Texas Guinan: Belmont Theatre

Oh for those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered the hints of world-class whoopee at the Belmont Theatre.
• • "Tex May Make Club of Belmont Theatre" • •
• • Variety wrote: Texas Guinan may take over the Belmont, New York, under lease from Richard Herndon and establish it as a Continental night place.  Although the seats are to be ripped out, the little boxes at the rear would be retained. The balcony is also to be left, with stairways ending upward from the revamped floor. Texas Guinan is going over plans for remodeling the place with Herb Ward.
• • Variety wrote:  The Belmont is next door on West 48th Street to the upstairs club that was once Texas Guinan's, afterwards the Chez Florence Club [117 West 48th Street] and since then having various names and managements. House seats a little over 500.  Has not had a legit success for several seasons.

• • Belmont Theatre, 121-125 West 48th Street, New York, NY 10036
• • Source: "Legitimate" column in Variety; published on Wednesday, 4 June 1930 
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • Belmont Theatre (razed) • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Proctor's 5th Avenue

TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee during her days trouping in variety at Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre (27-31 West 28th Street), off Broadway.
• • Variety announced her rather odd specialty number in their section "New Acts of the Week" — —
singing from the basket of an airship. 
• • TEXAS GUINAN  Songs: 16 Mins.; Two  (13);  One (3). Fifth Avenue • •
• • Some one got orders to build an act around a good soprano voice and whoever undertook the task did fairly well. Half the opening song is sung off stage. When the singer appears, it Is in the basket of an airship, suspended about seven feet above the stage.  The balloon swings to and fro, giving rather a good effect. The selection might be of a lighter texture.
• • The second number is sung from an opening in the drop in "one," representing a garden, and furnishes something a little different.
• • a pickaninny appears with a good voice • •
• • As a finish a "moon" number is rendered with the singer in "one."  From the moon on the drop, the face of a pickaninny appears with a good voice back of it, and helps out with the final chorus. It isn't a new idea by any means, but it is so much better than the "plant-in-the- box" that is must be recommended.
• • Miss Guinan has looks and dresses well. Her well-trained soprano does the rest.  The act fared rather well on Wednesday night.   — —  Dash

• • Note:  The Dash reviewer for "Variety" in 1909 is now Charlie Freeman of the R-K-O booking office.
• • Source: "New Acts of the Week" (page 12) Variety; published on 29 May 1909
• • Situated right off Broadway, Proctor's Fifth Avenue on West 28th Street was demolished in 1939.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • interior, Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre (razed) • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Clarence Robinson

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at the Valley Stream nightspot on Merrick Road that she named La Casa Guinan.
• • "Racket Dears" Revue at La Casa Guinan • •
• • Before the pick of metropolitan critics, Texas Guinan opened, what she says is the finest floor show she has ever presented, at the La Casa Guinan roadhouse in Valley Stream, Long Island on Friday night. With an enviable record as producer of a number of The Cotton Club  and Follies Bergere floor shows, Clarence Robinson had full charge in the staging of this extravaganza for Texas Guinan and her Racket-Dears .  . . .
• • Source:  The Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA); published on Saturday, 4 June 1932.
• • But a fortnight later, the Racket-Dears heard a door slam.  Robinson, the African-American clarinetist with Broadway cred, high-tailed it back to Harlem after Guinan got cheap with his cast.
• • "Clarence Robinson's Revue Quits La Casa Guinan" • •
• • Texas Guinan's new revue with her "Racket-Dears," which was staged by Clarence Robinson and opening at the La Casa Guinan roadhouse, Valley Stream, Long Island, two weeks ago, walked out Saturday . . .
• • The trouble started when the management tried to cheapen the revue by firing two of Texas's girls, Gretchen Kimmel and Texas Rayne . . . Texas Guinan plans a new a review . .  .

