'm not cute". The numbers I had learned to do weren't the style of the day. Let vaudeville die. I didn't want to die with it. But she was convinced vaudeville would come back. And I said, "I know I'm only 12 years old, but there is something out there better than this".
I was never in an amateur contest in my life, like the opening scene in Gypsy (1962). That hurt me so.
My sister was beautiful and clever - and ruthless. My mother was endearing and adorable - and lethal. They were the same person. I was the fool of the family. The one who thought I really was loved for me, for myself.
January 1, 2023
"... this dainty, delightful fey-like elf - this dream dollbaby, the youngest toe dancer in the world."
Unless you're familiar with vaudeville, you probably haven't heard of Baby June - the tiny toe dancer that took the stage by storm, but maybe you've heard of her sister, the infamous strip-tease queen Gypsy Rose Lee. In Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper, Gypsy describes her childhood on the road with June and June's harsh exit from their world, which catapulted Gypsy to be the star... Of course, there are two sides to every story and "Early Havoc" parallels that story in June's own words.
"Early Havoc" is written in two time periods of June's youth (1920-1930's ish): from her vaudeville years, to her exit & early marriage and to right after, with her experience in a Depression Era dance marathon. While I knew what I was getting into with her stage stories, I was floored by her dance marathon stories. I knew very little about dance marathon in the '30's and it sounded intense, fascinating, wild, horrifying and dangerous.
I was unsure how I would fare with this memoir, while I loved "Gypsy", "Early Havoc" garnered much less attention and is out of print. I was scared this would be a rough vintage read, but it was compelling, genuine and an enchanting page turner. I can't wait to read more about dance marathons (looking at you They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) and more about June's life (More Havoc).
All in all, a transfixing memoir for fans of theater/dance and/or the Great Depression dance marathons... a true peak behind the curtain.
"Ladies and gentlemen, look at that floor. What do you see? A handful of weary but determined kids, footsore after weeks of going without sleep or any of the normal comforts necessary to mankind."
Unless you're familiar with vaudeville, you probably haven't heard of Baby June - the tiny toe dancer that took the stage by storm, but maybe you've heard of her sister, the infamous strip-tease queen Gypsy Rose Lee. In Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper, Gypsy describes her childhood on the road with June and June's harsh exit from their world, which catapulted Gypsy to be the star... Of course, there are two sides to every story and "Early Havoc" parallels that story in June's own words.
"Early Havoc" is written in two time periods of June's youth (1920-1930's ish): from her vaudeville years, to her exit & early marriage and to right after, with her experience in a Depression Era dance marathon. While I knew what I was getting into with her stage stories, I was floored by her dance marathon stories. I knew very little about dance marathon in the '30's and it sounded intense, fascinating, wild, horrifying and dangerous.
I was unsure how I would fare with this memoir, while I loved "Gypsy", "Early Havoc" garnered much less attention and is out of print. I was scared this would be a rough vintage read, but it was compelling, genuine and an enchanting page turner. I can't wait to read more about dance marathons (looking at you They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) and more about June's life (More Havoc).
All in all, a transfixing memoir for fans of theater/dance and/or the Great Depression dance marathons... a true peak behind the curtain.
"Ladies and gentlemen, look at that floor. What do you see? A handful of weary but determined kids, footsore after weeks of going without sleep or any of the normal comforts necessary to mankind."
September 28, 2024
In 1957, Gypsy Rose Lee published her autobiography. It was a best seller. Two years later, in 1959, the musical Gypsy, based on that autobiography, became a Broadway smash. Also in 1959, Gypsy's younger sister, June, published her autobiography. It was not as financially successful, and it is not as artistically successful, But if you are interested in show business and popular culture of the 20's and 30's, it's interesting to read what "Dainty June" has to say.
First a comment on the flawed structure of this book. Half the chapters are about June's participation in her first dance marathon, which lasted over 2,000 hours. These chapters can get tedious, even though I was interested in learning about these dance marathons. I have seen references to them in cultural histories but didn't know how they worked, why they existed, or why people watched them or participated in them. Now I understand that.
Interspersed among the dance marathon chapters are chapters about June's growing up in vaudeville. Even though she shares different memories from her sister, they agree on the basics. They both portray their mother as an unscrupulous opportunist. But Gypsy portrays her mother with a humorous flair; June does not. Gypsy's memoir is written to entertain. June's is written--at least in part--to exorcise her exasperations with her mother.
I was also interested in June's assessment of her sister's ability. Gypsy, in her memoir, portrays herself as being devoid of talent, unable to sing or dance, barely able to stay in the act. June has a different assessment. She agrees that her sister couldn't sing or dance, but insists that she had natural comic timing, lots of stage presence and, as she got older, impressive good looks. June also asserts that her sister was as much of a self-promoter as her mother. Thus, June does not find her sister's success in burlesque as surprising at all.
Bottom line: if you are interested in the subject matter, this is a book worth reading.
First a comment on the flawed structure of this book. Half the chapters are about June's participation in her first dance marathon, which lasted over 2,000 hours. These chapters can get tedious, even though I was interested in learning about these dance marathons. I have seen references to them in cultural histories but didn't know how they worked, why they existed, or why people watched them or participated in them. Now I understand that.
Interspersed among the dance marathon chapters are chapters about June's growing up in vaudeville. Even though she shares different memories from her sister, they agree on the basics. They both portray their mother as an unscrupulous opportunist. But Gypsy portrays her mother with a humorous flair; June does not. Gypsy's memoir is written to entertain. June's is written--at least in part--to exorcise her exasperations with her mother.
I was also interested in June's assessment of her sister's ability. Gypsy, in her memoir, portrays herself as being devoid of talent, unable to sing or dance, barely able to stay in the act. June has a different assessment. She agrees that her sister couldn't sing or dance, but insists that she had natural comic timing, lots of stage presence and, as she got older, impressive good looks. June also asserts that her sister was as much of a self-promoter as her mother. Thus, June does not find her sister's success in burlesque as surprising at all.
Bottom line: if you are interested in the subject matter, this is a book worth reading.
January 21, 2022
Poverty, stage mothering, and the exploitative depression-era dance marathon craze take center stage in this visceral memoir penned by former child vaudevillian (Dainty) June Havoc. Sister of the infamous Gypsy Rose Lee, Havoc realizes long before her mother does, that Dainty June has outgrown the toe dancing and slapstick that once earned her a place on stage at the Palace. In the first of two memoirs, Havoc paints an unforgettable portrait, in full carny patois, of her first attempts to escape the family business as the world of grease paint and stone soup that formed her slips away.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2025
Blending the story of Baby (later Dainty June) familiar to anyone who ever experienced the musical GYPSY with Ms Havocs introduction to Depression era Dance Marathons and the seedy practices employed to "give the people what they want". Fascinating birds eye view of a slice of life, specific to a time and place. June details the loss of dreams, hope and humanity without embellishment and with grit and truth.
May 1, 2020
Wonderful read,
Incredible story, powerfully written. I read this book years ago when it was first published, and I was just as impressed this time around. Another side of the fascinating “Gypsy” saga.
Incredible story, powerfully written. I read this book years ago when it was first published, and I was just as impressed this time around. Another side of the fascinating “Gypsy” saga.
August 2, 2015
It was very interesting to hear June's side of the story regarding her childhood. It was a light read, and interesting.
April 15, 2021
I wanted to know Baby June
What an interesting life—first with Mama Rose and then the dance marathon. I had no idea about the grind she lived through. I want to know more.
What an interesting life—first with Mama Rose and then the dance marathon. I had no idea about the grind she lived through. I want to know more.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews