Texas Guinan * Texas Guinan

Texas Guinan Fans and Mae-Mavens

2009-08-18T03:27:00.003-04:00

Many publications announced the Texas Guinan and Mae West walking tour and also saluted the August 17th birthday of Mae.
• • Playbill, marking "this date in theatre history," has managed to get her birth year wrong (again) and also tripped up on the stage plays in which she appeared. No, Mr. Playbill, Mae West wrote The Drag but did not star in this 1927 production since she was still appearing in her play Sex at the time.
• • Other news outlets recognized the writer and comedienne as "an actress from the 1930s," erasing her long career in vaudeville and on Broadway, which preceded her 1932 Paramount debut when Mae was an "overnight sensation" at 39 years old.
• • A more faithful close-up was offered on Sunday in the Brooklyn blonde's hometown when a group of Mae-mavens gathered along Shubert Alley to learn how she forged her dreams of deliverance in Times Square along with her diamond-draped colleague Texas Guinan.
• • Attendees posed for pictures in the same spot where the graceful, well-groomed Bucephala, Texas Guinan's horse, was mounted 82 years ago — — that magnificent creature who carried the queen of the night scene up the center aisle of the Shubert Theatre and deposited her onstage as the red velvet curtain was raised for Padlocks of 1927.
• • Ah, Longacre Square, the legitimate theatres, those expensive playhouses built to look like a palazzo, a Tuscan hillside hideaway, a marble mansion, a Venetian villa, a Georgian fantasy — — where little Mae held her mother's hand as they waited for an usher to seat them, lavishly spending each moment of a matinee, drinking in the illusion of the drama in which the mountain of self might have no top, and each encounter might be a reckoning with fleet-footed fate.
• • On Sunday August 16th, the patient assemblage viewed vintage news clippings that decorated the disappointments of another century — — front page humiliations, the raids, the padlocks, the prison sentences, and the losses of a $200,000 advance for Pleasure Man after the purity police shuttered the show on 1 October 1928. They genuflected and strolled down the aisle of St. Malachy's, the church where Texas Guinan and Mae West examined Rudolph Valentino's coffin in August 1926 and mutually agreed the hardy 31-year-old must have been poisoned.
• • On West 54th Street, thanks to a gracious doorman, the tour takers paused in the same vestibule where Mae West entered and exited in 1927 as she was writing Diamond Lil and getting better acquainted with Owney Madden and others who bulleted the headlines.
• • Perhaps West 54th recalls the roll calls of absent names, first kisses, the confetti victory parades in an era when Mae West's latest show was billed as "hotter than the Armistice."
• • • • Prizes • • • •
• • And the group has something else to remember as well — — a handful of raffle prizes. A number of individuals each won a colorful Mae West magnet, a few screened with film posters, stage plays, or her one-liners. Two lovely ladies — — Denise from Manhattan and Karen from Pittsburgh — — each won a "Gaudy Girls" CD, courtesy of Maggie Worsdale and Anne Marie Finnie, who perform live as Sophie Tucker and Mae West. Everyone received a "Gaudy Girls" flyer announcing their next racy performance at Monticello Raceway and Casino on 21 October 2009. And two lucky lasses won a treasured set of Texas Guinan's silent films — — fashion model Gwen Bucci from Manhattan and art curator Frédérique Joseph-Lowery from Fairlawn, New Jersey — — courtesy of an avid Texas Guinan archivist.
• • Exciting news is on the horizon. More anon.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan fans • • tour group on 16 August 2009 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: August 1928

2009-08-11T22:16:00.010-04:00

When she was 44 years old, TEXAS GUINAN was still very much in demand.
• • On 15 August 1928 Texas signed a contract in the offices of Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., then located at 321 West 44th Street, New York, NY. True to type, the nightlife hostess was cast in the starring role in "The Queen of the Night Clubs," a Vitaphone talking picture.
• • The New York Times reported that one of H.M. Warner's reps confirmed "Miss Guinan would leave New York the last week in September to start work on the film, which will be directed by Bryan Foy" [N.Y. Times, 16 August 1928].
• • Planned as a black and white musical and a suspense drama, Texas would be portraying the successful speakeasy proprietoress Texas Malone. For some reason, not too many newspapers reviewed this talkie after its release.
• • Walk in the footsteps of Texas Guinan and Mae West this weekend — — starting on West 44th Street. See below.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Join us for a lively afternoon focused on Mae West & Texas Guinan!
• • On 16 August 2009, come up and enjoy an a-MAE-zing experience — — a walking tour of historical sights in the Times Square area. This year the Annual Mae West Birthday Tour also commemorates speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, the generous friend who backed all of Mae’s Broadway shows during the 1920s.
• • During April 1929, the Feds padlocked the CIub Intime at the Hotel Harding, where Texas Guinan was the principal attraction. On August 16th, attendees will visit this speakeasy, which is doing brisk business these days.
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Subway: N or R [BMT] train to West 42nd Street; 1 [IRT] train to Times Square
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: T. 212-614-9683 — — or post your RSVP or tour question here
• • Online: MaeWest.blogspot.com — — TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • Who: Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo makes the tour educational and entertaining.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's history play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July 2008 at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She is working on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her unusual theatre memorabilia and vintage photos during the tour and reveal secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. These rare pictures show the area as it looked during the 1920s when Mae West and Texas Guinan had their name on several marquees.
• • Surprises: Prizes and other nice things are part of the fun.
• • Members of the press may attend on August 16th as our guest. RSVP required.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • •
• • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • on a 1928 menu in her night club • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Speaking to Souls

2009-07-25T00:41:00.004-04:00

When she was 42 years old, Texas Guinan met Rudolph Valentino [6 May 1895 — 23 August 1926] at her brother's nightspot.
• • It was Sunday 25 July 1926 when Texas Guinan met Valentino at Tommy Guinan's speakeasy. Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was on West 52nd Street (east of Broadway). Its generous square footage made it ideal for events and James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, hosted a Reception in honor of Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" there. When Photoplay first began publication, Quirk's staff had included handsome Julian Johnson, Texas's lover.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan were there to greet the Apulian heartthrob. No doubt Texas fancied Jadaan, a superb Arabian stallion Valentino had ridden in this melodrama. An expert equestrienne herself, the following year Texas would ride an Arabian stallion into the Shubert Theatre at the start of "Padlocks of 1927."
• • Maybe Mae West was charmed more by the Italian stallion himself — — and piqued by the abrupt end to his life that occurred one month later when the actor was only 31. Something about Rudy impressed Mae, encouraging her to think that he could link her to the unquiet dead up and down Times Square.
• • According to Whitney Bolton, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a week after the Italian-born actor Rudolph Valentino died [1895-1926], Mae West and her friend Texas Guinan arranged for a séance in a Manhattan loft. Suspicious that the 31-year-old heartthrob was secretly poisoned by a rival, Mae summoned an Italian Medium to officiate. At the table sitting opposite Mae were Texas, her brother Tommy Guinan, and the gangster Owney Madden who owned The Cotton Club, a man remembered more for violence than his spiritual side.
• • And the rendezvous with Rudolph in 1926 must have been memorable because two years later Mae was holding séances in the smoking room of the Royale Theatre to communicate again with him. Visiting New York to see “Diamond Lil” on Broadway, the actor Jean Hersholt was invited backstage and yanked into a darkened room where a Medium was channeling Caruso and Valentino. Hersholt recalled that Rudy called upon Mae and said: “Mae, you have a lot of enemies and don’t trust any of them.”
• • During the 1920s, Texas Guinan continued to host séances in her nightspots — — especially in Club Abbey on West 54th Street. It was easy for Mae West to attend these sessions, too, since she lived right upstairs.
• • Walk in the footsteps of Texas Guinan and Mae West next month. See below.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Join us for a lively afternoon focused on Mae West & Texas Guinan!
• • On 16 August 2009, come up and enjoy an a-MAE-zing experience — — a walking tour of historical sights in the Times Square area. This year the Annual Mae West Birthday Tour also commemorates speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, the generous friend who backed all of Mae’s Broadway shows during the 1920s.
• • During April 1929, the Feds padlocked the CIub Intime at the Hotel Harding, where Texas Guinan was the principal attraction. On August 16th, attendees will visit this speakeasy, which is doing brisk business these days.
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Subway: N or R [BMT] train to West 42nd Street; 1 [IRT] train to Times Square
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: T. 212-614-9683 — — or post your RSVP or tour question here
• • Online: MaeWest.blogspot.com — — TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • Who: Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo makes the tour educational and entertaining.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's history play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July 2008 at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She is working on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her unusual theatre memorabilia and vintage photos during the tour and reveal secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. These rare pictures show the area as it looked during the 1920s when Mae West and Texas Guinan had their name on several marquees.
• • Surprises: Prizes and other nice things are part of the fun
• • Members of the press may attend on August 16th as our guest. RSVP required.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • images from 1926 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: NYC Tour

2009-07-16T05:48:00.007-04:00

Join us for an a-MAE-zing afternoon focused on Mae West & Texas Guinan!
• • On 16 August 2009, come up and enjoy an a-MAE-zing experience — — a walking tour of historical sights in the Times Square area. This year the Annual Mae West Birthday Tour also commemorates speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, the generous friend who backed all of Mae’s Broadway shows during the 1920s.
• • During April 1929, the Feds padlocked the CIub Intime at the Hotel Harding, where Texas Guinan was the principal attraction. On August 16th, attendees will visit this speakeasy, which is doing brisk business these days.
• • Walking Tour: "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West & Texas Guinan in the Theatre District"
• • When: 4:00 PM on Sunday — — 16 August 2008 — — rain or shine
• • Meet: Shubert Alley, 44th Street, West of Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• • Price: $10 [this walking tour lasts about 90 minutes]
• • Subway: N or R [BMT] train to West 42nd Street; 1 [IRT] train to Times Square
• • Attire: why not wear a Mae West-inspired hat?
• • Info: T. 212-614-9683 — — or post your RSVP or tour question here
• • Online: MaeWest.blogspot.com — — TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • Who: Playwright LindaAnn Loschiavo makes the tour educational and entertaining.
• • LindaAnn Loschiavo's history play "Courting Mae West" was onstage in July 2008 at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She is working on a biographical travel guide "Mae West's New York, 1899—1959" and will show some of her unusual theatre memorabilia and vintage photos during the tour and reveal secret addresses tied to Mae West that have not been disclosed before. These rare pictures show the area as it looked during the 1920s when Mae West and Texas Guinan had their name on several marquees.
• • Surprises: Prizes and other nice things are part of the fun
• • Members of the press may attend on August 16th as our guest. RSVP required.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • •
• • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 1921 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Walking Tour in 2009

2009-07-12T02:45:00.005-04:00

"Goodness had nothing to do with it!" was a well-worn comeback Texas Guinan often used in her speakeasy when teasing her high-rollers, whom she always called "Suckers!" Her friend Mae West, who often visited Texas's midtown nightspots, borrowed the quip for the hatcheck scene in "Night After Night" [1932] which took place in a speak.
• • Here's another example of Mae tossing off a famous Texas Guinan echo: In the 1933 motion picture "I'm No Angel," Tira [Mae West] does her hootchy-cootchy act, and two ruffians exclaim, "ELEGANT! Now that's elegant!" Tira teases her hungry-eyed on-lookers: "Am I making myself clear, boys?" But as she exits, Tira mutters: "Suckers!"
• • • • Mae West and Texas Guinan Tour in mid-August • • • •
• • 2009 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 16 August 2009, the Annual Mae West Walk reunites the two film icons and Broadway roust-abouts. This August the entertaining, informative birthday celebration of the actress-writer, which will begin at Shubert Alley and proceed uptown to Mae's WESTside apartment, is called "Gaudy Girls on The Gay White Way: Mae West and Texas Guinan in the Theatre District." These tours are always accompanied by vintage illustrations, memorabilia, and rare photos that show how the buildings, vaudeville houses, billboards, Playbills, and blockfronts looked when Mae West was there. Surprises are in store.
• • • • Mae West Walking Tours You Might Have Enjoyed • • • •
• • 2006 TOUR: Our regular Mae-mavens will recall seeing the historical exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era,” which opened to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday 17 August 2006. And on Sunday afternoon 20 August 2006, more than two dozen beautiful people gathered on West Ninth Street to enjoy a special treat — — "Washington Square Women: Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village" — — followed by a Jazz Era brunch served with champagne and the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with two strategically placed plump raspberries.
• • 2007 TOUR: On Friday evening 17 August 2007, a fascinating guided adventure — — "The Mae West Side Story" — — escorted numerous intrepid walk-abouts to three of Mae's former residences along with other sites linked to the Brooklyn bombshell.
• • 2008 TOUR: On Sunday afternoon 17 August 2008, the captivating Diamond Divas led a group of over two dozen Mae-mavens to several locations in Greenwich Village linked to her stage career, gay themes, courtroom woes, and the work of individuals she admired such as Lillian Russell, Tony Pastor, Texas Guinan, Eugene O'Neill, and Rae Bourbon. The 2008 walking tour — — "Mae West's Walk on the Wild Side" — — celebrated the 115th birthday of the Empress of Sex with an extravagant musical program, performed live by Met Opera soprano Marlena de la Mora and Sharon Weinman, which included these numbers: "Everything's Coming up Mae West"; "Mon Coeur S' Ouvre a Ta Voix"; "The Prisoner's Song"; "Frankie and Johnny"; "Come Down Ma Evening Star"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Gentleman Jimmy"; and a grand finale taken from the score of "Diamond Lil."
• • Tour photos can be seen on the Mae West Blog.
• • For more details, do read this blog and/ or post your email. [Your info will not be posted nor available so that miscreants and rascals can access it.]
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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

Texas Guinan: April 1934

2009-04-02T01:12:00.005-04:00

TEXAS GUINAN was featured in a newspaper headline during early April 1934.
• • On 2 April 1934, one of the armored cars owned by Texas Guinan — — always garaged on Washington Square South, two blocks from the speakeasy hostess's townhouse on West Eighth Street — — sailed to Liverpool, England and its new owner.
• • Texas Guinan, queen of the night clubs, died on 5 November 1933. Her jewelry, furs, and cars were auctioned and one of her showgirls snapped up the bullet-proof vehicle. Perhaps the chorine made a nice profit on the automobile when she resold it shortly afterward to an Englishman. Clearly, the gal was not overcome by the limousine's sentimental value.
• • Texas Guinan loved to be driven out to Long Island for seafood after her club closed for the night, taking along a gaggle of girls who were known as "Texas Guinan's mob" to enjoy the fresh ocean air and the fresh catch.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 1929 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: January 12th