• • Source: The Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA); published on Saturday, 18 June 1932.
• • Clarence Robinson • •
• • The versatile song-and-dance man Clarence Robinson created dances for his wife Hyacinth Curtis, who appeared at The Cotton Club and the Apollo.  Robinson choreographed the 1943 film “Stormy Weather.”  Film buffs will recall the joyful finale with Harold and Fayard Nicholas dancing to Calloway’s “Jumpin’ Jive” that will never fail to leave you breathless.
• • Penniless at the end of his life and residing on the top floor of a decrepit Harlem rooming house, Clarence Robinson was interviewed by author Jim Haskins. "As I was leaving, he called me back to his bed. He said, 'There's three scrapbooks in the closet. You take 'em. But if you use 'em, tell the truth."
• • Jim Haskins recalled, "Clarence Robinson gave me a marvelous archive, without which my book and the movie 'The Cotton Club,' never would have happened."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • news from 1932 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Florence Mills

In the spring of 1925, TEXAS GUINAN and her gang shared a stagebill with the incomparable Harlem jazz darling Florence Mills.
• • Hippodrome • •
• • There was no other New York City auditorium as large as the Hippodrome, built in 1905 and demolished 1939.
• • In 1923 B.F. Keith took over this Sixth Avenue Circus Maximus, built to epic scale and situated at the lip of the 6th Avenue Elevated, occupying an entire city block between West 43rd and West 44th Street.
• • Florence Mills [25 January 1895—1 November 1927] • •
• • Beautiful Florence Mills was an African-American cabaret singer, dancer, and comedienne known for her delicate voice, effervescent stage presence, and wide-eyed loveliness. 
• • She welcomed guests to her chic midtown speakeasy, Chez Florence, 117 West 48th Street, New York, NY. When Mills returned to France to headline a European nightspot, Tommy Guinan took over her club in 1928, continuing her custom of hiring black performers.

• • "$1 Top at Hip" • •
• • Variety wrote: The Hippodrome. New York, will remain open for June at $1 top for the night performances and 50 cents for the matinees.
• • Variety wrote: The decision to defer closing the house was arrived at this week, following the generous business the house is doing this week with Florence Mills and Texas Guinan as headliners. The current bill is expected to gross close to $40,000 for the week.
• • Source:  Variety;  published on Wednesday, 6 May 1925 
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • in 1925 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Harry Tammen

TEXAS GUINAN was a witty and savvy businesswoman. She was also smart enough to recognize a snappy phrase and claim it for her own. So let's follow her footsteps from Waco, Texas to the Rockies.
• • In 1900, the Guinan clan moved to Denver, Colorado and 16-year-old Texas occupied herself with the local amateur stage productions and she also played the organ in church.
• • When she was 20 years old, Texas Guinan married John Moynahan, a cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News, on December 2, 1904.
• • No doubt she was familiar with the widely circulated Denver Post, a newspaper co-owned by Harry Heye Tammen [1856 — 1924], the wealthy philanthropist, well known for his cheery salutation.
• • "Hello, Sucker!" • •

• • In 1895 Harry Tammen formed a partnership with Frederick G. Bonfils (whom he had met at the Chicago World's Fair), whose nickname was "The Napoleon of the Cornfields." These two took a struggling local paper, renamed it Denver Post, and became the co-owners as well as co-editors. Their publishing enterprise flourished and brought many opportunities their way. Harry Tammen's business successes made him very rich indeed.
• • "I figured the luckiest words I ever uttered in my life were those two — — 'Hello, Sucker!' — —  to my pal, my partner, my buddy Fred Bonfils. And if they were good enough for him, they were good enough for anybody," he explained a reporter from Variety in 1924.

• • Texas decided to bring the catch phrase to the East Coast and it soon became her personal greeting.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • Harry Tammen, whose greeting was "Hello, Sucker!" • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Race Artists

Variety found it unusual when white people such as TEXAS GUINAN or Tommy Guinan worked with so-called "race artists" such as Juan Harrison, et al, making whoopee at Chez Florence, 117 West 48th Street.
• • "Guinan's New People" • •
• • Variety wrote: Some new people are in the colored entertaining list of Tommy Guinan's Club Florence on West 48th Street. Florence [Mills], the former name bearer of the club, has returned to France, it is said, where she will reappear in a nite (sic) club.
• • Variety explained: Remaining are Kid Sneeze with Alberta, the successor as the lone singer, without  billing.  Palmer Jones is also there, along with the Prime Quartet, Nelson Kincaid, Brome Desverney, Hugh Walke, and Juan Harrison.

