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!

Monday, November 30, 2015

Texas Guinan: The She Wolf

Between 1917 — 1922, TEXAS GUINAN had a career in silent flickers, where she rode a horse, shot a gun, and did her own stunts in numerous two-reelers. In 1919, her film "The She Wolf" was released.
• • "At the Grand" • •
• • Texas Guinan, who has been called the female Bill Hart, comes to the Grand today in a regulation Western melodrama called "The She Wolf." Miss Guinan is the only delineator of the good—bad woman in pictures, and this fact would make her conspicuous regardless of her performance.
• • It happens, however, that she contributes a splendid bit of acting — — a bit of acting which will remind you of Bill Hart.  Miss Guinan claims that she can do anything that the Western screen star Bill Hart can do. And this picture goes a long ways toward proving that there is merit to her claim. This picture will be shown tomorrow also. 
• • Source:  Item in The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin); published on Saturday, 26 July 1919
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • self caricature • •

Texas Guinan.

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Saturday, November 28, 2015

Texas Guinan: Leopard Dance

Drena had been a featured dancer with TEXAS GUINAN for three years, where she introduced the "Sensational Dance of the Leopard." After that her career was firmly launched. 
• • Drena Beach • •
• • Always supportive of her "little girls," Texas Guinan would be in the audience, attracting more press coverage to the event, making certain that her performer (or her former employee) was noticed. And how could you not notice Drena Beach with her shapely legs and thrillingly long tigerish fingernails?
• • The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote: Pass the laurel to Drena (Paramount Grill) Beach... for her "Sensational Leopard Dance," which is one of the most unique things we've ever seen. Why? Because she conceived it when she was 15 years old, as a result of a dream she had of being attacked by a leopard... because in it she takes one of the most startling falls we've ever seen on the stage... because she's been doing it now for seven years... because she was a featured dancer with Texas Guinan for three years ... because she is a Fancon and Marco protege... because she has created a new number called "Dance of the Eyes," which is said to be even verier. . . because Ted Helms was so impressed with it that he immediately wrote the theme song "Haunting Eyes" for it... because she has never studied dancing and she also designs all her own costumes... because she once had an entire Publix unit built around her... because she was offered a year's contract at the Folies Bergere in Paris, which she had to refuse because of local tie-ups here... because she's beautiful and blond and doesn't rely on either her looks or locks to put her over... and finally, because her Leopard Dance is more Interesting and arresting than anything we've ever seen in any Broadway production, which is why some Earl Carroll, some Florenz Ziegfeld, some George White or some Schwab and Mandel, Aarons and Freedly or Mr. Shubert ought to sign her up... pass the laurel to Drena Beach.
• • Source: item in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (N.Y.); published on  Thursday, 25 July 1929.
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • Drena Beach • •

Texas Guinan.

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Friday, November 27, 2015

Texas Guinan: Argonaut Club

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at her Argonaut Club on West 54th Street at two different addresses. [Alas, the original buildings are gone and one of the addresses now belongs to a movie house called Bowtie Cinema built in 1969.]
• • Argonaut Club — 151 West 54th St. (1930) • •
• • NEW YORK, Oct. 8. (A.P.) Sudden fire blazing through the flimsy structures of Texas Guinan's Argonaut Club in 151 West 54th Street today wrecked the place, while a sizeable crowd watched firemen who came too late to save the furniture.
• • Source:  Associated Press news rpt in The Stanford Daily; published on  9 October 1930.
• • Argonaut Club — 141 West 54th St. (1931) • •
• • By January 1931, Texas Guinan was advertising Argonaut Club as an asylum where the merriment continues until dawn at 141 West 54th Street, in the same building as the Ziegfeld Theatre.
• • After she decamped, it became Valhalla Restaurant, offering a bountiful Viking-style smorgasbord.  Alas, the spectacular Ziegfeld was razed in 1966. 
• • Currently, Bowtie Cinema occupies a small slice of the old site at 131 West 54th Street (off 6th Avenue).

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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • Argonaut Club, 141 W. 54th, at the Ziegfeld • •

Texas Guinan.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Texas Guinan: 300 Club

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at her 300 Club on West 54th Street. [Alas, the building was razed and the address belongs to a modern midtown hotel.]
• • 300 Club — 151 West 54th Street • •
• • Actress and hostess Texas Guinan would greet her customers with “Hello suckers,” as they crowded into whatever speakeasy it was where she was holding the microphone.  
• • On July 4th, 1926, the 300 Club had a few dozen Whoopee-makers in skimpy costumes doing some gyrations onstage.  When busted by the cops, Texas Guinan used the alibi that patrons brought their own liquor with them. She swore she only sold ginger ale, tonic, and other mixers.  As to why these young dancers wiggled much too close to the clientele, the speakeasy queen explained that, oh, dear, the club was just “too small.”
• • The 300 Club at 151 W. 54th Street [a Guinanized front for bootlegger Owney Madden] was one of the most successful, despite being raided many, many times. 
• • On July 4, 1926, the 300 Club was raided.
• • She reopened within days, packing the room — until February 27, 1927.  
• • Jurors acquitted her.