2009-01-12T03:37:00.003-05:00

A woman of restless energy, Texas Guinan was born in 1884 in Waco, Texas.
• • She moved to New York in 1907, where she rented a room for $2 a week at 72 Washington Square South, and later moved to 17 West 8th St., where she lived in an antique-filled duplex.
• • Let's all wish a happy birthday to dear, dear Texas Guinan on January 12th.
• • "Courting Mae West" — — a full-length play that features Texas Guinan — — was just nominated for several awards in New York City. The awards will be presented during April 2009.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 1918 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: November 5th

2008-11-05T01:02:00.004-05:00

New Yorkers were shocked to learn that their Queen of the Night Clubs, vivacious Texas Guinan had died on 5 November 1933.
• • In 1928 — — while chatting with reporter Sidney Skolsky — — Texas Guinan joked, "I want my funeral to be the speediest ever given. A cop on a motorcycle is to lead it."
• • Tommy Guinan went to Vancouver to sign the papers and accompany his sister home.
• • Twelve thousand turned out for a final viewing. Show business buddies filled Frank Campbell's Funeral Chapel — — then located on Broadway and West 66th Street in New York, NY — — with large floral tributes. Movie cameras recorded it all.
• • The New York Herald Tribune noted: "She was a master showman, and accomplished psychologist. . . . She had ability, too — — and would have been successful in any one of a dozen more conventional fields. To New York and the rest of the country Texas was a flaming leader of a period which was a lot of fun while it lasted. . . ."
• • Texas Guinan often said: "I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world." Non omnis moriar.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan's funeral on Broadway • • 1933 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Eileen Glenn portrays Texas Guinan

2008-06-09T15:20:00.008-04:00

MAE WEST had a good friend (and a bankroll for her shows) in Texas Guinan. In "Courting Mae West," Eileen Glenn will portray "The Queen of the Night Clubs" herself.
• • Born in New Jersey, Eileen Glenn was raised in East Tennessee. A trailblazer since childhood, she produced her first show, Cinderella, on her front porch while still in grammar school. She discovered her passion for Prokofiev’s "Peter & The Wolf" and Herb Albert's Tijuana Brass; soundtracks of "The Sound of Music," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Godspell" became bliss-driven engines that transported her soul straight to Broadway.
• • Ms Glenn graduated from the University of Tennessee with a BA in theatre. Three years later she discovered improvisational theatre and — — over the course of 4 days — — she flew to Chicago to audition for The Second City, returned home, packed her bags, and set up digs at The Hotel Lincoln (former home of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd).
• • Ms Glenn’s post-graduate instruction was working. She performed in everything: musicals, improv reviews, Shakespeare, Chekov, Greater Tuna, Caligula, The Mikado. Her experience in Chicago culminated with a summer trip to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Upon returning, she produced and starred in her one-person show, Margaret Atwood’s Good Bones and Simple Murders — — which earned rave reviews and has since been produced in New York City, Texas, and Arkansas.
• • Ms Glenn has performed regionally at Mill Mountain Theatre, VA; Arkansas Repertory; Shadowlawn Theater, NJ; and several seasons with Texas Shakespeare Festival. In New York she was a company member with Jean Cocteau Repertory and Lightning Strikes Theatre Company. She performs frequently with The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble and has appeared on many occasions with Judith Shakespeare Company and Actors Stock Company.
• • Inspired at an early age by the likes of Annie Oakley, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Amelia Earhart, and strong independent women everywhere, not to mention her mother, she is not surprised her journey has led her here. It seems Ms Glenn was almost destined to play an independent, gun toting, cowgirl with a heart of gold, living life by her rules and running her own empire.
• • In the immortal words of Texas Guinan, "I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world.”

• • Here is a Texas Guinan clip you can watch online — — http://www.efootage.com/stock-footage/13056/john-willis-narration-twenties-1920s-1927-black

• • "COURTING MAE WEST" opens at 6 o'clock on Saturday night July 19, 2008 at the Algonquin Theatre [East 24th Street and Park Avenue South].
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" — — showtimes
• • July 19th, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 20th, 2008 — — 2:00 PM matinee
• • July 21st, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 22nd, 2008 — — 9:00 PM
• • Tickets to COURTING MAE WEST are $18 per adult.
• • Theatermania.com sells the tickets — — http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/144297
• • Questions? Phone 212-779-3051.
• • The play is 95 minutes.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan and the gang onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan actress • • Eileen Glenn • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

A New Texas Guinan & Mae West

2008-06-05T23:45:00.008-04:00

When director Louis Lopardi was casting for the role of MAE WEST in "Courting Mae West," he was seeking a powerhouse of an actress with sex appeal and industrial strength charisma. He discovered his leading lady portraying Mae West in Sam Shepard's play "Mad Dog Blues."
• • Born on September 25th, actress Yvonne Sayers was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• • Surrounded by a family of fun-lovers who enjoyed entertaining, her passion for performing flowered at a young age.
• • During high school, Yvonne enrolled in a local acting school while immersing herself in ballroom dancing and modeling, which led to several local gigs.
• • After graduation, she headed to The Big Apple and took acting classes at the T. Schreiber Studio. An interest in cinema led her to the New York Film Academy, where she graduated with Special Recognition for her work as a Cinematographer. She wrote, directed, produced, and was the cinematographer for several of her own short films.
• • Currently, Yvonne divides her time in front of the camera as well as behind it; she is a Production Assistant for such shows as "Law & Order Criminal Intent," "Ed," etc.
• • Eileen Glenn will portray the "Queen of the Night Clubs" herself. An actress of immense authority and physical charm, Eileen invests Texas Guinan with a warm-hearted intensity.
• • Rehearsals for "Courting Mae West" will begin on June 7th in Manhattan in midtown under the watchful eye of Mr. Lopardi, his stage manager, and the playwright.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — which features Texas Guinan in the cast — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] from July 19th — 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Mae West and Texas Guinan • • 2008 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Mae & Money

2008-03-19T09:48:00.007-04:00

The past is another country — — and Texas Guinan's friend MAE WEST was most comfortable there.
• • However, in her Broadway blockbuster "Diamond Lil" [1928] Mae's aim was not to resurrect the naughty nineties — — but to present that bygone decade's sins in shifty soft focus. The world of Diamond Lil, restrained by Victorian morality despite a certain cheeky daring, was a backwards glance to a time of innocence, picturesque entertainment, well-behaved wildness, corset-clad temptresses, The Police Gazette's seductions, and 5-cent beer.
• • Drama critic Stark Young [1881—1963] analyzed Mae's clever maneuvers in his article for The New Republic:
• • "Diamond Lil" is as daring in the end [as 1926's "Sex"], the same sexy morsels, embraces, interventions of the law with rank suspenses, frank speeches, underworld, and so on. But it is more covered, continuous, and studied than the other production, and the crowd of characters, the costuming and vaudevillistic intervals, pull the whole of this later play into a more familiar style, less crudely, and sheerly singular than "Sex" appeared to be [excerpt from The New Republic — 27 June 1928].
• • Louis Lopardi, who will direct "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" in July at the Algonquin Theatre, also feels enriched by the past. His own production — — The Purgatory Project, Part 2 — — reimagined the lives led by four famous historical figures: Sigmund Freud, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
• • A history buff as well as a thespian, Lopardi especially enjoys plays with a classical echo, texts rooted to a mythic past. For instance, he found "Metamorphoses," a play based on the Greek poem Metamorphoses by Ovid, fascinating and he relished the modernized adaptation written by Mary Zimmerman a few years ago. Ovid works onstage because those depictions of yearning and confused desires are timeless, feels Lopardi.
• • Since he has frequently decanted Ovid's ancient songs, he noticed right away the mythic skin underneath "Courting Mae West" — — the Brooklyn bombshell's story reimagined as the metamorphosis of King Midas. How you get the golden touch is one of the subtle sub-plots here. As Mae's career goals recalibrate her box office appeal, she will earn her hard cold slice of success — — but at a cost.
• • "I like a multi-layered comedy," admits Lopardi. "The best shows make you laugh for an hour and a half — — and then, untethered from your Playbill, you mull it over at home."
• • Bringing "Courting Mae West" to an audience requires funding. To support A Company Of Players, a non-profit theatre group established in 1979 to present meaningful theatre, please click on this link — — http://www.companyofplayers.com/support.htm
• • A Company Of Players is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 type organization, and donations to the group are considered a charitable, tax-deductible contribution.
• • Contribute through "Pay Pal" or you can mail a check to: A Company Of Players, 545 Eighth Avenue, #401, New York NY 10018-4307.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — which features Texas Guinan in the cast — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] from July 19th — 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Mae West and Texas Guinan • • 1930 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Casting Call

2008-03-13T13:33:00.004-04:00

"COURTING MAE WEST" — — which features the arrest and trial of Mae West at the Jefferson Market Court House and the character of Texas Guinan — — will have a table reading in the month of March [2008], under the direction of Louis Lopardi, at The Producers Club.
• • A Company of Players will read the script aloud in preparation for a short Workshop Production in Manhattan.
• • Seeking the next Mae West!
• • Meanwhile, the search continues for the right actress to portray Mae West [1893—1980] — — in this serious-minded comedy that offers a star-making role. During the Prohibition Era, the Brooklyn bombshell was in her thirties. The ideal audition candidate is 25—30 with serious stage training and industrial strength charisma.
• • Rehearsals begin in June 2008 in Manhattan.
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• • Resumes and photo to:
• • A Company of Players
• • Attention: Louis Lopardi, Artistic Director
• • 545 Eighth Avenue [Box # 401]
• • New York, NY 10018 - 4307
• • Send Email via the web site — — www.CompanyofPlayers.com
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• • The Producers Club is located at 358 West 44th Street [between 8th-9th Avenue], New York, NY 10036.
• • Meanwhile, a fundraising effort is in progress. Matching funds have been promised for every dollar raised.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] from July 19th - 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Mae's Trial

2008-01-25T06:25:00.000-05:00

A 95-minute serious-minded comedy, "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — based on true events when actress-author MAE WEST was arrested and jailed for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway (New York City) — — combines real-life people and fictional personae. The story begins in December 1926, when Mae West is celebrating the 300th performance of her play "Sex" at a Greenwich Village speakeasy where she has hired some gay males and drag-queens to star in her upcoming production "The Drag." The final scene, set in December 1932, shows Mae West in her Hollywood dressing room, preparing to shoot a scene for a Paramount Pictures motion picture called "She Done Him Wrong" — — a screenplay based on her 1928 Broadway smash "Diamond Lil."
• • The cast of "Courting Mae West" includes some colorful characters. Meet Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan [1884-1933], called "Texas Guinan" in the play.
• • Born in Waco, Texas, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan was an amiable hell-raiser who lived in Greenwich Village with her mother, father, and younger brother, and had an unusual career that required two armored cars. Active in vaudeville and musical theater, Texas starred in dozens of silent films (often as the gun-toting lawmaker in 2-reel westerns, a match for any cowboy or revenue agent). During the prohibition era, Texas's talents for whooppee-making and shameless self-promotion came together for a successful reign as the queen of the night clubs and speakeasies, where her job was to help people spend money.
• • Learn about her: TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • In "Courting Mae West," Texas Guinan's counterpart TEXAS GUINAN is witty, confident, stylish, wealthy, and diamond draped; as MAE WEST observes, being together means "basking in the glow of your investment grade jewelry." Frequently arrested for violating the Volstead Act, Texas is riveted on opening new gin mills each time the feds padlock her nightspots. Therefore, she views the penitential perils as part of the game. In her mid-forties and an influential Broadway backer, TEXAS GUINAN provides a contrast to MAE WEST, an onstage outlaw who is generous with everything — — except sympathy.

• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets"
• • Cast size: seven [4 females, 3 males play rotating roles — — except for the MAE WEST role]
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • SYNOPSIS [100 words] • •

• • Based on true events during the Prohibition Era, this 95-minute play follows a vaudeville veteran whose frustrations with the rules of male-dominated Broadway have led her to write her own material and cast her own shows. Is the Gay White Way ready for love stories that feature New York City drag queens instead of card-carrying members of the union? Is the legitimate theatre ripe for racially integrated melodramas set in Harlem? Is the Rialto raring to reward a working-class heroine determined to sin and win?
• • Come up and see Mae West as she challenges bigotry, fights City Hall, and climbs the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • Mae West • • 1930 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan Onstage in 2008

2008-01-11T04:17:00.000-05:00

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• • The event's board of directors met and approved my director's pitch — — and my play "COURTING MAE WEST" has cleared the first hurdle to be onstage during their annual early July festival in a theatre in Manhattan.
• • The festival offers over 30 live acts. Mine is one of the two plays they will produce. My 95-minute serious-minded comedy will be shown FOUR times onstage [in a theatre with fewer than 99 seats].
• • Texas Guinan is in the cast along with other real-life characters that Mae West knew (and Mae knew quite a lot of characters).
• • After the 9 February 1927 performance of "SEX," Mae was hauled off to Jefferson Market Police Court on Sixth Avenue, where she spent the night locked up with streetwalkers and drug addicts.
• • Details and ticket prices will be posted when available.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan's friend • • 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Make Whoopee

2007-08-01T03:20:00.001-04:00

The Frisky Factor Increases
Secrets of an Actress Are Exposed in August

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 21, 2007 – – Calling all FRISK-a-teers! The wild WEST side of Mae West, a close friend of speakeasy queen Texas Guinan, will be apparent on August 17, 2007 during the celebration of the Annual Mae West Gala in New York City. Secretive and image-conscious, the Brooklyn bombshell carefully covered up her private life, which included frequent partying at speakeasies, a secret marriage to an Italian accordionist, séances behind curtains, making whoopee, and multi-racial love affairs.
• • Next month, on the actress's birthday [Friday evening on August 17], the Annual Mae West Gala will focus on Manhattan's busy theatre district, where Mae's West Side Story will unfold in over a dozen sites between West 50th Street and West 63rd Street.
• • Participants will come up to see three addresses where the blonde bombshell hung her famous hats along with the former speakeasies where she rendezvoused with Rudolf Valentino, George Raft, and others.
• • Other locations include her dance school, the jewelers who created the "Diamond Lil" sparkle, legitimate theatres, former vaudeville houses, and more. In the past, guests of these yearly Mae West events have included playwright Sam Shepard, actress Jessica Lange, broadcaster Joe Franklin, ballplayers from the New York Yankees, well-known screenwriters, and a diverse group of Mae devotees who travel cross country to The Big Apple during the dog days of summertime.
– – WHO – – WHAT – – WHEN – – WHERE – – HOW MUCH – – SUBWAY INFO – –
• • Festivities kick off on Mae West's birthday August 17, 2007.
• • The public is invited.
• • TIME: "Mae West Side Story" tour begins at 7:00 PM -- ends 8:30 PM.
• • PLACE: Tour begins on Broadway at West 50th Street [NE corner.
• • SUBWAY: BMT to Broadway -- West 49th Street station
• • • • • • COST:
• • VIP tickets: $25 per person – – including tour and reception and giftbag – – and all VIP tickets must be pre-paid by August 15, 2007.
• • TOUR ONLY: $15 per person (CASH only) – – buy tickets on Friday evening August 17 for tour only – – $15 tickets do not include party nor giftbag.
• • Sorry, no exceptions and no refunds. Advance payment via PayPal.
• • Updates and past party pictures are online.
• • URL: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • Sponsorship/ giftbag inquiries welcome.
– – WHO – – WHAT – – WHEN – – WHERE – – HOW MUCH – – SUBWAY INFO – –
• • Source: www.prweb.com
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan's pal Mae West • • 1932 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Drena Beach

2007-03-01T16:05:00.004-05:00

In March 1929 audiences were getting used to a new form of entertainment: a "dramatic dialogue picture" also known as a "talkie." Since people were used to seeing a live stage show, theatre owners would book a picture and arrange for an extravaganza on stage.
• • Drena Beach, a protege of Texas Guinan, was getting a lot of work. The live segments ran continuously from noon to midnight, alternating with the featured first-run picture.
• • On 10 March 1929, the acrobatic dancer performed her "Sensational Dance of the Leopard" on the stage of B.S. Moss's Colony Theatre [Broadway and 53rd Street].
• • Always supportive of her "little girls," Texas Guinan would be in the audience, attracting more press coverage to the event to make sure her performer was noticed. And how could you not notice Drena Beach with her thrillingly long tigerish fingernails?
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan protege Drena Beach • • 1926 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: December 31

2006-12-31T21:42:00.000-05:00

It was December of 1979 when this issue was on the newsstands with Texas Guinan on the cover. Let the last month go out with a BANG. Happy New Year, Suckers!

