Born on 12 January 1884 in Waco, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan played a gun-slinger and rode bareback in silent films, took New York by storm in 1906, and earned a salary of $700,000 as a speakeasy hostess. Here are highlights from a life led at full speed until 5 November 1933. Meet TEXAS GUINAN!

Friday, March 31, 2006

Texas: April Foolish


TEXAS GUINAN said:
"A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country."

• • IMAGE_source:_T.W.S._http://www.theworriedshrimp.com/
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Texas Guinan.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Texas: South O' Santa Fe - 1919

Before she came to New York for good, Texas Guinan was an accomplished equestrian - - born and bred in Waco, Texas - - who starred in silent films. In 1919 "South O' Santa Fe" was made for the Frohman Amusement Corp. as a two-reeler.

• • Costars included George Chesebro, Jack Richardson, Anna Purdon, and Donna Wayne.
• • Synopsis: Anna Purdon hires Texas Guinan as the foreman of her ranch where she must deal with an unruly group of ranch hands along with Anna's philandering husband.
• • Run time: 25 minutes
• • The Library of Congress has preserved the movie. [This 1919 film is in the Public Domain.]

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• • photos from the film starring Texas Guinan •

Texas Guinan.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Texas Guinan: 1929 Seance Mystery

Spirits that broke the law of probabilities rather than the Volstead Act appeared early yesterday morning at Texas Guinan's Club Intime [203 West 54th Street, between Broadway & 7th Avenue] to entertain a selected circle of Manhattan celebrities.

Miss Guinan was giving a party, and it took the form of a spiritualistic seance, reported The N.Y. Times [5 March 1929].
• • As actress Ethel Barrymore, The New Yorker's Heywood Broun, and Park Avenue swells held hands, apparitions appeared. According to The Times, "First the spirit of Rudolph Valentino strummed the gay guitar. Then the ghost of Arnold Rothstein avoided astutely a question as to who shot him." [It's known where the gun was found but what does that prove, right?]

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• • Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ziegler (of 575 Park Avenue) left early with a Viennese guest Margot Colin, who didn't like spooks and "all that darkness with white hands in the air and everything." That's when Margot discovered her jewels were missing.
• • Curiously, Mae West's name doesn't come up. However, the Broadway headliner was living here in April 1928, right after "Diamond Lil" opened on Broadway to great acclaim. Then called the Hotel Harding, this 12-story building also housed the mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond and Texas Guinan's gun-toting nightclub manager Hyman "Feets" Edson. Also located here was the speakeasy Club Abbey, where Dutch Schultz was shot in a turf battle over Broadway beer-running rights in 1931.
• • Texas Guinan got Mae West interested in seances in 1926.
• • Certainly, since the residents witnessed enough bloodshed, murder, and mayhem on the premises, it must have been child's play to summon up at least a few ghosts.
• • During the run of "Diamond Lil," Mae bought her own townhouse and moved out.
• • Subsequently, the Hotel Harding was renamed "Hotel Alba" to distance the sleazy building from its history of horrifying rub-outs and scandals that occurred here when the area was known as the Tenderloin.
• • Have all the prostitutes, druglords, crack addicts, and unsavoury types moved out? The ghosts don't believe that for a minute.
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• • photo of building that housed Texas Guinan's speakeasy Club Intime •

Texas Guinan.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Texas: Spirit of Cabin Mine 1919

Before she came to New York for good, Texas Guinan was an expert rider - - born and bred in Waco, Texas - - who starred in silent films. In 1919 "The Spirit of Cabin Mine" was made for the Frohman Amusement Corp. as a two-reeler.

• • SYNOPSIS: Texas Guinan was kidnapped as a baby and raised by the indian who killed her mother. Now grown, Texas spurns the advances of the reservation agent and foils his plans to steal gold from a miner, who turns out to be her real father.
• • The Library of Congress has preserved the movie. [This 1919 film is in the Public Domain.]
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• • photos from the film starring Texas Guinan •

Texas Guinan.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Texas: Gun Woman - 1918

Capable of shooting sparks of charisma across the stage of the Manhattan Opera House as well as a prairie, Texas Guinan strapped on her holster in 1918, shortly after her 34th birthday.

Energetic and electrifying in person, Texas loved nothing more than a new challenge. Years before she became a nightclub hostess in The Big Apple and carried a gun for protection, Texas played the role of a saloon-keeper out West onscreen.
• • Triangle Film Corp. produced this "Silent Western" and released it on 8 February 1918.
• • Gun Woman was directed by Frank Borzage; it co-starred Francis McDonald and Edward Brady.
• • Synopsis: Texas Guinan plays a saloon-keeper who falls in love with the wrong guy. She lends him money to buy a house expecting that they will soon be married. Taking the money, the varmint moves to another town and starts his own saloon. Texas gets her revenge, of course. [Run time: 62 minutes. The Library of Congress has preserved the movie.]
• • Photographs from Gun Woman.
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Texas Guinan.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Texas Guinan: March 1929

March 1929: Texas Guinan's latest film - - "QUEEN of the NIGHT CLUBS" - - was ready to be seen by the public.

To benefit a press agents' "variety artists" charity, Texas allowed them to offer a premiere of this exciting b/w photoplay, part musical and part drama. The event was scheduled for early March at the famed Hippodrome on Sixth Avenue. In April, this film had its public debut in Manhattan.
• • William Davidson, playing an Assistant District Attorney, gets an earful from speakeasy hostess "Texas Malone" in this scene.

• • Queen of the Night Clubs (1929)
• • Directed by Bryan Foy
• • Written by: Addison Burkhard & Murray Roth
• • • Complete credited cast • • •
Texas Guinan .... Texas Malone
John Davidson .... Don Holland
Lila Lee .... Bea Walters
Arthur Housman .... Andy Quinland
Eddie Foy Jr. .... Eddie Parr
Jack Norworth .... Phil Parr
George Raft .... Gigola
Jimmy Phillips .... Nick
William B. Davidson .... Assistant District Attorney (as William Davidson)
John Miljan .... Lawyer Grant
Lee Shumway .... Crandall
Joseph Depew .... Roy
Agnes Franey .... Flapper
Charlotte Merriam .... Girl
James T. Mack .... Judge
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Texas Guinan.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Texas: March 2, 1919

On 2 March 1919, Texas Guinan put this ad in The New York Times [@ 45 cents per line]:
- - Furnished - West Side - -

8th Street - 17 WEST. (Off 5th Av., Washington Square District.) - - Beautifully furnished apartment: piano, fireplace, furnace heat, telephone, electricity, gas; must be someone who appreciates a handsomely furnished home. Telephone 620 Stuyvesant. Texas Guinan.
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• • photo: Texas Guinan's home • unfortunately, 17 West 8th looks hideous now

Texas Guinan.