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!

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Texas Guinan: Wilda Bennett

In 1927  Wilda Bennett and Pepy de Albreau were assisting Brooke Johns and his banjo at TEXAS GUINAN'S 300 Club, 151 West 54th Street.
• • They had celebrated their wedding reception in January 1926 at Texas Guinan's as well. Curfew shall not ring tonight.
• • "Wilda Bennett Weds a Cabaret Dancer; Broadway Surprised" • •
• • NEW YORK. Jan. 20 (A. P.) The New York Herald Tribune today says that Wilda Bennett, actress, has been married to Pepy De Albreau, cabaret dancer, and will star with him in professional engagements. 
• • News of the marriage was a surprise to Broadway inasmuch as a verdict of $37,500 has been obtained against Miss Bennett for alienating the affections of Charles C. Frey, turfman, formerly of Louisville, Ky.   Mrs. Katherine Frey, socially prominent, won the verdict recently after charging the actress with pursuing her husband.
• • The Herald Tribune says that Miss Bennett and De Albreau Pere married in Greenwich, Conn., Monday. Confirmation was obtained through Miss Bennett's sister, Kay, who said: "I don't know many of the details of the marriage, but I do know that Wilda and Pepy were married."
• • Source:  Item on page 2 of The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania); published on 21 January 1926
• • 201 West 52nd Street changes hands • •
• • Tommy Guinan's Playground, a partnership between Texas Guinan and her brother, was the site of a celebrity-studded party in July 1926 for Rudolph Valentino. 
• • By July 28, 1928, the Guinans were out and a buddy of theirs, cabaret dancer Pepy De Albreau, had taken it over. 
• • The Jungle Club (201 West 52nd Street) featured a “Spanish patio bar.”  
• • In 1932, John Perona in partnership with his friend Pepy De Albreau (now known as "a former professional dancer"),  transformed the shuttered Jungle Club into Place Pigalle. The new club was decorated to resemble Montmartre and featured a quartet of can-can dancers and a Maitre d’ named Maraschino.    
• • The Great Depression had a negative impact on places of entertainment and supper clubs. By 1937, Mario's Mirador ["Village Glamour on Broadway"] was advertising itself as an event space for weddings and parties.  
• • By 1939, the Jewish Music Alliance had moved into the generously proportioned space with high ceilings. Originally designed as a concert hall, it became a place to print music books.
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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
• • at the 300 Club in January 1926 • •

Texas Guinan.

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