You Gotta Have A Gimmick - from "Gypsy"

The strippers explain the Secret of a Successful Stripping Career in Burlesque to Rose Louise.
Gypsy (1962) directed by Mervyn LeRoy, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
Natalie Wood as Louise 'Gypsy Rose Lee' Hovick, Betty Bruce as Tessie Tura, Faith Dane as Mazeppa, Roxanne Arlen as Electra
"If you wanna bump it, Bump it wid a trumpet."

• Category

  Entertainment

[oxfordruse]

‎"Sing out, Louise!"

"Have a goldstone, Mr Eggroll."

"You'll be swell! You'll be great!"

"To be a stripper, all you need to have is no talent."

"If I coulda been, I woulda been. And that's showbusiness."

- Gypsy: A Musical Fable in five seconds.

[SenseOrSensibility]

The trumpet-playing stripper sounds like Howard's mother on "Big Bang Theory!"

[Ae Falzon]

Great scene, however it is the music of the ballet that gets me. It is both classy and cheap at the same time. I wonder who wrote it?

[lizkey4]

Yes. I knew there had to be something in the Hays Code about it I just couldn't think to look. Thank you. LOL I wouldn't see the navel as resembling such. Quite the thinkers, back then.

[wabewawa61]

Yep, the Hays Code banned exposure of the navel because it simulated an "erogenic orifice."

[kcirish]

Natalie Wood looks so young here. What an iconic actress

[Eric Dupont]

If you wanna bump it, bump it with a trumpet! Genius!!

[Rex Spence]

AND YOU LACK A F'ING BRAIN!!!!

[jeff guenette]

Every young queen's best number.

[owlzowlz]

"If you wanna bump it: bump it with a trumpet!" My favourite line in any musical.

[VValkyrie]

No belly buttons - Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie did not show her belly button either.

[lizkey4]

Was there some sort of law or unspoken rule that they could fully show their midriff in the 50s-60s? Even if the show was about strippers? Were belly buttons unsightly?