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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 1919 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Lost - Found

2006-11-30T21:33:00.000-05:00

TEXAS GUINAN stars in "Broadway Through a Keyhole" which can be found onscreen this month at Film Forum [in Manhattan].
• • Meanwhile, here is a "lost film" that few can boast about seeing: "Queen of the Night Clubs" [1929].
• • To sophisticated filmgoers of 1929, the designation "queen of the nightclubs" could mean only one person: Colorful Manhattan speakeasy proprietress Texas Guinan, of "Hello, Sucker!" fame. More or less playing herself, the brash, blowsy Guinan is cast as Tex Malone, a New York nightery owner who hires innocent young songstress Bee Wallace (Lila Lee) to perform in Tex's club. This effectively breaks up Bee's vaudeville act with hoofer Eddie Parr (Eddie Foy Jr., the brother of director Bryan Foy). Feeling put-upon, Eddie is the most likely suspect when Tex's close friend Don Holland (John Davidson) is murdered. In the course of the trial, Tex discovers that Eddie is actually her own son. Without ever revealing her relationship with Eddie to the world, Tex manages to prove that the actual killer was rival club owner Andy Quindland (played by veteran movie "drunk" Arthur Housman, in a rare sober characterization).
• • George Raft makes his film debut by re-creating the "hot" Charleston dance solo that first brought him Broadway fame (the details of Raft's move to Hollywood, and his friendships with such gangsters as Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel, would later be fictionalized in Francis Ford Coppola's 1984 production The Cotton Club). ...
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 1929 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Retiring

2006-11-29T20:51:00.001-05:00

Edith Head designed many memorable gowns - - eye candy for the silver screen. An announcement from Hollywood on 28 November 1960 heralded the retirement of a "collection of the best known clothes in the world . . . now heading for its final public appearance." This "million dollar collection" included gowns created for TEXAS GUINAN and her friend Mae West.

• • "I'm only managing to hold them together with emergency sewing now," said Edith Head (in mid-November 1960). A diminutive but dynamic brunette who is twice as busy as most Hollywood producers, Head added, "This will be about their last time out."
• • A score of Paramount Pictures costumes have been sentimentally preserved because they contributed to movie history.
• • These beauties included extravagant confections for TEXAS GUINAN, Mae West's emerald-green, jewel-embroidered come-up-and-see-me-sometime gown from "She Done Him Wrong," Clara Bow's outfits, and Ginger Rigers' mink dress from "Lady in the Dark" . . .
• • To have seen these dresses in full color during their heyday - - after viewing them in a black and white film - - must have been a startling contrast.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • 1931 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan's Funeral 1933

2006-11-06T02:31:00.000-05:00

Chatting with reporter Sidney Skolsky in 1928, TEXAS GUINAN insisted, "I want my funeral to be the speediest ever given. A cop on a motorcycle is to lead it."

• • Tommy Guinan went to Vancouver to sign the papers and accompany his sister home.
• • Twelve thousand turned out for a final viewing. Show business buddies filled Frank Campbell's Funeral Chapel in New York with flowers. Movie cameras recorded it all.
• • The New York Herald Tribune noted: "She was a master showman, and accomplished psychologist. . . . She had ability, too - - and would have been successful in any one of a dozen more conventional fields. To New York and the rest of the country Texas was a flaming leader of a period which was a lot of fun while it lasted. . . ."
• • Texas Guinan often said: "I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world." Non omnis moriar.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • her funeral in Times Square, November 1933 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Nov. 5th

2006-11-05T00:21:00.000-05:00

When the news of TEXAS GUINAN'S sudden demise in Canada (on 5 November 1933) spread through Times Square, it was clear that the 49-year-old entertainer had touched many people. Said her friends: To know her is to love her.

• • What was it like to spend a night at Texas Guinan's club?
• • An evening was chronicled for Time Magazine (issue of Monday 16 November 1925).
• • | The Press | Back to Back |
• • • • When that aged Pittsburgh viveur, Harry K. Thaw, feeling in his veins the thrill of a new spring, went to Manhattan and began to conduct himself in a manner that ill benefitted his grey hairs (TIME, 28 September 1925), the New York Daily Mirror "crusaded" against him, asking, "Why is a rich lunatic a free lunatic?" Some of the Mirror's chicle-masticating readers may have thought it a breach of taste, a blatancy, to make so much of the fact that an old rake wanted to chuck a dancing girl under the chin. Little did these readers know the courage that went into the writing of that crusade.
• • A fortnight ago the Editor and Publisher brought to light a new fact: The story about Thaw was written by no ordinary reporter, but by the "Tabloid Ringmaster" of the New York Mirror — Editor Philip Payne.
• • All the evening a reporter had been following Harry Thaw and the members of his seraglio. At length the pursued taxi, careering down a dark side street, drew up in front of the Del Fey Club; Thaw followed a drugget of light on the pavement; a door closed behind him.
• • When the reporter's knuckles a moment later belabored that door, a panel in its upper section slid back and in the slit appeared the bulldog brow of a surly doorkeeper. The reporter was a man typical of his kind, a seedy fellow, drearily accoutred. No evening shirt fluted his meagre bosom. No glittering lady stood beside him. He was obviously not wealthy. He was not a member of the "Club."
• • "Beat it, Buddy," said the grim face at the slit.
• • In Editor Payne's apartment a few minutes later the telephone rang. Over the wire came the voice of the reporter, telling how he had been refused entrance to the Del Fey Club; how Thaw sat within, busy with his tiddling, all unseen by the press.
• • "I'll come down myself," snapped Mr. Payne. He, 33, a viveur himself in a controlled fashion, is a member of the Club. His face — curly-mouthed, snub-nosed, the face of a bespectacled Puck — is well known to "Texas" Guinan, famed proprietress.
• • Also, it is known, most unpleasantly known, to Harry K. Thaw. That is why the other patrons of the club gasped when they saw the waiter place Mr. Payne at the table next Mr. Thaw's, back to back with the killer. In every mind beat a terrible question.
• • Harry K. Thaw, everyone knew, had shot Stanford White. If Harry Thaw discovered Editor Payne, his enemy, the man who had publicly vilified him, scraping elbows with him in a night club, what then?
• • Mr. Thaw's hand began to move steadily, cautiously toward his hip pocket. A woman at a nearby table caught a cry to her lips; a fat man upset his drinking glass. Editor Payne sat quiet, tense. In the emergency, his courage was supreme. The slayer's arm moved. He drew from his pocket a handkerchief. . . .
• • In a few minutes intrepid Mr. Payne was chatting with him. "That conversation," stated Mr. Payne, "convinced me that the man is insane and ought to be locked up." Next day all gum-chewing Manhattan read his furious attack on Thaw. . . .
Source: Monday 16 November 1925 TIME Magazine
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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Texas Guinan • • from Times Sq Tintypes, 1930 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: 3 Nov. 1930

2006-11-04T02:49:00.000-05:00

On Monday 3 November 1930, this was printed in Time Magazine:

• • Daily colummists in Manhattan's English-speaking press are the following:
Calvin Coolidge, Herald Tribune; Arthur Brisbane, American;
Mary Louise ("Texas") Guinan, Graphic;
Franklin Pierce Adams, World; Frank Sullivan, World; Will Rogers, New York Times;
Neal O'Hara, Evening World; Harry Irving Phillips, New York Sun; Karl Kingsley Kitchen, New York Sun; Beverly Smith, Herald Tribune; Heywood Broun, Telegram; Russel Crouse, Post; Harry Acton, American; Leo T. Heatley, Journal; Louis Sobol, Graphic; Sidney Skolsky, News; Mark Hellinger, Mirror; Walter Winchell, Mirror.

• • A weekly columnist on Zit's Theatrical Newspaper is its managing editor, Paul Sweinhart. Last week he wrote: "I've just heard . . . that the crack was made the other morning in a night club that a certain daily newspaper columnist will be bumped off within six months."
• • Broadway's news-wise readers associated this warning NOT with Columnists Coolidge, Brisbane, Guinan, Broun or a dozen others, but instinctively thought first of Gossip-Columnist Walter Winchell (TIME Magazine, 17 June 1929). New York has heard before the rumor of threats against his life. Not loath to dramatize his position, Winchell himself has helped circulate the impression that "some day. . . ".
• • Characteristic is the legend that he has placed in a safe deposit box the names of those who might cheerfully see him "rubbed out," with a detailed account of their motives.
• • Some Walter Winchell "cracks" of the past two months:
"Evelyn Dallas, who got all that publicity when Geo. White discovered her in Florida, was dumped with others . . . Harry Richman, however, diamond-wrist watched her, and she likes . . . [excerpt from the article].
• • N.B.: Walter Winchell, Mark Hellinger, Sidney Skolsky, Heywood Broun, and Franklin Pierce Adams were among the best customers at Texas Guinan's nightspots.
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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Texas Guinan • • 1930 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Wild about Harry

2006-11-02T03:12:00.000-05:00

TEXAS GUINAN knew some shady characters - - and Harry "Champ" Segal had a special blaze in his heart for the two-gun woman.

• • Harry "Champ" Segal, a former boxer and bookie, ran a little joint in midtown that was disguised as a barbershop but was really an underground bookmaking and loan-sharking operation. Champ's bosom buddies included Legs Diamond, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and other gangsters who were on familiar terms with New York's fearless "girl of the rancho."
• • Although Champ Segal never won a title in the ring, the dapper hoodlum managed many prizefighters - - Bantamweight Champion Charley "Phil" Rosenberg [1902-1976], Ace Hudson, Phil Kaplan, Heavyweight Champion Freddy Beshore [1922-1981], Sal Belloise - - and had 118 fights himself, 78 of which he won by knock-outs.
• • Texas Guinan enjoyed his patronage and she got a kick out of the always impeccably dressed wheel-dealer. Champ Segal admired Texas, a fellow independent operator, and included anecdotes about their friendship in his book.
• • Born in Harlem in 1899, by 1917 he had an arrest record for possessing narcotics. In 1927 he was locked up in connection with a homicide at his restaurant on St. Nicholas Avenue and West 112th Street. Throughout his hair-raising past he must have been taking notes for this biography that his brother published in November 1959, which was called "a daring and exciting book about the world of sports, gambling, gangsters, and politicians from the 1920s to the present day." Though Champ was as solitary a figure as Charlie Chaplin, astonishingly he did have a brother; Hyman's name appeared on the dustjacket: They Called Him Champ: the Story of Champ Segal and His Fabulous Era by Hyman R. Segal [NY: Citadel Press, 1959; 480 pages with b/w photographs].
• • Texas Guinan, Mae West, Al Capone, Larry Fay, Legs Diamond, Bugsy Siegel, Primo Carnera, Mayor Jimmy Walker - - they've all made book, so to speak.
• • November 1959 there was a book launch at Lindy's Restaurant with his buddies from Stillman's Gym.
• • That was a better November than nine years earlier for Champ Segal. On 1 November 1950 the 51-year-old bookie was arrested outside of the Park-Sheraton Hotel, where he'd been living. This was part of a Times Square round-up of gangsters by the police. Champ Segal slipped through the grasp of the city's legal eagles, however. The colorful con man was still being indicted in 1974 when he was age 77.
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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Hyman R. Segal • • 1959 dustjacket • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Julia Hoyt

2006-10-31T04:47:00.000-05:00

Broadway actress JULIA HOYT, who was a regular at all the TEXAS GUINAN nightspots, died at age 58 on Hallowe'en: 31 October 1955.

• • Hoping to advance her stage career, Julia Hoyt hooked up with debonair leading man LOUIS CALHERN [1895-1956], whom she met when both were cast in a 1927 drama The Dark, which had a brief run at the Lyceum Theatre. Hoyt and Calhern were seen together often at Texas Guinan's during their short-lived marriage [1927-1932].
• • Louis Calhern played "Madden" - - a character based on Texas Guinan's friend Owney Madden - - in "Night After Night." He had one scene in it. Starring MAE WEST and GEORGE RAFT, the film opened at the Paramount Theatre on 31 October 1932.
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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Julia Hoyt • • 1921 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Jay Hunt

2006-10-29T04:23:00.000-05:00

TEXAS GUINAN starred in "My Lady Robin Hood" [1919].
• • The storyline of this silent film was centered - - as you might expect - - on a female bandit with a heart of gold who steals from gamblers and gives to a poor family with a crippled daughter.
• • This was the final film directed by Jay Hunt, who was 64 years old when he worked with Texas Guinan. Born in Philadelphia on 4 August 1855, Jay Hunt died in Los Angeles on 18 November 1932.
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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: "My Lady Robin Hood" • • 1919 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan & the Undead

2006-10-25T05:20:00.003-04:00

Since October 31st is All Hallows Eve, it is the season to highlight Texas Guinan's fascination with the occult, the unseen, and the undead. When she was 42 years old, Texas Guinan met Rudolph Valentino [6 May 1895 — 23 August 1926] at her brother's nightspot.