• • Source:  Variety;  published on Wednesday, 25 April 1928
• • Note: Florence Mills and Juan Harrison (a West Indian singer) were in the Broadway cast of "Dixie to Broadway," an all-black hit musical at the Broadhurst Theatre.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • "Dixie to Broadway," 1924 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Gypsyland

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at "Gypsyland" at this address: 133 West 45th Street, New York, NY.  If you wanted a bowl of Hungarian goulash to fortify you for unlimited merriment, it was 35 cents.
• • "New Place for Show Stars!" • •
• • "Gypsyland," successor to the famous institution on 81st Street, which was the most popular place in New York while it lasted, has opened at 133 West 45th street. There isn't any place like it in New York for comfort, homelike surroundings, entertainment, and good food at reasonable prices. It opened but a short time ago, yet it has already been "discovered" by New York's show folks, who flock there nightly.
• • It's a little place, yet so arranged that it's homelike, different from the usual cafe. It seems that everybody knows everybody else, and it's always "one big party."
• • The place was opened two weeks ago with a party given by Texas Guinan for a bevy of political and theatrical friends. Another party was given in honor of Belle Bennett and another for Doraldina. These parties were held in the main restaurant.
• • In addition, there are private rooms for dinner or supper parties up to 20 people.
• • Source:  Broadway Brevities; issue dated for November 1922

• • A 1922 advertisement placed in Broadway Brevities went like this:
• • SOMETHING NEW FOR NEW YORK'S SHOW FOLKS!
• • GYPSYLAND
• • 133 WEST 45th STREET
• • A Real Hungarian Restaurant
• • "A Bit of Bohemia n the Heart of New York"
• • The New Mecca for Show Folks, Where Theatrical People Are Always Welcome, and Made to Feel at Home. Where the Stars Always Go.  
• • SO COZY, COMFORTABLE, HOMELIKE — — LUNCHEON, DINNER, SUPPER
• • Splendid Hungarian Orchestra, Great for Dancing, Unique Entertainment, including RIGO, the Famous Gypsy Violinist — — BARONESS OLGA BAKLANOFF, Sensation of Vienna
• • Unfortunately, the original structure at 133 West 45th Street was razed and is now a hideous looking modern something-or-other.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 133 West 45th Street ad in 1922 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Hotel Harding

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at the Hotel Harding (203 West 54th Street) — — a  speakeasy on the lower level — — until the padlocks arrived.
• • New York's Whoopee Center • •
• • From an ad in a NYC magazine on December 29, 1928 — —  Early Bird Catches the New Year's Eve Table at New York's Whoopee Center — —  Phone now: Circle 2500 — —  Texas Guinan (With Sound and how!) — — Texas at her Showplace, Hotel Harding, 203 West 54th Street — — A BIG SHOW.
• • Note: Mae West was living at this hotel when "Diamond Lil" was onstage and when Tex had her speakeasy in the cellar. Pay attention to that iron handrail going down to the lower level.

• • "Harding Changes Hands" • •
• • The Harding Hotel, frequently in print, has changed hands again. The new owner, said to be headed by Morris Sweetwood, will conduct it with a night club as an adjunct.  Because it comes within the law, the latter will be open all night.
• • Last year [i.e., 1929] it had Texas Guinan as the feature.
• • When Ed Arlington took over the Harding Hotel several years ago, he made it highly profitable. He sold his lease for $75,000. The new owners secured that lease, which has 10 years to go, for $45,000.
• • Source: Variety; published on Wednesday, 6 February 1930
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 203 West 54th Street today • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Beaux Arts Cafe