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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • 300 Club card; 151 W. 54th today • •

Texas Guinan.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Texas Guinan: Danceman Raft

TEXAS GUINAN helped build the careers of many stars. Let's learn more about George Raft, who died today on November 24th.
• • Broadway dancer turned Hollywood actor George Raft [26 September 1895 — 24 November 1980] was a film star most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s.
• • Born George Ranft in Hell's Kitchen, New York City to Conrad Ranft (a German immigrant), he adopted a slick "tough guy" persona that he would later use in his films.
• • His mother, who taught dancing to theatre people, gave him lessons. His smooth tango and dance-floor style led to performances at some of Times Square's most fashionable nightspots. He became part of the stage act of "Texas Guinan and Her Gang."
• • In 1929 Raft moved to Hollywood and took small roles. His success came in "Scarface" [1932], the role that was originally offered to Jack LaRue, an actor who played opposite Mae West in her 1928 Broadway hit "Diamond Lil". George Raft's convincing portrayal of the gangster led to speculation that he himself was a mobster — — not far from the truth.
• • When the studio was casting Raft's next feature "Night after Night," the role of Maudie Triplett, a former girlfriend, was to go to a very well known actress and personality: Texas Guinan. Raft suggested Mae West for this cameo, and Mae's three little scenes set the so-so film on fire.
• • "Fables from the Fifties" • •
• • There are a lot of things around Broadway these nights to remind you of Texas Guinan. The aforementioned George Raft is one, of course, he said he was a kid who worked for her in one of her gaudy boites and wore handmade suits and did the Charleston. 
• • And then there is another one, Walter O'Keefe, who is back after a long absence. Walter, who is doubling between La Martinique and "Topnotchers,'' got his first New York job through Texas Guinan, and she always liked to tell the story of how he got that first job and I imagine he does, too.
• • Source: Item on page 4 in The News-Herald (Franklin, Pennsylvania): published on Wednesday, 10 June 1942
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • George Raft • •

Texas Guinan.

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Saturday, November 21, 2015

Texas Guinan: Walter O'Keefe

TEXAS GUINAN helped build the careers of many stars. Let's learn more about Walter O'Keefe.  A brassy maneuver earned Walter O'Keefe a coveted job in one of her famed night clubs.
• • Walter O'Keefe [18 August 1900 — 26 June 1983] sent her a photo of himself with a message on he back saying: "You may get the services of the guy on the other side while he is still inexpensive."
• • Born in Hartford, Connecticut, his professional career began on the stage with the famed actress Beatrice Lillie. He honed his comedic skills doing stand-up acts in New York speakeasies In the 1930s, including one owned by Texas Guinan, before he broke into radio on singer Rudy Vallee's show.
• • He was host of the radio show "Battle of the Sexes" on NBC beginning in 1943 before going on to "Double or Nothing."  He was versatile and did work as a songwriter, syndicated columnist, Broadway composer, screenwriter, musical arranger, TV host as well as an actor.
• • Like the Queen of the Night Clubs, O'Keefe has a Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • Walter O'Keefe • •

Texas Guinan.

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Friday, November 20, 2015

Texas Guinan: Lina Basquette

TEXAS GUINAN helped build the careers of many stars. Let's learn more about Lina Basquette.
• • "Nite Clubs as Cradles Right" • •
• • Variety wrote this: Which reminds us that night clubs are the cradles of future stars of the stage. They offer more opportunity to ambitious young girls than does the stage. We could cite innumerable instances, but let us just point to Lina Basquette, whom we once placed with Texas Guinan in the Beaux Arts; Feon Vanmar, a sensation in "Merry Malones"; Irene Belroy, who was a star, however, before she went into the El Fey Club; Frances Upton, and her successor, Helen Stephen, both of whom were  placed in night clubs by us;  Alice Bolden, Ruby Keeler, Madelyn Killeen, and scores of others.
• • Variety wrote this: Night clubs encourage girls doing specialties, and the stage offers scant opportunity for individual work.
• • Source:  item in Variety Magazine, "Times Square" column; published on  Wednesday, 1 February 1928
• • Lina Basquette [19 April 1907 — 30  September 1994] was an American actress and dancer noted for her 75-year career in entertainment, which began during the silent film era. 
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • Lina Basquette • •

Texas Guinan.