• • It was Sunday 25 July 1926 when Texas Guinan met Valentino at Tommy Guinan's speakeasy. Larger than the average ginmill, The Playground was on West 52nd Street (east of Broadway). Its generous square footage made it ideal for events and James R. Quirk, editor-publisher of Photoplay, hosted a Reception in honor of Valentino's new silent movie "Son of the Sheik" there. When Photoplay first began publication, Quirk's staff had included handsome Julian Johnson, Texas's lover.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan were there to greet the Apulian heartthrob. No doubt Texas fancied Jadaan, a superb Arabian stallion Valentino had ridden in this melodrama. An expert equestrienne herself, the following year Texas would ride an Arabian stallion into the Shubert Theatre at the start of "Padlocks of 1927."

• • Maybe Mae West was charmed more by the Italian stallion himself — — and piqued by the abrupt end to his life that occurred one month later when the actor was only 31. Something about Rudy impressed Mae, encouraging her to think that he could link her to the unquiet dead up and down Times Square.
• • According to Whitney Bolton, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a week after the Italian-born actor Rudolph Valentino died [1895-1926], Mae West and her friend Texas Guinan arranged for a séance in a Manhattan loft. Suspicious that the 31-year-old heartthrob was secretly poisoned by a rival, Mae summoned an Italian Medium to officiate. At the table sitting opposite Mae were Texas, her brother Tommy Guinan, and the gangster Owney Madden who owned The Cotton Club, a man remembered more for violence than his spiritual side.
• • And the rendezvous with Rudolph in 1926 must have been memorable because two years later Mae was holding séances in the smoking room of the Royale Theatre to communicate again with him. Visiting New York to see “Diamond Lil” on Broadway, the actor Jean Hersholt was invited backstage and yanked into a darkened room where a Medium was channeling Caruso and Valentino. Hersholt recalled that Rudy called upon Mae and said: “Mae, you have a lot of enemies and don’t trust any of them.”
• • During the 1920s, Texas Guinan continued to host séances in her nightspots — — especially in Club Abbey on West 54th Street. It was easy for Mae West to attend these sessions, too, since she lived right upstairs.
• • To stay in touch with the other side, Texas Guinan also regularly attended St. Joseph's, a Roman Catholic Church on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Valentino and "Son of the Sheik" • • 1926 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan on Houston

2006-10-21T04:40:00.000-04:00

She's back - - and Houston's got her! There is only one place to be on Monday 4 December 2006 and that is on West Houston Street. TEXAS GUINAN reigns as screen queen on that date. The entire month of December is when Film Forum will show their series "Fox Before the Code" when Prohibition Era classics will roll.

• • On December 4th, Film Forum presents "BROADWAY THRU A KEYHOLE" [1933, LOWELL SHERMAN].
• • Plot: Constance Cummings is befriended by protection racket boss Paul Kelly, but eventually falls for actual Bing Crosby rival Russ Columbo. Ripped from Walter Winchell’s column — Al Jolson socked him over supposed parallels to his romance with Ruby Keeler — with vaudeville star Blossom Seeley and legendary speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan (“Hello, suckers!”).
• • “Far from wholesome.” – NY Times.
• • Bonus: Fox “Magic Carpet of Movietone” short "Broadway By Day"
• • Co-Feature: "ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN"
• • Film Forum is located at 209 W. Houston Street, between 6th Avenue & Varick, in New York City.
• • Box Office: 212-727-8110 (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
• • Tell them you heard about it from TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
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Texas Guinan
• • illustration: a film based on true events that took place at Texas Guinan's nightspots • • Broadway through a Keyhole • • 1933 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan by Kesslere

2006-10-18T18:51:00.004-04:00

Oh, to be kissed by Kesslere — — to be made love to by his lens. In those bygone days of "fixed focus," an ambitious camera king like George Maillard Kesslere could (and did) make his mark by snapping theatrical types as well as Park Avenue "royalty" and bluebloods.
• • Born in 1894, George Maillard Kesslere had set up a showy photo studio on East 50th Street by the early 1920s. During his long career, the lensman took pictures of TEXAS GUINAN, Tommy Guinan, Mae West, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, Charlie Chaplin, Walter Damrosch, Arturo Toscanini, Beatrice Lillie, Rudy Vallee, Tallulah Bankhead, Alexander Woolcott, William H. Paley, Gertrude Lawrence, Charles Laughton, Helen Hayes, Jascha Heifetz, Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Marlon Brando, etc.
• • During Prohibition, his paintings were also attracting eyes and buyers. Kesslere's sassy canvasses for Earl Carroll's Vanities were published in the very early 1930s. Theatre-owner and producer Earl Carroll was a regular at Texas Guinan's nightspots.
• • In 1927 TEXAS GUINAN had a premiere of her revue Padlocks of 1927, and George Maillard Kesslere photographed Texas Guinan before the show opened.
• • One promotional picture appeared in The New York Times on 8 May 1927. In the Times, Texas is in the same garb as in this studio portrait, where she posed with her beloved mother Bessie and her frisky kid brother Tommy Guinan.
• • In 1952, the lifelong bachelor (who had resided on East 62nd Street for many decades) donated the G. Maillard Kesslere Collection of 6,000 photographs and 500 paintings to the New York Public Library for its permanent theatre collection. That's a well-kept secret. Kesslere's sister Hazel was his sole survivor when he died at age 84 on 1 January 1979 in a nursing home in Cresskill, NJ.
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan with mother Bessie and brother Tommy • • by G.M. Kesslere • • 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Eddie Cantor

2006-10-17T06:51:00.000-04:00

When artist Wynn Holcomb sketched the interior of the TEXAS GUINAN CLUB in 1927, he positioned the speakeasy queen's regular customers around the various tables.

• • This detail shows the comedian when he was 35 and starring on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. The hit opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 16 August 1927 and ran for 167 performances. By the time the show shuttered on 7 January 1927, it had also made the newcomer Ruth Etting a star.
• • Claire Luce (who worked for Texas Guinan) was also in this revue.
• • Born on the Lower Eastside of New York on 31 January 1982, Eddie Cantor was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter, and one of the most popular entertainers in the USA in the early and middle 20th century. He was known to Broadway, radio, and early television audiences as "Banjo Eyes" and "the Apostle of Pep", and was regarded by millions as "a member of the family" because of his intimate radio shows that involved stories and antics about his wife, Ida, and his five daughters.
• • Eddie Cantor died in October [10 October 1964]. He is being remembered this month as a hard-working performer, a humanitarian, and a person Texas Guinan enjoyed.
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Texas Guinan
• • illustration: Texas Guinan's friend • • Eddie Cantor • • 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Rose Rolando

2006-10-15T07:52:00.013-04:00

When artist Wynn Holcomb sketched the interior of the TEXAS GUINAN CLUB in 1927, he positioned the speakeasy queen's favorites close to her central figure.
• • This detail shows the Broadway dancer-choreographer ROSE ROLANDO, a vivacious beauty whose performances onstage would send theatre critics into fits of ecstatic adjectives.
• • Born in Los Angeles as Rosemond Cowan, Rose's dancing feet led her into Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers popular musical "Garrick's Gaieties" — — which ran for 212 performances. Rose Rolando opened Act II with a number called "Rancho Mexicana." Perhaps that was Rose's way of flirting with the Mexican set designer, artist Miguel Covarrubias [1904-1957].
• • Drawn into the theatre circle by his relationship with this dark-eyed dancer, Covarrubias pursued celebrity caricature. The New Yorker asked him to sketch MAE WEST. His drawing of "Diamond Lil" (now in the Smithsonian) appeared in their 5 May 1928 issue.
• • Rose Rolando was photographed by Edward Weston, Max Eastman, and Man Ray. Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias were two of many artists who painted her.
• • After years of living together in Greenwich Village, the pair married in 1930.
• • The couple collaborated on several books, documenting their travels to Bali and elsewhere.
• • Covarrubias, an illustrated volume about their fascinating life — — and their notable friendships — — was published in 1994 by the University of Texas Press. After leaving the Rialto behind, Rose became an accomplished photographer, writer, and artist.
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan's friend • • Rose Rolando • • 1920s • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan's Moon-Maid

2006-10-13T05:50:00.001-04:00

October, the month of the Harvest Moon, is a perfect time to commemorate a very close friend of Texas Guinan: Nora Bayes.
• • The Harvest Moon is always the first full moon after the Autumnal Equinox. It rose this year on October 6th.

• • The oldest recorded MOON song of this century, and the most popular of all the lunar tunes, is "Shine On Harvest Moon" written in 1903 by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. [Note: The original sheet music of this song is owned by Sir Paul McCartney.]
• • Requested often at night clubs run by Texas Guinan, this chart-topper, Ruth Etting's trademark tune, was sung by many vocalists and has been beamed into the soundtrack of dozens of films including "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."
• • YouTube features Oliver Hardy singing "Shine on Harvest Moon."
• • CHORUS • •
Shine on, shine on harvest moon
Up in the sky,
I ain't had no lovin'
Since January, February, June or July
Snow time ain't no time to stay
Outdoors and spoon,
So shine on, shine on harvest moon,
For me and my gal.

• • In 1944, a more-fiction-than-fact film was released: Shine On, Harvest Moon. By then, Nora was long dead. In March 1928, she died suddenly, at age 48, in a Brooklyn hospital after cancer surgery. Jack Norworth and his ambitious new missus managed to get a screenplay produced that glorifies his achievements, while downplaying Nora's phenomenal career - - non-stop success that began in 1899 when the charismatic beauty was 19 years old.
• • MOVIE PLOT - - Complete with a final production number filmed in Technicolor, this tuneful musical depicts the highly fictive ups and downs of fabled vaudeville headliners Jack Norworth [1879-1959] and Nora Bayes [1880-1928]. After rejecting a partnership with songstress Blanche Mallory (Irene Manning), Jack Norworth (Dennis Morgan) discovers Nora Bayes (Ann Sheridan), who is wasting her considerable vocal talents by working in a honkytonk. Jack convinces the girl to become his partner . . . . blah-blah-blah. Despite setbacks, the talented husband-and-wife duo finagles an engagement with the 1907 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies and vows the audiences with Jack's newest composition, the lilting "Shine on Harvest Moon."
• • In reality, in 1903 Jack Norworth met the already quite famous 23-year-old singing comedienne Nora Bayes at the office of a music publisher. In 1908, Jack Norworth became one of her five husbands, and moved into her house [624 West End Avenue].
• • Texas Guinan was stricken with grief at her friend's untimely demise. Nora Bayes deserves more space here, and she will get it. Meanwhile, Texas Guinan says: Shine on, shine on, dear harvest moon-maid.
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan's friend • • Nora Bayes • • 1912 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Once in Love with Aimee

2006-10-11T02:56:00.000-04:00

Of course, it's time to commemorate a woman admired by Texas Guinan on her birthday in October.
Aimee Semple McPherson [9 October 1890 –– 27 September 1944], also known as "Sister Aimee" or simply "Sister," was an evangelist and media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s; she was also the founder of the Foursquare Church.
• • McPherson had started out as a Salvation Army worker.
• • Aimee McPherson spent four years [1918-1922] as an itinerant Pentecostal preacher, finally settling with her mother in Los Angeles, California, and founding the Foursquare Gospel church. She supervised construction of a large, domed church building in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, and it was completed in June 1923. Named Angelus Temple, it had a seating capacity of over 5,000.
• • When Aimee Semple McPherson, the famous Evangelist (with marcel-waved hair) from Los Angeles visited New York in 1927, she insisted on visiting Texas Guinan's club.
• • Texas welcomed McPherson and the two formed a sort of mutual admiration society. It was a promotional dream - - two gals of Irish descent in different types of show business. Aimee thanked Texas and invited her to her Glad Tidings Tabernacle the next day. Texas and her chorus girls showed up (before going to work), to the astonishment of everyone.
• • At the time, women in the pulpit ministry were rare — — those who wore makeup and jewelry in the pulpit, nonexistent. McPherson's uniqueness in this respect, her flamboyance and her unashamed use of low-key sex appeal to attract converts, endeared her to her crowd of followers in Los Angeles. She would invariably appear before parishioners in a white gown, carrying a bouquet of flowers.
• • On 27 September 1944 she was found dead of an overdose of prescription barbiturates.
• • Photo of Texas Guinan and Aimee Semple McPherson [1927] from Texas Guinan: Queen of the Nightclubs by Louise Berliner
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan • • Aimee Semple McPherson • • 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Meet Texas Guinan Tuesday

2006-10-08T05:49:00.000-04:00

The Waco Tribune Herald, Texas Guinan's hometown newspaper, printed an intriguing item on Sunday - - 8 October 2006.

Reporter Terri Jo Ryan, Tribune-Herald staffwriter, highlighted this upcoming event featuring Texas food, history, and local personalities - - and we already know a few.
• • Pizza proprietor and educator Mary Duty envisions Waco history in terms of restaurants, taverns, and tales swapped over soup, beer, Mexican food. . . and pizza.
• • “Restaurants kind of tell the story of a town,” Mary Duty said. “Look at Waco’s famous Klaras family. Pete Klaras was a Greek immigrant who had this popular café on the Square and fed many Americans through the Depression. The story is he kept a bowl of soup on at all times.” To ensure that hungry but penniless customers retained their pride, they were invited to have soup and sign a ledger agreeing to an I.O.U. [though it seems that Klaras never expected poverty-stricken people to made good on their face-saving promise].
• • Such history is part of a unique local event this week in Waco, Texas. If you’ve ever fancied enjoying pizza with 1920s speakeasy queen Texas Guinan or munching eggrolls with Waco’s pistol-packin’ publisher William Cowper Brann, you shouldn't miss this chance.
• • At the “Taste of Waco History” offering set from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday [October 10th], some of the most famous characters of Six Shooter Junction’s colorful past will rub elbows with mere mortals enjoying food and beverages at the Waco History Project’s major fundraiser.
• • Snobby Tours is providing living history re-enactors to ferry folks to famous sites around town. Three 30-minute tours have been scheduled and will depart from the parking lot of Nelson’s, 414 Franklin Ave. The first begins shortly after 5 p.m.
• • Other “spirits” invited to the party include Sul Ross, early Texas Ranger, governor of Texas and president of Texas A&M; Alf Neill, the first Waco police officer killed in the line of duty; Estella Maxey, musical entertainer; Madison Cooper, author of Sironia, Texas; and Scottish settler Neil McLennan, for whom the county is named.
• • Organizers have dubbed the event “Meet Me at Hamburger Pete’s.”
• • Mary Duty, treasurer of the Waco History Project, said each of the participating restaurants has a unique history. . . .
• • Admission tickets — - which include food, beverage and motorcoach tour - — can be purchased at the Tribune-Herald, 900 Franklin Avenue or the Historic Waco Foundation, 810 S. Fourth Street.
• • Published: Sunday 8 October 2006
• • Source: Terri Jo Ryan - tjryan@wacotrib.com
Waco Tribune Tel: 254-757-5746 - - URL: www.wacotrib.com
Toll-free: 800-678-8742
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan • • 1928 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

15 Minutes with a Hot Blonde

2006-10-06T03:30:00.000-04:00

New York City's Fire Patrol was on stand-by the evening of August 17th, 2006.

