She drags June and her shy, awkward, and decidedly less-talented older sister Louise around the country in an effort to get them noticed, and with the help of agent Herbie Sommers, finally manages to secure a booking on the prestigious Orpheum Circuit.

Devastated by what she sees as betrayal, Rose pours all her energy into making a success of Louise, despite her obvious lack of skill as a performer.

Herbie sticks with mother and daughter through their struggles, vainly hoping that Rose will one day quit show business and settle down with him.

At first, Louise's voice is shaky, and her moves tentative, but she gains confidence as audiences respond to her, eventually blossoming as an entertainer billed as Gypsy Rose Lee.

Exasperated by her mother's constant interference in both her life and wildly successful career, Louise finally confronts Rose and demands she leave her alone.

Understanding that she has spent her life enslaved by a desperate need to be noticed and has driven everyone away, an angry, bitter, and bewildered Rose stumbles onstage at the deserted theatre and experiences an emotional breakdown.

[2] Rosalind Russell and her husband Frederick Brisson were hoping to do a straight dramatic version of the story based directly on the memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee, but the book was tied to the rights to the play.

In later years, Russell's original vocals were rediscovered on scratchy acetate discs and included as bonus tracks on the CD reissue of the film's soundtrack.

The sequence is thoroughly welcome and almost desperately needed to counteract a certain Jane One-Note implicit in the tale of a stage mother whose egotisms become something of a bore despite the canny skills of director-producer Mervyn LeRoy to contrive it otherwise.

Rosalind Russell's performance as the smalltime brood-hen deserves commendation...It is interesting to watch [Natalie Wood]...go through the motions in a burlesque world that is prettied up in soft-focus and a kind of phony innocence.