I’ve taken an unconscionably long time in generating a dedicated post on June Havoc ( Ellen Evangeline Hovick, 1912-2010). I’m sure it’s because she was mentioned in my post about her sister Gypsy Rose Lee, which seems pretty perfunctory itself 15 years down the line. Havoc’s career was plenty remarkable so we attempt restitution today.
Havoc was one of the more entertaining old timers to give testimony in the imperfect 1997 PBS documentary Vaudeville, stagey, affected, full of stories, just what you’d want her to be. Fans of Gypsy and the autobiography it was based on know at least the thumbnail version of her early career. She was the younger of the two sisters but more precocious and deemed cuter so the vaudeville kiddie act was built around her. Mama Rose was a maniacally driven stage mother, alienating the girls’ father Jack Hovick, an ad agent and reporter for the Seattle Times. The girls started out on the Pantages Circuit based out of the Pacific Northwest, though when June was still small she appeared in some Hal Roach comedy shorts in Los Angeles, including Hey There (1918) with Harold Lloyd. Ballet lessons allowed her to dance in act with Pavlova. By late childhood she had grown from “Baby June” to “Dainty June” in an act called “Dainty June and Her Newsboys”. In 1928, when June was 16 (not 13 as often reported) she ran off and eloped with one of her Newsboys, and was thus finally out from under the controlling thumb of her mother.
Unfortunately, soon after that both vaudeville and her marriage had folded. By 1930, Havoc was a mother herself, an unmarried one at that. She made ends meet by participating in dance marathons (later the subject of her play Marathon ’33), and by modeling, eventually making inroads in musical comedy and performances at Catskills resorts. Havoc premiered on Broadway in Forbidden Melody in 1936 and was a staple on the Great White Way for the next four decades. She co-starred in the original production of Pal Joey (1940) with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson, followed by the original productions of Mexican Hayride (1944), Sadie Thompson (1944, based on Somerset Maugham’s Rain), and Dream Girl (1945).
Yet while her stage success did lead to a movie career, none of Hovic’s dozen or so motion pictures included the screen versions of those stage successes. Most of her movies were B movie musicals, though she did occasionally get smaller roles in more significant pictures. Her screen credits include Four Jacks and a Jill (1942), Sing Your Worries Away (1942 with Bert Lahr and Buddy Ebsen), My Sister Eileen (1942), Hello Frisco Hello (1943), Casanova in Burlesque (1944, with Joe E. Brown — interesting because unlike Gypsy, June was never in burlesque), the 1945 version of Brewster’s Millions, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), the vaudeville yarn When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948), Red Hot and Blue (1949), and The Story of Molly X (1949). Through the ’40s she also acted frequently in radio.
In the ’50s she acted in live television dramas and even starred in her own series Willy (1954) produced by Desilu. She directed a regional revival of Gypsy’s play The Naked Genius that same year, and thereafter worked frequently as a director while still acting on Broadway and in road productions for decades to come. In 1958 she starred in the Broadway premiere of Cocteau’s The Infernal Machine. Meantime, Gypsy’s 1957 autobiography had come out, followed by the 1959 musical and 1962 film. Havoc objected to her depiction as a spoiled little brat in these depictions and countered with her own memoir Early Havoc in 1959. The two later had a rapprochement — June would appear on Gypsy’s L.A. talk show nearly two dozen times in the mid ’60s.
Othe TV variety and talk programs Havoc appeared on included The Milton Berle Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Red Skelton Hour, Person to Person, The Arthur Murray Party, The George Jessel Show, The Tonight Show with Johny Carson, etc.
Havoc was deeply immersed in live theatre throughout the ’60s, highlights included playing Sabina in regional productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, directing and starring in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, performing in an all-star Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight, and much else, culminating with her assuming the artistic directorship of the Repertory Theatre, New Orleans in 1970 (lasting just one season).
On TV you could see her on The Outer Limits, McMillan & Wife, Murder She Wrote and numerous soap operas. She was in the 1980 Village People movie Can’t Stop the Music, starred in the national tour of Sweeney Todd (1981), then went into the Broadway cast of Annie (1982) and then mounted her own woman show An Unexpected Evening with June Havoc (or Baby June Remembers) in 1983. Her last theatrical film was A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987). There’s much more than this — I’m just hitting some of the high points. June Havoc was still appearing as a talking head in show biz documentaries into the 21st century. She died at age 97.
For more on show business history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.