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Thursday, November 19, 2015

Texas Guinan: Guinanisms

"Get hot is my slogan," TEXAS GUINAN told a NYC columnist. She said many amusing things. Here are a few well-known quips — — Guinanisms.
• • "I'm nature's gift to the padlock makers." 
• • "Hello, suckers! Come in and leave your wallet on the bar."
• • "A sucker is a guy who can afford to be trimmed."
• • "Exaggerate the world."
• • "A big butter and egg man."
• • “You may be all the world to your mother, but you’re just a cover charge to me.”
 
• • "He'll be happy 'til he sees the check."
• • "Let's give the little lady a great big hand!" 
• • "I like noise, rhinestone heels, customers, plenty of attention and red velvet bathing suits."
• • "I smoke like a 5-alarm fire and I call every man I don't know Fred — — and they love it."
• • "I like your cute little jail. It's the only place my diamonds feel safe." 
• • "I lost money by keeping out of prison. I could have gone to jail and made a killing telling about my experiences."  
• • “Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.”
• • "A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country."
• • "A guy who'd cheat on his wife would cheat at cards."
• • "Success has killed more men than bullets."
• • "I go up and down the scale so often that if they ever perform an autopsy on me they'll find me like a strip of bacon — — a streak of lean and a streak of fat."
• • "Marriage is all right, but I think it's carrying love a little bit too far."  
• • "I've been married once on the level and twice in America."
• • "Love is the sugar coating on the cake of trouble."
• • "He bought me so many orchids that I looked like a well-kept grave."
• • "I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world."
• • "Better a square foot of New York City than all the rest of the world in a lump — — better a lamppost on Broadway than the brightest star in the sky."
• •  "If you want anything bad enough, go out and fight for it. Work day and night in order to achieve the goal. Sacrifice your time, your peace, your sleep. Sweat for it, fret for it, plan for it. Lose your terror of God and man for it. Hold fast to the pillars of faith, hope, confidence, stern pertinacity. Defy cold poverty, pain of body and brain. Besiege and beset for it, and you’re bound to win."
 


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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • in evening attire • •

Texas Guinan.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Texas Guinan: Lipstick

Under the coded byline "Lipstick," New Yorker staffwriter Lois Long wrote an amusing nightlife column, "When Nights Were Bold" and TEXAS GUINAN was liberally quoted and noted in it. In this recent article for Entrepreneur Magazine, both women were brought together again.
• • "Women Entrepreneurs Take the Stage during New York's Jazz Age" • •
• • Lois ("Lipstick") Long • •
• • In journalism, Lois Long, fresh out of Vassar, covered Manhattan's nightclub life for The New Yorker and became its first fashion editor. She wrote humorous criticism of the Fifth Avenue fashion scene, built up a loyal readership and helped establish The New Yorker as America's quintessential metropolitan magazine. Tall and slender, her jet-black hair fashionably bobbed, a long string of thin pearls dangling from her neck, "she could have modeled for Miss Jazz Age," wrote Dale Kramer in his 1951 book Ross and The New Yorker.
• • "Lois Long invented fashion criticism," said New Yorker editor William Shawn. She "was the first American fashion critic to approach fashion as an art and to criticize women's clothes with independence, humor and literary style." Her column brought The New Yorker exactly the readership it needed to bring in the retail advertising that allowed it to survive and thrive. Beginning in 1927, The New Yorker placed in the top three of American magazines in number of ad pages sold.
• • Texas Guinan • •
• • In entertainment, Texas Guinan, a former silent film star from Waco, Texas, partnered with a gangster and opened one of Manhattan's first nightclubs, starring as its raucous, wisecracking hostess. In 1926 she opened her own club, earning her the moniker "Queen of the New York Night." (In 1929 she appeared in the film Queen of the Night Clubs.)
• • "Get hot is my slogan" • •
• • "Texas Guinan of New York has emerged as a nationally known trademark for indoor fun after midnight," Vanity Fair reported. "Get hot is my slogan," said Guinan, "to encourage bedlam and get the crowd wild." But this brash, peroxide blonde was a devout Irish Catholic who didn't drink or carouse. She had an acute mind for business, investing her profits shrewdly and giving generously to Catholic charities.
• • In battling federal Prohibition authorities to keep her clubs open and winning a succession of court cases, Texas Guinan gave the lie to the idea that all American women supported Prohibition. Her headline-grabbing court battles encouraged other prominent women to form political groups that helped pass the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution, ending Prohibition.   . . .
• • Source:   Article: "Women Entrepreneurs Take the Stage During New York's Jazz Age" for Entrepreneur Magazine; published on Thursday, 11 September  2014 
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • 1928 club ad, The New Yorker • •

Texas Guinan.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Texas Guinan: Reginald Marsh