Reason: they heard that vixenish vocalist MARNIE BAUMER was in Greenwich Village, doing her "Mae West Medley" at the ANNUAL MAE WEST GALA. Well, things got really hot when the boa-toting beauty took the floor to treat the crowd to "My Old Flame," "A Guy What Takes His Time," and "Frankie and Johnny."
• • George, the muscle-bound bodyguard who accompanies Texas Guinan everywhere, swore that the blonde Baumer's performance was not unlike a three-alarm-blaze. (Hey, sucker! Where were YOU on August 17th, huh?)

• • Party guests at Village Restaurant, happily feasting on a Roaring 20s menu specially prepared by chef Stephen Lyle, also were enjoying the exhibition "ONSTAGE OUTLAWS: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era."
• • Veteran reporter Jules Peimer covered the ANNUAL MAE WEST GALA for 15 Minutes Magazine. This is his coverage.
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Marnie Baumer and LindaAnn Loschiavo • • courtesy of Jules Peimer and 15 Minutes Magazine • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Snakes & Sam

2006-10-04T02:36:00.000-04:00

Enjoy a glimpse of Texas Guinan from someone who knew her.
• • Samuel Marx had a long career in the entertainment industry.

When he was in his 20s, while he was covering the nightlife scene for newspapers, Marx frequented several clubs run by Texas Guinan and her brother Tommy. He used this insider's knowledge to pen a sweet little tell-all: Texas Guinan: The Ace of (Night) Clubs [released 1 January 1929, 30 pages].
• • Here is an excerpt from Little Blue Book No. 1446 [Publisher: Haldeman-Julius Publications].
• • • • • • Headlining at the club, at present, is a girl {Nerida} who does a dance while entwined with a live six-foot cobra. It is weird and ghastly.

This same girl had been dismissed from the Frivolity Club. Waiters complained that people ordered less food when the snake was on. Texas doesn't care. She likes the act.
• • Heywood Broun, noted writer, once devoted his entire "It Seems to Me" column in the Scripps-Howard newspapers to that snake dance. At the bottom, Broun wittily closed with the line that "if there isn't any snake at the Guinan Club, I'm on the water wagon from now on!"
• • Jeanne Williams - - who was later to fool Hollywood with a Russian accent and the name of Sonia Karlov - - was a dancer at the old El Fey Club. Ruby Keeler, who later married Al Jolson [in 1928], was a fixture with Texas as a tap-dancer for many seasons. Dottie Wilson, a beautiful little blonde dancer, left Texas to wed a millionaire Clevelander. Among old standbys of Texas - - who started with her and are still be her side - - are Drina [sic] Beach, who dances an exotic routine clad in a leopard skin, and Kitty O'Riley, a "tough" Irish girl entertainer.
• • The show at Texas Guinan's is not like the ordinary revue in any other Broadway cabaret. . . .
[Note: Drena Beach danced in the Broadway revue Padlocks of 1927 [Shubert Theatre, July - September 1927.]
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan • • 1928 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan on WEAF 1922

2006-10-03T08:24:00.000-04:00

This story begins during the Roaring 20s with Bruce Reynolds, a popular actor and lecturer, who told it to the columnist Ben Gross.

• • One morning in 1922, Bruce Reynolds saw an ad in the New York Times announcing that A.T.&T. was "considering" the acceptance of advertising on its radio station WEAF.
• • "I rushed downtown to the station and made them an audacious proposal," Bruce said. "I offered to buy all of WEAF's commercial time. They said they would consider it and, in the meanwhile, they'd be willing to sell me some fifteen-minute segments for one hundred dollars each. So I raced about the city trying to interest manufacturers and merchants in going on the radio but most of them laughed at me.
• • "Finally, however, I succeeded in signing Coty's Perfume, United Cigar Stores, Bossert Houses, and several others. I made many thousands on the resale of time and broadcast four or five different products every night. It was a real bonanza."
• • Then A.T.&T. complained. Its officials said Reynolds' straight sales talks were too blatant. "Be more subtle," they suggested, "so that the listeners won't realize it's advertising."
• • "As a result," Bruce continued, "I hired people with big names, such as Texas Guinan, to deliver the talks and to be more 'subtle' about it. But again the WEAF management said too many listeners were protesting and they finally put me off the air."
• • Now Bruce made the rounds of other stations, among them WOR. The Bamberger executives were horrified at his proposal. "Never!" one of them exclaimed. "We wouldn't prostitute our station by accepting outside advertising!" . . .
Source: I Looked and I Listened by Ben Gross [1954]
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan & George Raft

2006-09-28T05:19:00.004-04:00

Texas Guinan remembers her former protege on his birthday: September 26th.
• • George Raft [26 September 1895 — 24 November 1980] was an American film actor 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.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: George Raft in cap (circa 1926?) • • Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel [28 February 1906 - - June 20, 1947] with George Raft • • circa 1940 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas & William B. Davidson

2006-09-27T03:28:00.001-04:00

On September 28th he died.

William B. Davidson, a tall, strapping leading man in American silent films, went on to portray men of authority in films such as the Assistant District Attorney who clashed mightily with speakeasy hostess Texas Malone [played by Texas Guinan] in "The Queen of the Night Clubs" [1929].

• • Born on 16 June 1888 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, William B. Davidson died on 28 September 1947 in Santa Monica, California.
• • This busy actor also played in "My Little Chickadee" [1940]; he took the role of the Sheriff of Little Bend in this classic that starred Mae West and W.C. Fields.
• • 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
• • Photo: Davidson in 1929 with Texas Guinan • • Davidson [alone] in 1939 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan, Ace of Clubs

2006-09-21T21:16:00.000-04:00

Maybe you heard of a "little black book" but not too many folks remember a quaint series of affordable titles published as part of the series "Little Blue Books."
Released on 1 January 1929 was this one:
Texas Guinan: The Ace of (Night) Clubs.
Little Blue Book No. 1446 [1929]; 30 pages.
Written by: Samuel Marx
Publisher: Haldeman-Julius Publications
• • Emanuel Haldeman-Julius [1888-1951] began publishing his "Little Blue Books" in 1919 in order for classic works of literature to be available for a much lower price than usual - - at five or ten cents apiece. His association with the Socialist party led him to buy the Socialist paper Appeal to Reason along with their printing press, which he used to publish a number of his books. These inexpensive books became widely popular; by 1949 over 300,000,000 had been sold.
• • All books were published by the Haldeman-Julius Company in Girard, Kansas.
• • Little Blue Books are housed in the Kent State University Libraries, Ohio.
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Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan • • 1929 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Theatre Magazine

2006-09-19T06:25:00.000-04:00

Look who was profiled in the September 1928 issue of Theatre Magazine! Texas Guinan was written up because of her show "Padlocks of 1927" and Mae West, darling of Broadway, was depicted in her star-turn as Diamond Lil.

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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: this was one panel in the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" featured at Village Restaurant [August 17th - September 7th, 2006 ] • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Sin Was In!

2006-09-13T22:34:00.000-04:00

On 30 September 1933, a California newspaper The San Francisco Rounder printed an article about the ever-popular Texas Guinan.
• • "What Sin Racket? No! You're Wrong!" featured her views framed around the witty soundbites that made her very popular with the press. Such a vibrant woman. This might be the last interview that the 49-year-old entertainer gave before her untimely death in November 1933.
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Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: one panel in the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage for the events during August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

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Texas by Sharon Kay Hunt

2006-09-08T01:24:00.000-04:00

Good girls go to heaven (it's been said) - - but bad girls go everywhere.

• • That certainly applies to this superb rendition by artist Sharon Kay Hunt of Texas Guinan, whose shoot-em-up photoplay The Gun Woman opened at the Loew's Theatre (Broadway) on 1 February 1918. This much-admired painting was displayed at Village Restaurant in a unique Western-style frame that set it off from the other portraits.
• • Actress Jessica Lange was one of many guests who were mesmerized by Hunt's deft artwork. "I never knew who Texas Guinan was," admitted Lange at the VIP opening on August 17, 2006, "but I'm in favor of New York City history being narrated through the viewpoints of two remarkable women."
• • A copy of this wonderful portrait will be installed soon at The Cowgirl Hall of Fame on Hudson Street.
• • And we are in discussion with a Manhattan museum about an upcoming Texas Guinan - Mae West exhibit. Stay tuned for news on "Onstage Outlaws." Because bad girls do go everywhere. . . .
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• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Sharon Kay Hunt's superb Gun Woman canvas in the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage for the events during August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

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Texas Two-Step

2006-09-05T01:49:00.000-04:00

Texas Guinan's uninhibited exhibition will be on view only for a few more days. Come up and see Mae West and her friend Texas while their images are still at Village Restaurarant.

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• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Glen Loney's TheatreWire column discussing the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage for the events during August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

________________________________

Get Guinan

2006-09-03T23:59:00.000-04:00

Extended for a few more days - - by popular demand - - is the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan in "Padlocks of 1927" - - don't miss the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage 31 August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Conquered New York

2006-09-01T07:11:00.001-04:00

- -
September 1, 2006 edition of
The New York Sun FEATURES >Section: Arts and Letters
Come Up and See Them Sometime
By GARY SHAPIRO

Laws didn't mean much to colorful ladies like Mae West and Texas Guinan. And that's the idea behind an exhibition at Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street] called "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era," which runs through mid-September.
• • Among their most notorious actions, West turned down Billy Wilder's request that she play Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," feeling it was insulting to play a role about a has-been, and Guinan ran Prohibition-era nightclubs that were raided by federal agents.
• • Among those paying homage to these figures was Louise Berliner, who traveled from Massachusetts to New York to view the exhibit Tuesday. Ms. Berliner, who is the author of "Texas Guinan: Queen of the Night Clubs" (University of Texas Press), has a personal connection to the show. Her grandfather, Maxwell Lopin, was Guinan's lawyer, who defended Guinan in 1929 at her "public nuisance" trial for operating a speakeasy. Ms. Berliner's book was the basis of a screenplay "Hello, Suckers," which Madonna is considering working on.
• • The show features a photo of Guinan in jodhpurs and another of her wearing a large Indian headdress at a Beaux Arts ball. There is also a rare song sheet from "Padlocks of 1927," a musical review featuring Guinan along with George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck, and Clare Booth. Nearby is a photo of the Hippodrome, the large Midtown indoor amphitheater where the review had its debut.
• • A woman of restless energy, Guinan was born in 1884 in Waco, Texas. She moved to New York in 1907, where she rented a room for $2 a week at 72 Washington Square South, and later moved to 17 West 8th St., where she lived in an antique-filled duplex.
• • In the exhibition, there is a photo of the Fifth Avenue Theatre on West 28th Street where Guinan met the producer John Slocum, who helped launch her theater career. Slocum had wanted to find a wild West act for a play he was working on. Guinan was billed as a "Lone Star Novelty," and Slocum thought the show would be a cowboy act. But he was disappointed when it turned out to be Guinan singing songs while suspended above the audience in an airship. As he got up to leave, she embarrassed him by shining a flashlight on him and saying, "If you're going out, bring one back for me!" He sat back down and waited for Guinan to turn the light off. She did not, and continued to sing and tease him.
• • • • [Continued from page 1 of 2] • • • •
_______________________________
Texas in "Queen of the Night Clubs" [1929] with George Raft

• • In addition to furs, ropes of pearls, and other jewelry, she wore bracelets on each wrist with 567 diamonds each. She was driven around in an armored car that once belonged to the king of Belgium.
• • In her book, Ms. Berliner tells the story about the time that Prince Edward of Wales was at Guinan's nightclub when Prohibition agents raided the place. Guinan ushered the Prince to the kitchen, put him in a chef's outfit, and "handed him a carton of eggs, a frying pan, and a spatula, and told him to fry eggs until she returned." She put his escort, Lord Mountbatten, behind a drum and told him to play music.
• • After the agents had left, she heard a cry from the kitchen, "Texas, for Heaven's sake, do something about these eggs!" She hurried in to find fried eggs stacked two inches high.
* * *
• • gshapiro@nysun.com 1 September 2006
• • Source:The_New_York_Sun [105 Chambers Street, NY 10007]
• • © 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. All rights reserved.
• • Photo: dramatist LindaAnn Loschiavo with biographer Louise Berliner
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Louise Berliner, biographer of Texas Guinan, displays her book at the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" at Village Restaurant • • Mae West birthday gala coverage 31 August 2006 • • ANNUAL MAE WEST BIRTHDAY GALA • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Visiting Texas in New York

2006-08-30T06:02:00.000-04:00

It's a former speakeasy in the Village. In 1920, the regulars filed through a dark-panelled portal three steps down from the pavement. Paul & Joe's was a place where people wanted to be delivered to temptation - - or wanted sin to stay in touch.
• • Visiting Texas (Guinan) in New York at 62 West Ninth Street was a rep from the Office of the Manhattan Boro President, Shaan Khan, Community Liasion.