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at Café des Beaux Arts  (80 West 40th Street) — — a Greek-themed speakeasy on the second floor — — until she built up a following and a better offer came her way.
• • The Beaux Arts • •
• • Completed in 1901, the apartments in this 12-story structure were designed as residential and working space specifically for artists.  There were two dozen double-height studios on the West 40th Street side, generously windowed.   Architect Charles A. Rich worked with pink brick along with terra cotta and stone trim to create a unique Beaux Arts-style blend of residential and industrial elements that still engages the eye.
• • A famous French eatery, the Café des Beaux Arts, was established there by the Bustanoby brothers Andre, Jacques, Pierre, and Louis. 
• • As Louise Berliner explained in her book, "Texas Guinan: Queen of the Nightclubs," one evening, Texas showed up at a party at the Beaux Arts Café on West 40th Street, a high-class haunt for affluent swells and theatrical grand eminences. But, alas, the party was desperately dull. Then a person asked Texas to step up to the microphone.  "I didn't need much coaxing, so I sang. . . . First thing you know we were all doing things. Everybody had a great time."
• • The new owners Emile Gervasini and John Levi, realizing they had been losing money but this Waco native was a hit, hired Texas Guinan as Mistress of Ceremonies.  This change of vocation for Tex, from acting in silent films to making whoopee in noisy nightspots, occurred in the autumn of 1923, according to an item in The New York Clipper, dated 9 November 1923.

• • Lovely Lina Basquette was one of the showgirls who worked with Tex there.
• • However, other club owners were observing her success and her following.  In due course, Joe Pani, owner of the King Cole Room at the Knickerbocker Hotel (West 42nd Street), invited Texas to liven up his show and she accepted.

• • With minor alterations (such as the obliteration of the street level facade details along Sixth Avenue), the Beaux Arts Studios has been left intact. 
• • Happily, this intriguing structure was designated a New York City landmark in 1988.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • news from 1923 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Royal Fibbing

Oh those days when TEXAS GUINAN offered world-class whoopee at Salon Royal (310 West 58th Street) until the dry agent showed up. Things got slower than a Sloe Gin Fizz — — except for the fibs, artfully blended with bitters.
• • "Never Worked with Bar, Declares Texas Guinan" • •
• • NEW YORK, August 2nd — —The following telegram was sent by Texas Guinan to the editor of the New York American:
• • Dear Sir: I regret exceedingly that your paper, usually so well informed, printed the story about a bar at Salon Royal, where I work, having been padlocked. I feel that you will (in justice to myself) gladly correct the erroneous statement as I have never in my life worked in a night club associated with a bar and there is no bar at the Club Royal where I am employed as hostess nor has there been a padlock [sic].
• • Sincerely,  TEXAS GUINAN

• • Source: Wire Services reportage rpt by Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania); published on Friday, 3 August 1928
• • Note: Plymouth Sloe Gin is based on an 1883 recipe, and has since become an important part in various classic cocktails, notably the Sloe Gin Fizz. Salut!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • in 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Queen of Clubs

TEXAS GUINAN is in her element in the Vitaphone production, "Queen of the Night Clubs,"  now on view at the Mark Strand Theatre, stated the New York Times in 1929.
• • "Queen of the Night Clubs" • •
• • It is a somewhat entertaining thriller, with a murder or so, frowning plotters, a silly hoofer, and a none-too-gifted young woman who, nevertheless, appears to be worth her weight in gold as an entertainer in a night club.
• • Miss Guinan's voice is more powerful than melodious. It is the voice that is accustomed to ordering guests to buy and buy and give little girls a hand. Following the murder, which must happen in every night club on the screen, Miss Guinan, as Texas Malone, admits on the witness stand that she knows more about Scotch than English, a joke that was thought to have sunk into oblivion.
• • Miss Guinan is not exactly new to the screen, for she appeared years ago in a number of short subjects. Her first pictorial production was "The Gun Woman," through which she became known to some persons as the female Bill Hart. In this present film she is the night club hostess who is favored by those who patronize these nocturnal resorts. Her success is such that it causes her rivals to plot her downfall, especially that of Don Holland, who supplies the boodle.
• • In at least one of the incidents in this unedifying tale, the police are depicted as being exceptionally callous regarding murders. They order two stretchers over the telephone, with about the same coolness a butter and egg man might order mineral water in a Texas Guinan club.
• • This story is told in such a way as to arouse curiosity as to how it is going to finish.  The dénouement, however, is by no means as imaginative as one anticipates. The author appears to have been floundering around trying to find a way out and hen ended his yarn as best he could. And this best is amateurishly forced. The scenes in the court room are both well filmed and competently acted. Those filling the rôles of the the lawyers do their work naturally.
• • Lila Lee impersonates Bee Walters, the girl who makes a strong impression upon the night club crowds. Eddie Parr, the silly young hoofer, is fairly well acted by Eddie Foy Jr. John Davidson appears to be thinking too much of his voice and not enough of his gestures and expressions in playing Don Holland.