TEXAS GUINAN, in the midst of merriment, was captured by this artist.
• • Syracuse.com wrote: Collector Edward Root acquired this painting by Reginald Marsh (1898—1954) titled "Texas Guinan and Her Gang," (1931) in the early 1930s. Marsh was drawn to the colorful debauchery of New York City's underbelly. He said, "Well-bred people are no fun to paint."
• • Texas Guinan image: Photo courtesy of the Everson Museum of Art/John Taylor; Tempera on linen, 36 1/8 x 48 inches.
• • Syracuse.com explained: Edward Wales Root (1884—1956), a great collector of contemporary American art during the first half of the last century would probably concur with those words if he were still with us. Root, who lived most of his life in Clinton, NY, amassed an enormous collection of more than 200 works of art over 50-plus years. He collected from the early 1900s to mid-century and his collection captures much of the dynamism that characterized that period of American art.
• • Note:  Born in Paris in 1898, Reginald Marsh was an American painter notable for his depictions of life in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. He died in Vermont in 1954.
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • 1931 • •

Texas Guinan.

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Monday, November 16, 2015

Texas Guinan KO-ed R.K.O.

TEXAS GUINAN was grand but double bookings at her nightspot in Valley Stream and at the R.K.O. Palace became far too stressful even for her. They had even offered to pay generously but Tex decided to decline. When she cancelled, the R.K.O. went scurrying around for other headliners. And her Long Island phone number (Valley Stream 4866) rang and rang.
• • The Daily Star printed this scoop (pg 16) on Monday evening, 8 July 1929.
• • "Texas Guinan Cancelled" • •
• • Texas Guinan cancelled a week at the Palace at $8,000 beginning today. Several booking agents are in danger of losing their franchises. The R.K.O. were sent scurrying around for other headliners, all because La Guinan is doing so well at her road house, the Show Place, in Valley Stream, L.I., that she does not wish to jeopardize her success out there by playing extra shows in New York and tiring herself out.
• • The mix-up all happened when Texas Guinan's agents and managers, eager to please Texas, pencilled her in at the Palace at $7,500 for one week beginning July 6. They expected that she was to appear, and Sunday at the Palace, besides two at Valley Stream, which La Guinan felt unable to do and give her full personality and pep to the audience.
• • Through misunderstandings, it was expected that she was to appear, and when officials heard that she said, "no," after advertisements had been sent out, they raised the price offered to $8,000. But the final word is that Guinan is not to appear.
• • Source: Daily Star; published on Monday evening, 8 July 1929.

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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • Show Place, 1929 • •

Texas Guinan.

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Saturday, November 14, 2015

Texas Guinan: Salon Royal

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at Salon Royal on West 58th Street. [Its new name is the 6 Columbus Hotel, rebuilt on old bones with the same facade.]
• • Variety noted:  For a touch of Montmartre on Broadway, there is the unique Tommy Lyman warblng his ballade at the Salon Royal, now has Texas Guinan as co-star.
• • At the Salon Royal — — Texas Guinan, Tommy Lyman, Bigelow and Lee, and  Jacques Green Orchestra.
• • In its issue dated for 12 November 1927, The New Yorker wrote:  No curfew at New York's rendezvous intime, the Salon Royal, 310 West 58th Street featuring Tommy Lyman, The  International Star, and George Whiting.

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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
_________________________________________________________
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • Salon Royal (still standing) • •

Texas Guinan.

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Thursday, November 05, 2015

Texas Guinan: 5 November 1933

MAE WEST was shocked to learn that her friend Texas Guinan had died after a show in  Canada on Sunday, 5 November 1933.
• • Definitely her own special creation, not unlike her buddy Mae West, Texas Guinan wove a dazzling aura around herself.  Since she often said, “Exaggerate the world!” then we can assume she took her own advice.  A trailblazer down to her toes, Texas Guinan was a poetry-writing Greenwich Village bohemian, a hustler, a cowgirl, a gun-blazing silent film star, a syndicated newspaper columnist, and she especially reigned as "The Queen of the Night Clubs" until the Wall Street crash in 1929.
• • According to Marc Wanamaker, a Hollywood film historian and archivist, the wisecracking personality and slightly nasal delivery, did not originate with the Brooklyn bombshell. 
• • Marc Wanamaker explained: "Miss Mae West got a lot of her style from Texas Guinan, a stage — cinema actress in the early silents who became a bar owner [sic] in New York. A lot of the lines attributed to Mae (and W.C. Fields, for that matter) like 'Never give a sucker an even break' came from Texas Guinan. They all had known each other for years from vaudeville.  ..."
Texas Guinan in 1922
• • Texas Guinan's spirit has guided two filmmakers in their latest project. More on this new documentary in another post.
• • Texas Guinan said: "I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world."
• • Texas Guinan advised us all to "exaggerate the world!" — good advice.
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too.
Watch a scene on YouTube.

• • Website for all things Mae West: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
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• • Photo: Texas Guinan
• • in 1922 • •

Texas Guinan.

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