________________________________________________________

• • Paying her respects was also Louise Berliner, who wrote a well-received bio of Texas Guinan that enthralled Madonna and Martin Scorsese. Gary Shapiro, "The Knickerbocker" columnist for The New York Sun, is a lawyer as well as a journalist. He wanted to hear more about the legal prowess of Maxwell E. Lopin, whose most famous client was Texas Guinan. Louise Berliner is the granddaughter of Lopin, whose work inspired her to get to the truth behind the legendary speakeasy hostess.
• • Left to right: columnist Gary Shapiro, dramatist LindaAnn Loschiavo, and biographer Louise Berliner.
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photograph: Shaan Khan examines the exhibition "Onstage Outlaws"
• • Photograph: Gary Shapiro and Louise Berliner, biographer of Texas Guinan • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Guinan Biographer Takes Wing

2006-08-28T02:56:00.000-04:00

Madonna’s “Lightbulb” Dons Wings
Flying to NYC is a Biographer Whose Lawyer-Grandpa Kept Prison Stripes Off Diamond Divas

New York, NY (PRWEB): Actress-manqué Madonna felt a lightbulb go off when she discovered the blazing trail of Marie “Texas” Guinan, singer, actress, equestrienne, sharpshooter, speakeasy hostess, multi-millionaire, and daredevil. The Material Girl contacted Louise Berliner, who wrote the biography Texas Guinan: Queen of the Nightclubs [University of Texas Press, 1993], and optioned this book for a film, hoping that good material might help bullet-proof her next movie.
• • “I always had the illusion that I inherited Texas Guinan, like a family heirloom, or that we were somehow related,” noted Louise Berliner, who graduated with honors from Yale. Her grandfather Maxwell E. Lopin was the lawyer who kept prison stripes off Guinan, and who recorded the story of the infamous trial in New York, a manuscript that lit a fire under his granddaughter.
• • The award-winning author, who now lives in Boston, Massachusetts, is flying to New York City on Tuesday August 29, 2006 to see the exhibition “ONSTAGE OUTLAWS: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era” at Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street], around the corner from Guinan’s former West Eighth Street duplex.
• • Also viewing this colorful narrative of New York history on August 29th will be a representative from the office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer; attorney Michael Pantaleoni, whose niece is the actress Téa Leoni; and other visitors.
• • "These historical images depict an impressive narrative of America's political life during the Prohibition Era," said Arturo Garcia-Costas, Manhattan Community Representative to Congressman Jerrold L. Nadler, who toured the installation August 25th. These notables toured the same exhibit recently, too: actress Jessica Lange; dramatist Sam Shepard; New York Yankee Steve Karsay; Supreme Court Justice Edwin Torres, who wrote “Carlito’s Way”; broadcast legend Joe Franklin; Broadway producers Pat Addiss and Sandi Durell; David Chang, Legislative Aide to Senator Tom Duane; Gregory Brender, Community Liasion, from the office of Assemblywoman Deborah Glick; attorney Maria Passannante Derr, Chair, Community Board 2; and hundreds more.
• • New Yorkers can feast on these rare archival images — depicting Mae West’s legal woes and careers highlights — at Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street, NYC] during a free exhibition through August 31, 2006: “Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era.” There is NO charge to view this historic installation curated by playwright-journalist LindaAnn Loschiavo. Info: 212-505-3355.
• • The Annual Mae West Gala always takes place in a venue that the actress had frequented. Images: maewest.blogspot.com — texasguinan.blogspot.com — please request permission before using photos. Media inquiries are welcome.
• • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC, based in Manhattan, is an off-Broadway producing outfit whose mission is to increase opportunities for women and female-driven plays.
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photograph: archival image of Texas Guinan • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Congress Inspects Texas!

2006-08-26T16:00:00.000-04:00

New York, NY: "These historical images depict an impressive narrative of American political life during the Prohibition Era," said ARTURO GARCIA-COSTAS, Manhattan Community Representative to Congressman JERROLD L. NADLER, who toured the installation ONSTAGE OUTLAWS: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era at Village Restaurant with chef-owner Stephen Lyle and curator LindaAnn Loschiavo. "I suggest you contact The New-York Historical Society," continued Garcia-Costas, "because that would be the perfect venue for this fascinating backward glance at New York City history and censorship."
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photograph: Arturo Garcia-Costas is enjoying the archival images of Texas Guinan at Village Restaurant's exhibition "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Enchants a Tour Group

2006-08-21T02:50:00.000-04:00

New York, NY: On Sunday 20 August 2006, more than two dozen MAE WEST and TEXAS GUINAN fans gathered on West Ninth Street.

Starting at Village Restaurant [62 West 9th Street], the group saw photographs of the eatery when it was Paul & Joe's - - the gay cabaret that inspired MAE to write her controversial play "THE DRAG," a work that kicked New York's legal machinery into gear on 9 February 1927. MAE spent that evening in Jefferson Market Police Court and was forced to stay overnight in Jefferson Market Jail.

• • The group enjoyed comparing archival photos of TEXAS GUINAN's former residences with the buildings that exist today.

• • The walking tour was sweetened by brunch at Village served with the Cos-MAE-Politan cocktail, garnished with a plump raspberry. Raffle prizes were carried home by handsome Terry Hofler of Riverdale, who won a silk bowtie - - "Newseum" - - courtesy of Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont; and elegant Ellen Christine, who won a collection of TEXAS GUINAN films courtesy of the Guinan Family Archives. Ellen Christine, who runs a vintage millinery and apparel emporium [255 West 18th Street, NYC 10011], especially loves the Roaring 20s and can't wait to cosy up with "The Gun Woman" and other silents starring the speakeasy queen.
• • Thank you, MAE WEST, for sending perfect sunshiny days that enhanced the events taking place during the ANNUAL MAE WEST GALA.
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photograph: enjoying archival images of Texas Guinan at the opening of "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas & The Gang

2006-08-18T05:04:00.000-04:00

New York, NY: Enjoying the archival images and illustrations of Texas Guinan on August 17, 2006 - - at the ANNUAL MAE WEST GALA - - are vocalist MARNIE BAUMER, CONRAD BRADFORD [who designed the exhibition], PHYLLIS KUNG, DAVID CHANG, Legislative Aide to New York Senator TOM DUANE, and LINDA ANN LOSCHIAVO, who organized the press preview. Also taking in the installation on August 17th were SAM SHEPARD and JESSICA LANGE, while dining at Village Restaurant; though neither had ever heard of TEXAS GUINAN, both were thorougly fascinated by the installation.

• • The giftbags were glorious, too.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Source: Village Restaurant • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photograph: enjoying archival images of Texas Guinan at the opening of "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Shady Lady

2006-08-07T20:07:00.000-04:00

A Free Exhibition on Two Film Icons Salutes the Shady Side
Jailed or jeweled, hand-clapped or handcuffed -- you get a true behind-the-scenes view.

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 3, 2006 -- Who said American history had to be pretty? During the Jazz Era, two of the most glamorous actresses -- Mae West and Texas Guinan -- were frequently photographed at premieres as well as inside police precincts, paddy wagons, courtrooms, and prison cells. Whether they were bejeweled or being jailed, Mae West and Texas Guinan were preserved on camera. Though many books have been published on both women, the striking images in this special collection have not appeared since 1935.
• • Steve Rossi, who performed onstage during the 1950s in the “Mae West Revue” (and who later teamed up with funnyman Marty Allen as Allen & Rossi), was astonished by the collection. “These candids and illustrations are quite revealing,” he said. Steve Rossi plans to be at the Gala PRESS PREVIEW taking place in New York City on August 17, 2006. Gala giftbags will be given to celebrities, the news media, and VIPs who attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
• • Sunny-side-up surprises are also in store. Though Texas Guinan (1884-1933) is remembered as a speakeasy hostess, in fact, she starred in over two dozen silent films and had leading roles in musicals at the Manhattan Opera House, Keith and Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre, Winter Garden, Shubert Theatre, and The Hippodrome. And though Mae West (1893-1980) is immortalized as an icon of the silver screen, she performed live in vaudeville for 27 years, and on the mainstem circuit -- at Keith and Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre, Winter Garden, Shubert Theatre, Hammerstein's Victoria, Folies Bergere, Century Roof, Casino Theatre, Royale Theatre, the Polo Grounds, etc. -- BEFORE Hollywood beckoned in 1932.
• • New Yorkers can feast on these rare archival images at Village Restaurant (62 West Ninth Street, NYC) during a free exhibition in August. “Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era” opens to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday August 17, 2006. There is no charge to view this historic installation.
• • Mae West and Texas Guinan had secret passions that will be revealed during a walking tour on Sunday August 20th followed by brunch at Village Restaurant. Fee [tour + brunch will be $25. Brunch guests can enjoy the free exhibition with or without the tour. Info: 212-505-3355.
• • The Annual Mae West Gala always takes place in a venue that the actress had frequented.
• • • • Media inquiries welcome. • • • •
• • Images: maewest.blogspot.com — texasguinan.blogspot.com
• • The Annual Mae West Gala always takes place in a venue that the actress had frequented.
• • • • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC, based in Manhattan, is an off-Broadway producing outfit whose mission is to increase opportunities for women and female-driven plays.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Source: Texas Guinan press release on PRWEB • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photograph: Texas Guinan in 1931 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Is Madonna's Idol

2006-08-04T06:39:00.000-04:00

Madonna's Idol Stars in a Free Exhibition of Personal Photographs and Images
This installation opens to the public after a gala Roaring 20s-theme press preview.
_____________For_Immediate_Release________________________
New York, NY (PRWEB) August 5, 2006 -- Madonna bought the rights to make the movie -- but we got the pictures.

• • Remember when the Material Girl announced that she would play the role of Texas Guinan (1884-1933) in a bio-pic “Hello, Suckers!” that Martin Scorsese would produce? The script was based on the book Texas Guinan: Queen of the Nightclubs. After Madonna had a riding accident, however, no more was heard of her attempt to fill Guinan’s boots.
• • Well, boot up and head over to Greenwich Village (in New York City) during August for a close-up of the diamond-dusted diva herself. A trained soprano and charismatic both onstage and onscreen, this versatile entertainer-equestrienne always did all her own stunts. One feat was her arresting drama: Texas Guinan’s clubs were raided more often during Prohibition than any other New York speakeasy hostess — and as soon as she got locked up, the police would besiege her for autographs. During the 1920s, her annual income was $700,000 (about $5.6 million today).
• • Prior to amusing Manhattan’s saloon scholars, Texas Guinan appeared in Broadway musicals with Al Jolson, Elsie Janis, Fatty Arbuckle, and others. She also starred in over two dozen silent films that featured her gun-slinging skills: “Spirit of Cabin Mine,” “Girl of the Rancho,” “The Lady of the Law,” “Little Miss Deputy,” “The Stampede,” etc. And as a newspaper columnist, Guinan covered the trials of her good friend Mae West (1893-1980) at Jefferson Market Court.
• • Everyone is welcome to enjoy these rare archival images — many from Texas Guinan’s estate and not shared with the public since 1935. These engaging photographs and illustrations go on view at Village Restaurant (62 West Ninth Street, NYC) during a free exhibition in August. "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era" opens to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae's birthday August 17, 2006. There is no charge to view this historic installation, which is part of the Annual Mae West Gala.
• • During August, raffle prizes will include silent treasures from the Guinan Family Archives. Lucky winners will take home a bit of Texas in titles such as “The Gun Woman” (directed by Frank Borzage in 1918), “Letters of Fire,” and “The Moonshine Feud,” in which Texas battles a gang of lawless moonshiners and rescues a Revenue Agent -- an irony the G-Men may have laughed about each time they padlocked one of her ginmills.
• • Test your Texas Guinan knowledge. Which statements are true?
* * * Guinan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1779 Vine Street.
* * * The character of Texie Garcia in the comic strip Dick Tracy was based on Guinan.
* * * The role of Panama Smith, played by Gladys George, in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties was based on Guinan.
* * * The character of Sally Kansas, played by June Havoc, in an episode of The Untouchables [entitled "The Larry Fay Story"] was based on Guinan.
* * * The recurring character of Guinan the bartender, played by Whoopie Goldberg on Star Trek: the Next Generation, was named for her.
• • (ANSWER: all are true.) • •
• • The secret passions of Texas Guinan and Mae West will be revealed during a walking tour on Sunday August 20th followed by brunch at Village Restaurant. Fee [tour + brunch] will be $25. Brunch guests can enjoy the free exhibition with or without the tour. Info: 212-505-3355.
• • • • Media inquiries welcome. • • • •
• • Images: maewest.blogspot.com — texasguinan.blogspot.com
• • The Annual Mae West Gala always takes place in a venue that the actress had frequented.
• • • • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC, based in Manhattan, is an off-Broadway producing outfit whose mission is to increase opportunities for women and female-driven plays.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Source: Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street, NYC] • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Texas Guinan, age 30, in 1914 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Think Fleurtation

2006-07-29T05:32:00.000-04:00

“Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era” opens to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday August 17, 2006.

-----For_Immediate_Release-----
French Accents Gild an Annual Tribute to an American Screen Queen
Gauloise Glamour at Mae West Gala Salutes the Actress’s Alsatian Heritage

New York, NY — She got it from her granny. MAE WEST [1893-1980] insisted that her passion for fashion and finery was instilled by her maternal grandmother Christiana Brimier, a native of the Alsace province of France, who also influenced her own daughter Matilda West [1870-1930]. Matilda taught Mae to speak French, which came in handy onstage. In 1919, for instance, Variety praised the 26-year-old’s vaudeville routine that included a French dialect number. In the Broadway show “The Mimic World of 1921,” Mae was cast as La-Belle, a Parisian damsel who aroused many ooo-la-las at the Century Roof, and a Proust-worthy coquette named Madelon. In 1922, Mae introduced her new act at the Riverside Theatre, portraying a French prima donna of temperament.
• • New Yorkers can feast on these rare archival images at Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street, NYC] during a free exhibition in August. “Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Era” opens to the public after a Gala Roaring-20s theme Press Preview on Mae’s birthday August 17, 2006. There is NO charge to view this historic installation.
• • Chef Stephen Lyle, born in Paris and trained at L’ Ecole Hoteliere in Nice, is sure to give the Annual Mae West Gala a French twist. In 2000, when he opened Village (after his long success at hipster-haven Odeon), Lyle began restoring the dining room to its original 1917 elegance when it had been Paul and Joe’s French-Italian Restaurant. During the Jazz Age, Mae West dined here many times. And while there are no written records of what she ordered at Paul and Joe’s, her old friends do remember her fondness for good champagne.
• • “Mae loved a good glass of bubbly,” said Van Panopoulos, owner of the former speakeasy Frankie and Johnny’s, who used to rub shoulders with Mae at Billy Reed’s Little Club during the 1950s. “I can close my eyes and picture her, savoring her lasagna, her champagne bottle ready in an ice bucket,” recalled Aldo Leone, manager of Bill’s Gay Nineties, who waited on Mae whenever she dined at his grandmother’s midtown eatery, Mamma Leone.
• • To commemorate Mae’s French roots and fine taste, Perrier Jouët Grand Brut will be served at the Press Gala. Imported to the United States since 1837, this brand unites the lightness of traditional Brut with the elegance and brightness of the finest Champagnes. Mae might very well have enjoyed its bouquet during her Broadway years. And chef Stephen Lyle chose Perrier Jouët Grand Brut to be served at his own wedding reception.
• • In honor of Mae’s love of exquisite fabrics and stylish fellows, a French blue silk twill bowtie will be inside the giftbags given to the news reporters, VIPs, and celebrities on August 17, courtesy of Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont. A special limited edition of their pattern NEWSEUM, with its witty landscape of vintage typewriters, microphones, and radios, will enlist the heart of anyone who longs to put the “ME” in media. These bowties, enthusiastic exhibitionism at their most engaging, will be featured in photographs taken at this event and posted on the website, thanks to Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont.
• • Many of Mae West’s secret loves will be revealed on Sunday August 20th during a walking tour followed by brunch at Village Restaurant. Fee [tour + brunch] will be $25. Brunch guests can enjoy the FREE exhibition with or without the tour. Information: 212-505-3355.
• • • • Media inquiries welcome. • • • •
• • Images: maewest.blogspot.com — texasguinan.blogspot.com
• • The Annual Mae West Gala always takes place in a venue that the actress had frequented.
• • • • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC, based in Manhattan, is an off-Broadway producing outfit whose mission is to increase opportunities for women and female-driven plays.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Source: Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street, NYC] • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: Texas Guinan [artist unknown] • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Toasts the "Cos-MAE-politan"

