Texas Guinan * 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.
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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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