• • There are several interesting Movietone news reel subjects.  . . . 
• • Night Clubs and Murders.
• • QUEEN OF THE NIGHT CLUBS, with Texas Guinan, Eddie Foy Jr., Lila Lee, Jack Norworth, John Davidson, John Miljan, Arthur Houseman, William Davidson, Charlotte Merriam, Jimmie Phillips, Lee Shumway, James T. Mack, Agnes Traney and Joseph Depew, directed by Bryan Foy;  . . .   At the Mark Strand.
• • Source: Movie Review by Mordaunt Hall, N.Y. Times; published on Monday, 18 March 1929
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • in 1929 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Wild 45th Street

TEXAS GUINAN knew that The Del Fey Club on West 45th was wildly popular. So why not open her own nightspot directly across the way?
• • "Texas Guinan's New Place" • •
• • The Texas Tommy is a new drop-in place on the order of the Hotsy-Totsy Club which Texas Guinan and her brother Tommy, opened in West 45th Street. The Texas Tommy will also have Jerry  Benson interested for one-quarter,  Benson being the marvelous pianist at the Hotsy-Totsy.   The Texas Tommy is adjacent to The Del Fey where Miss Guinan holds forth regularly.
• • Source:  Cabarets column in Variety; published on  Wednesday, 14 October  1925
• • In 1925, The Del Fey Club gave its address (in paid advertisements) as 104 West 45th Street — — as well as on the north side of the street in an old four-story brownstone at 107 West 45th Street, New York, NY (previously the address of The Friars Club and Mecca Temple).

• • A Del Fey Club announcement in The New Yorker advised this: "Pandemonium from midnight until morning.  Not for sheltered debutantes." • • The El Fey Club was the first nightspot Larry Fay leased when he hired Texas Guinan as his emcee.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • 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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 107 West 45th (now demolished) • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Payne Got Thaw

TEXAS GUINAN knew that any tidbit about the lawless Harry Thaw was a good publicity angle for her club. Let's look at her sly strategy in the autumn of 1925.
• • "When Thaw and Payne Met" • •
• • While Harry Thaw was at the Del Fey Club the other night, Texas Guinan noticed Phil Payne walk in.  Miss Guinan placed the managing editor of "The Mirror" right next to Thaw but back to back. Soon after, someone introduced Payne to Thaw, when the latter commenced to "ride" the newspaper man as "The Mirror" has published some severe articles on Thaw's meanderings around the cabaret belt at night.
• • Finally, Harry Thaw commenced to thaw — — but about this time Payne started to freeze up. They ended friendly enough, although a couple of days later "The Mirror" had another scorching story on Thaw.
• • Source:  Variety; published on Wednesday, 14 October 1925.

• • In September 1927, prominent newspaperman and crime crusader Phil Payne (born 1892), flying in Old Glory, died in an air stunt. He was 35 years old.
• • Harry Kendall Thaw [12 February 1871 — 22 February 1947] was 54 years old when he met Payne, 33, in 1925 at the Del Fey Club in New York City.
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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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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • bejeweled in 1931 • •
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Texas Guinan.