2006-07-19T04:46:00.000-04:00

Celebrity Chef Fits Class in a Glass
The “Cos-MAE-politan” Debuts on Mae West’s Birthday in New York

New York, NY — Celebrity chef Stephen Lyle passes Barbra Streisand en route to his kitchen at Village Restaurant, across the street from Jefferson Market Library [a former courthouse]. A photo of the songbird during her Broadway boom graces the entry to the dining salon because the teenager was discovered in this location (June 1960) — then known as The Lion. Joan Rivers launched her career at The Lion as well. History hits the spot on the menu. During the 1920s this storied location had housed Paul and Joe’s, a French-Italian restaurant that was frequented by Jack Dempsey, Mae West, and other jazz age notables. In fact, because Mae West watched famous drag queens perform here, she based her play "The Drag" on the colorful scene. "The Drag" led to Mae West being arrested and incarcerated at Jefferson Market Court and Jefferson Market Jail in 1927.
• • On Thursday August 17th, 2006 — Mae West's birthday — Lyle invites the news media to toast the blonde bombshell from Brooklyn with a new cocktail he created: the “Cos-MAE-politan.” Here’s his recipe:
1 ½ oz Boru Crazzberry Vodka
1 oz cranberry juice
½ oz Cointreau [or Triple Sec]
½ oz fresh lime juice
fresh raspberry garnish

• • The news media and a roomful of celebrity guests will raise their glasses at a Roaring 20s-theme gala that evening during a sneak preview of "Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan in a Lawless Decade." This exhibition of rare photographs, theatre memorabilia, and colorful illustrations will be open to the public from August 18th - 31st at Village Restaurant [62 West 9th Street]. There is NO admission charge to view it.
• • Vintage views [1909 - 1930] of the two friends showcase the theatrical side of these two actresses who performed on the same stages. Though TEXAS GUINAN [1884-1933] is remembered as a speakeasy hostess, in fact, she starred in more than 30 films and had leading roles in Broadway musicals. And though MAE WEST [1893-1980] is an icon of the silver screen, she performed live in vaudeville and on Broadway.
• • On Sunday August 20th there will be a Mae West and Texas Guinan brunch at Village preceded by a guided tour. The fee [tour and brunch] is $25. Brunch guests can enjoy a FREE exhibition whether or not they take the tour. Info: 212-505-3355.
• • Media inquiries are welcome.
Images: * maewest.blogspot.com and * texasguinan.blogspot.com
• • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC, based in Manhattan, is an off-Broadway producing outfit whose mission is to increase visibility and opportunity for women and women-driven stories in the theatre.
• • Source: Village Restaurant [62 West Ninth Street, NYC] • •
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Illustration: The "Cos-MAE-Politan" • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Washington Sq Woman

2006-05-30T05:15:00.000-04:00

Mary and Mary (-Jane) — — Quite Contrary

The law and Lady Luck played a role when Marie Guinan [1884-1933] and Mae West [1893-1980] reinvented themselves in Greenwich Village.

• • In 1907, a demure 23-year-old Sunday schoolteacher rented a $2/ week room [72 Wash. Sq So] and assumed a louder identity: TEXAS Guinan. The neighborhood suited her. Even while earning a Park Avenue income ($700,000 in 1927, i.e., $5.5 million today), Tex kept her West Eighth Street duplex.
• • After singing in several main-stem musicals, Tex starred in 30+ silent Westerns [1917-21] in Hollywood. In 1922, Tex returned to The Big Apple where nightlife had changed. Speaks — — all the rage — — had no entertainment, she noticed when visiting a Washington Square So. club run by her neighbor Barney Gallant (formerly Eugene O’Neill’s roommate). Gallant’s barstools were warmed by Walter Winchell, literati from The New Yorker, and big spenders.
• • Now 38 years old, Tex began to orchestrate whoopee for clubs — — herself on center stage. Soon she was in the money, in the paddy wagon, and in the headlines. News of her arrests and antics fanned her fame.
• • • • Village sites linked to Texas Guinan include her former homes, where her friends and showgirls lived, her church, her bank, and where the diamond-draped speakeasy queen garaged her 2 armored cars.
• • • •

• • Mary-Jane West [1893-1980] — stage name Mae West — reinvented herself in Greenwich Village as playwright Jane Mast. Billed as the “baby vamp” in Brooklyn in 1899, the singing comedienne did not enjoy a steady rise to stardom a la Texas Guinan. Instead she performed in vaudeville and on Broadway for 20+ years without making headway.
• • In 1920, Savoy and Brennan put the Greenwich Village Theatre on the map with The Greenwich Village Follies. July 1922, Mae rehearsed The Ginger Box Revue there. In Act 2, Mae sang “Eugene O’Neill, You’ve Put a Curse on Broadway” as she spoofed The Hairy Ape [debut: Provincetown Players March 9, 1922]. But The Ginger Box was a flop. After Mae turned 30, she had few bookings [1923-25]. Encouraged by her mother, the actress began writing (penname: Jane Mast).
• • Her play Sex premiered April 1926; though critics bashed her, the box office boomed for 11 months. Jim Timony urged her to launch another show. For inspiration, Mae visited Paul & Joe’s [62 W. 9th St.]; a restaurant by day, after dark it became a famous gay cabaret. Mae auditioned 50 gay men she met there for The Drag. To keep The Drag off Broadway, police arrested Mae and the cast of Sex February 9, 1927, and locked her up in Jefferson Market Jail, where she mined material for Diamond Lil. News of her unjust imprisonment and trials made Mae West a household name.
• • • • Village sites linked to Mae West include clubs, eateries, cells, etc.
Mae West and Texas Guinan BRUNCH and TOUR on Sunday August 20, 2006. Reserve at Village Restaurant [62 West 9th Street, NYC]: 212-505-3355.
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
• • Photo: Mae West • 1928 • Mae set the play in Suicide Hall [295 Bowery]
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
Illustrator: Tom Tierney • • Texas Guinan • • 1927
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas G.: Eighth [Street] Wonder

2006-05-23T03:45:00.000-04:00

Give this little girl a big hand.
TEXAS GUINAN: Never eats meats, but must have at least a dozen oranges a day.
• • She was raised in a convent. Loretta Convent, Waco, Tex. Was the same old kid even in those days. She would climb to the top of the church steeple and take the dinger out of the bell. Her real name is Mary Louise Guinan.
• • Once was in motion pictures. Made Westerns and was known as the "Female William S. Hart."
• • Her home in New York is on Eighth Street. Just on the northern edge of Greenwich Village. Claims she wouldn't live anywhere else in this town of ours. She possesses the quickest feminine wit on Broadway.

• • Lives alone. Her mother lives several doors away. Spends most of the time at her daughter's place.
• • Her house looks like an antique shop. Pictures. Bric-a-brac. Mirrors. Odd furniture. Cushions. Gilded draperies. They all clutter the place. Chinese incense burns continuously.
• • There are nineteen floor lamps in the living room.
• • Recently she abandoned the expression, "Hello, sucker!" Customers began to take it seriously.
• • When she finishes at the club she goes horseback riding in Central Park or visiting. It is nothing for her to drop in on friends at seven in the morning and sit on their beds talking until noon.
• • She likes noise, rhinestone heels, customers, plenty of attention, and red velvet bathing suits.
• • The hardest thing in the world she finds is sleeping. Always takes an aspirin tablet to quiet her nerves before retiring.
• • When not certain of a man's name she calls him Fred.
• • Has a parrot who can say only two things. One is "telephone." The other is "go to hell."
• • At home she never drinks coffee. At the club, black coffee is her favorite drink.
• • She never touches liquor.
• • Is very proud of her press clippings and keeps a scrapbook. So religiously does she keep this book that reference to the "Texas Chain Gang," an article by Ernest Booth which appeared in the American Mercury, is clipped as personal publicity.
• • She takes three puffs of a cigarette and it is gone. She once lost thirty-five pounds in two weeks by taking pepper and mustard baths.
• • In an interview, she once stated that she wants her funeral to be the speediest ever given. A cop on a motorcycle is to lead it.
• • Since, she has made more plans. Jazz syncopators are to render torrid tunes. College songs are to be sung boisterously as the coffin is lowered into the grave. The wake is to be held at her night club.
• • In her bedroom there is only one window. It is covered by four curtains to keep the sunlight out.
• • She is very fond of jewelry. The bigger it is the better she likes it. She wears jewelry on her bosom, fingers, wrists, arms, ears, and (occasionally) the heels of her slippers.
• • She frequently wears red stockings.
• • Was shot once. By herself. It was a stage accident while she was on the road in The Gay Musician. She was rushed to a hospital in a locomotive engine. She had a steel tube inher side for over a year. Today all that remains of that incident is a slight blemish, the only mark on her body.
• • She is only comfortable when sitting on two chairs.
• • She has six uncles. They are all Catholic priests.
• • Recently it was stated that she sleeps on her left side and likes carrots. To which Mme. Guinan retorted: "I wonder how that guy knew I liked carrots." She sleeps on her right side in a long silk gay-colored nightgown and likes strawberries.
• • She makes funny noises with her teeth when she laughs.
• • Her lucky charm is a padlock.
Source + writer: unknown. [Originally published in 1930]
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan's Eighth Street • 1920s
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village

2006-05-17T18:49:00.000-04:00

It was 100 years ago when Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan [1884-1933] arrived in Manhattan - alone, newly divorced, and steeled by self-determination. In Waco, Texas, the Irish-American tomboy had been called "Mayme." She matured into "Marie Guinan," recalled broadcaster Lowell Thomas (in his 1976 autobiography), the demure Sunday school teacher he had a huge crush on. In 1907, the ambitious 23-year-old rented a $2/ week room in 72 Washington Square South and assumed a louder identity: TEXAS Guinan. Soon she made her family move east to join her.
• • "Tex could never have lived anywhere but in Greenwich Village," observed her biographer Louise Berliner, whose grandfather Maxwell E. Lopin was the lawyer who kept the speakeasy hostess out of jail after numerous police raids during the 1920s. Evidently, it was true because - even when she was earning $700,000 a year [$5.5 million today], enough to afford a Park Avenue address - Tex retained her West Eighth Street apartment until her death at 49.

___Texas_Guinan_banked_on_Eighth_Street___
• • Greenwich Village addresses linked to Texas Guinan:
* * * 72 Washington Square South - Tex's first furnished room in NYC
* * * 17 West 8th Street - Tex's large and luxurious apartment
* * * 22 West 8th Street - where Tex housed her showgirls
* * * 75 Washington Square South - where Tex garaged her 2 armored cars
* * * St. Joseph's on 6th Avenue - where Tex and Lew Ney ["Mayor" of Greenwich Village] baptized a baby in March 1927
• • More Texas Guinan - and Mae West - locations will be covered on the tour Sunday August 20, 2006. Reserve at Village Restaurant.
• • WALKING TOUR is part of the ANNUAL MAE WEST GALA.
• • WHEN * WHERE * WHAT: Sunday August 20, 2006 at 12 noon, "Mae West and Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village during a Lawless Decade," a tour of the Washington Square area with an emphasis on locations linked to the transgressive careers of Mae West and Texas Guinan during the Roaring 20s. Meet at Village Restaurant, 62 West 9th Street [near Sixth Avenue], where a free exhibition of rare archival images of MAE WEST and TEXAS GUINAN can be viewed from August 17th until August 31st during restaurant hours.
• • Fee includes BRUNCH at Village + gin cocktails right after tour: $25.
• • Rain or shine.
• • Reservations: (212) 505-3355.
• • Subway: IND to West Fourth Street station; PATH Train to 9th Street
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • envelope: Texas Guinan's bank was on 8th Street & Broadway • 1927
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Becomes a New Yorker: 1907

2006-05-08T18:11:00.000-04:00

It was 100 years ago when Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan [1884-1933] arrived in Manhattan — alone, newly divorced, and steeled by self-determination. In Waco, Texas, the Irish-American tomboy had been called “Mayme.” She matured into “Marie Guinan,” recalled broadcaster Lowell Thomas (in his 1976 autobiography), the demure Sunday school teacher he had a huge crush on. In 1907, the ambitious 23-year-old rented a $2/ week room in 72 Washington Square South and assumed a louder identity: TEXAS Guinan. Soon she made her family move east to join her.
• • “Tex could never have lived anywhere but in Greenwich Village,” observed her biographer Louise Berliner, whose grandfather Maxwell E. Lopin was the lawyer who kept the speakeasy hostess out of jail after numerous police raids during the 1920s.
• • • • TEXAS GUINAN in GREENWICH VILLAGE: • • • •
* * Walking Tour on 20 August 2006 * *

1-Day Only: MAE WEST & TEXAS GUINAN BRUNCH & TOUR
BRUNCH: Village Restaurant, 62 West 9th Street, New York, NY 10011
FEE: Brunch with 2 gin cocktails + walking tour: $25.00
DATE: 20th August 2006 - Sunday - begins at 12 noon
TOUR: historical Village locations focused on Mae West and Texas Guinan
GUIDE: Village historian LindaAnn Loschiavo
RSVP: T: 212-505-3355 - Village Restaurant, 62 West 9th Street, NYC
BONUS: Pay in advance and get a free gift
WHY: Exhibition & events are part of the annual Mae West Birthday Gala
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan's residence • 1907
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas G: Onstage Outlaw

2006-04-18T03:34:00.001-04:00

Onstage Outlaw Revisits New York City This Summer
Texas Guinan Stars in a Greenwich Village Exhibition and Walking Tour.

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 19, 2005 -- Though TEXAS GUINAN [1884-1933] is remembered as a speakeasy hostess, in fact, she starred in over two dozen films and had leading roles in musicals on Broadway. [Madonna bought the rights to film Guinan's life story.] Texas Guinan's life and career will get a close-up when an exhibition opens in Greenwich Village: "Onstage Outlaws: Texas Guinan and Mae West during the Lawless Decade." Rare personal photographs, vintage illustrations, and theatrical memorabilia will be on view this summer across the street from the former Jefferson Market Court House where Texas Guinan and Mae West both spent a lot of time.

• • This exhibition will be open to the public in Greenwich Village from August 17th-31st, 2006 at Village Restaurant [62 West 9th Street]. There is NO admission charge to view the installation. These vintage views of the two frequently-arrested and jailed friends will emphasize the transgressive side of these two actresses who often partnered with gangsters and went to extremes.
• • In honor of MAE WEST’s August 17th birthday, this historic installation will have its official press opening at a gala 1920s-theme cocktail party for the NEWS MEDIA on that Thursday evening.
• • On Sunday August 20th, 2006 there will be a TEXAS GUINAN & MAE WEST BRUNCH at Village Restaurant [62 West 9th Street] preceded by a guided tour focused on Texas Guinan's former home and her other haunts. Tour with brunch - - and unlimited gin cocktails - - will cost $25. per person. The exhibition, however, is open to all without charge.
• • A sampling of these images is online:
* * * http://maewest.blogspot.com/ and
* * * http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/.
• • Sponsorship and media inquiries are welcome.
• • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC, based in Manhattan, is an off-Broadway producing outfit whose mission is to increase visibility and opportunity for women and women-driven stories in the theatre.
• • COURTING MAE WEST, LLC
• • Sponsorship Coordinator:
• • Conrad Bradford
• • 917-403-0890
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: April Foolish

2006-03-31T03:48:00.000-05:00

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

Texas Guinan
• • photo: The Worried Shrimp •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: South O' Santa Fe - 1919

2006-03-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

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

Texas Guinan
• • photos from the film starring Texas Guinan •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: 1929 Seance Mystery

2006-03-22T08:42:00.000-05:00

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?]

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

Texas Guinan
• • photo of building that housed Texas Guinan's speakeasy Club Intime •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Spirit of Cabin Mine 1919

2006-03-20T06:06:00.000-05:00

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

Texas Guinan
• • photos from the film starring Texas Guinan •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Gun Woman - 1918

2006-03-13T02:16:00.000-05:00

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

Texas Guinan
• • photos from the film starring Texas Guinan •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: March 1929

2006-03-08T05:01:00.000-05:00

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

Texas Guinan
• • photos from the film starring Texas Guinan •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: March 2, 1919

2006-03-05T07:02:00.000-05:00

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

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan's home • unfortunately, 17 West 8th looks hideous now
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Hop o' My Thumb

2006-02-26T08:06:00.000-05:00

In 1913, Texas Guinan was weighing her fat and her fate.

• • By September 1913, the American Medical Association was investigating Texas Guinan, Inc., the company that was advertising the weightloss scheme cooked up by Walter Cunningham, an infamous supplier of "bust development" creams, "wrinkle eradicator" miracle gels, and other frauds. Walter's surname suited him; he was a CUNNING HAM, loving publicity that resulted in quick profits. Now the AMA had sent for a sample, and was analyzing the contents of a fat-loss fiction for suckers that Texas had attached her name to via a shady deal with Cunningham. Yikes!
• • By November 1913, the AMA's scientists had submitted a report: the formula branded under Texas Guinan's name had no weightloss ingredients at all. Even worse, ingredients in the mixture varied from bottle to bottle. A report was being prepared for the AMA's journal.

• • Meanwhile, back in New York, the night before Thanksgiving 1913, Texas would open at the Manhattan Opera House - - a huge structure that straddled West 34th and West 35th Street - - in "Hop o' My Thumb."
• • To make the old fairytale suitable for adult theatregoers, the production was a razzle-dazzle mix of myth, ballet, New York sarcasm, pantomime, and political humor.
• • Playing the role of Zaza the Queen, Texas Guinan had a solo number in the production: "For a Girl Has a Living to Make." Surely, this song was prophetic.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan in costume [1913] • Manhattan Opera House, 311 West 34th Street
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Whirl of the World 1914

2006-02-23T20:22:00.000-05:00

When Lee and J.J. Shubert premiered their revue "THE WHIRL OF THE WORLD" at the Winter Garden Theatre, the musical was so successful that it played 161 performances [10 January 1914 - May 1914] on Broadway. (Music by Sigmund Romberg; Book by Harold Atteridge; Lyrics by Harold Atteridge.)

• • Texas Guinan joined the cast on tour when it went west to Illinois. The audiences at Chicago's Grand Opera House fell in love with this firecracker. She performed in "WHIRL" from 31 May - 29 August 1914, then remained with the touring company as they moved onward to Detroit, Cleveland, and other cities.
• • TRIVIA: Too bad "pony princess" Texas was not part of the Winter Garden ensemble. This showplace, built in 1911 - William Albert Swasey, architect - started life as the American Horse Exchange. In 1910, the Shuberts leased the American Horse Exchange from William K.Vanderbilt ($40,000 for 40 years) and turned it into theatre.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan [1914] •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Remarkable Texas

2006-02-22T08:59:00.000-05:00

TEXAS GUINAN is featured in this book:
More than Petticoats: Remarkable Texas Women
by Greta Anderson
(TWODOT - Paperback, 2002)

• • Ten inspiring biographical accounts of 19th century Texas women who changed history are well-researched and well-written.
Of particular interest: Cynthia Ann Parker, raised by Comanches; Sara Estela Ramirez, a Mexican-born poet; and (of course) "Texas" Guinan, nightclub hostess and film star. Greta Andersen writes with admiration and compassion for her subjects.
• • "More than Petticoats" is a series about American women.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Remarkable Texas Women [2002] •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Hippodrome 1925

2006-02-20T00:58:00.000-05:00

Who could fill a Hippodrome, a Manhattan theatre built to epic scale, gigantic enough for gladiator combat, an elephant parade, or a calvary troop's maneuvers? Crowd-pleaser Texas Guinan and her "El Fey Gang" [a revue that included Ruby Keeler among her "little girls"], that's who!

• • Even without liquor service, Texas Guinan's name could sell tickets quicker than most in the Times Square area of New York City - - or anywhere during the 1920s.

• • In 1923 B.F. Keith took over this Sixth Avenue Circus Maximus, situated at the lip of the 6th Avenue Elevated, occupying an entire city block between West 43rd and West 44th Street.
• • Built 1905 - demolished 1939.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan [1925 ad] • B.F. Keith's Hippodrome
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: 1917 Ranch Dressing

2006-02-18T00:20:00.000-05:00

No wonder Mae West envied Texas Guinan.

• • In 1917, while Mae was getting fired from one Broadway comedy after another, Texas was building a resume of one successful "ranch romance" after another. Proving that she could shoot, ride, and project charisma onscreen even in a stark black-and-white silent movie, risk-taker Texas Guinan starred in "Outwitted," released by Reelcraft Pictures Corp. in 1917. The "Queen of the West" had no challengers then - - and still doesn't.
• • When Madonna dons her cowpoke hat to play Texas in "Hello, Suckers," get out the handkerchief, pardners.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan [1917] • Reelcraft Pictures Corp.
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Code of the West & Brokeback Mt.

2006-02-13T00:16:00.000-05:00

Since the movie "Brokeback Mountain" had a stupendous advertising and marketing budget, maybe the studio that released it can bribe its way to an Oscar. Meanwhile, someone ought to thank American author Owen Wister [14 July 1860 - 21 July 1938] for popularizing the taste for exotic cowboy fiction.
• • • • "Smile when you call me that!" - - from The Virginian • • • •
• • Owen Wister's enduring bestseller - - The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains [1902] - - was dedicated to Theodore "Rough Rider" Roosevelt; later editions carried Frederic Remington's illustrations. The tale of a modest, quiet hero (more comfortable with his horse than with people) gained such a following that it was reprised by Hollywood several times. Wister's novel even spawned a TV series and a Broadway play.
• • In 1914, Cecil B. DeMille directed a silent film starring Dustin Farnum: The Virginian. A trend was set and an audience yearned for more.
• • In Spring 1919 Texas Guinan made her first feature, a silent called "South of Santa Fe" co-starring George Cheseboro, and directed by Cliff Smith, who had worked with "gunslinger" Bill Hart. Released by the Frohman Amusement Corporation, and with its footage still available, it's set at the Bar-K Ranch. Ranch owner Mrs. Wendell, married to a good-for-nothing who spends most of his time at Lopez's bar, advertises for a foreman who can manage unruly cowhands.
• • "You can't get a foreman south of Santa Fe that can handle that gang!" says one character.
• • "I'll get one and make all you coyotes hunt your holes!" replies Mrs. Wendell.
• • Mrs. Wendell gets a letter from a foreman who "can make men step around like snakes on a hot stone. Say the word and you've hired me." It's signed J. Kennedy.
• • Jessie Kennedy (Texas Guinan) rides up to Bar-K Ranch and, though the guys don't want to work for a "calico foreman," the film portrays how Jessie actually gains respect and obedience. Thrilling sequences feature frame-ups, bank robberies, and various intrigues. The heroine even conquers the Sheriff by the end, riding off into the sunset with him during the final frame.
• • William Sherrill promoted Texas as a "female Bill Hart" and leased the Chaplin studios in Los Angeles to produce this silent, backed by a strong ad campaign. "Texas Guinan to Typify the West" promised one advertisement.
• • • • The Code of the West • • • •

• • By Fall 1921 Texas Guinan had leased the Fine Arts Studio in Hollywood [4500 Sunset Boulevard] and had six sagas planned for the cameras.
• • "Texas of the Mounted" was the first silent released by her own production company. She used the six-acre studio for the interior footage and shot the outdoor scenes in the San Jacinto Mountains at Camp Keene. Her daring on horseback was praised by critics and applauded in the trade papers, too.
• • Were they there in November 1918 for the celebration of Armistice Day on Fifth Avenue when Texas Guinan rode an elephant [betw 36th Street - 39th Street]? Hey, cap that feat, Madonna, when you try to impersonate Texas Guinan onscreen in "Hello, Suckers!" - - yeah, we're waiting.
• • In November 1921 Texas released "The Code of the West," co-starring with the British actor David E. Townsend.

_________________________________________________
• • The Code of the West fascinated Zane Grey [31 January 1872 - 23 October 1939], the Western writer who died in 1939 at age 67, who also shaped the way the world perceived the "Old West." Very likely, it was Zane Grey’s enormous output - - 57 novels, 10 books of Western nonfiction, and 130 movies - - that helped to continue creating the mythology of the West. The Code of the West by Zane Grey was published in 1934.

• • There was a Code of the West, and Ramon Adams, a Western historian, elaborated in his book: The Cowman and His Code of Ethics [1969].
• • According to Ramon Adams: Back in the days when the cowman with his herds made a new frontier, there was no law on the range. Lack of written law made it necessary for him to frame some of his own, thus developing a rule of behavior which became known as the "Code of the West." These homespun laws, being merely a gentleman’s agreement to certain rules of conduct for survival, were never written into statutes, but were respected everywhere on the range.
• • Ramon Adams wrote: "When legislated laws did come to the frontier, they failed to meet the needs and conditions on this fringe of civilization. Men did not respect them because they could not obey them and survive. Thus the West gained a reputation for being lawless - - though the blame for this condition should have been placed upon the white-collared law-makers, not upon the so-called law-breakers."

• • Texas Guinan: lawless? Let's hear your opinion about "The Lawless Decade" that she featured in so prominently.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan [1921] • The Code of the West by Zane Grey [1934] •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Isn't She Romantic?

2006-02-11T19:34:00.000-05:00

"MARRIAGE is all right, but I think it's carrying love a little bit too far," said Texas Guinan.
• • Texas, of course, had many fans.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas G on the menu cover • "Texas Guinan 300 Club" [151 West 54th St.]
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas & "Belle Out of Order"

2006-02-09T03:56:00.000-05:00

Billed in the 1890s as the "Girl with Poetic Legs," actress, author, adventuress Belle Livingstone is all but forgotten today. In another episode on this blog, Belle will be commemorated more extensively as a speakeasy hostess who rivaled Texas Guinan in the early 1930s. Hilarious details are to come - - such as the trap door escape and red pajamas incident in 1930 and her $500,000 lawsuit against Vanity Fair Magazine after a feature in which a punster consigned her to oblivion.
• • Dead of a fatal heart attack at the Hunts Point Nursing Home in the Bronx on 7 February 1957, Belle Livingstone [real name Isabelle Graham Hutchins] was born in Kansas in 1875. Much married, the 82-year-old high kicker left several children.
• • In the summer of 1959, her second memoir posthumously appeared. Belle Out of Order by Belle Livingstone bore a preface by Cleveland Amory [NY: Henry Holt, 1959, 341pp] and quickly sold out two printings - - despite the fact that there would be no "book tour" by the flamboyant author. Belle Livingstone had been friends with such Edwardian worthies as Edward Prince of Wales, Pierre Lorillard, and Lord Kitchener. Maybe friends of these gents bought multiple copies.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Belle Livingstone [1875-1957] with Texas Guinan • [before 1933]
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Guinan & Stanwyck's Broadway Nights

2006-02-05T02:42:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn native Barbara Stanwyck [16 July 1907 - 20 January 1990] broke into show business as a teen and became one of Texas Guinan's little girls.
• • Perhaps that Guinan connection guided the 20-year-old chorine into the casting director's office; fresh-faced Stanwyck played a fan dancer in 1927's silent film "Broadway Nights," which also featured Texas Guinan in the role of De Sacia Mooers.
• • By 1930, Hollywood discovered the brunette beauty. "A New Star Rises!" shouted the cover of Photoplay [July 1930].
• • Ironically, like Texas Guinan, she starred in many horse operas. "When I was a kid, I was so crazy about westerns," recalled Barbara Stanwyck in a 1968 interview. "I swore that, when I became an actress, I was just going to do that." Stanwyck would eventually become a western star, but she would be better known for her dramatic roles in high-profile Hollywood classics before she got her childhood wish.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Barbara Stanwyck • date?
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Sothern Exposure

2006-01-18T04:59:00.000-05:00

Texas Guinan's name (though not her face) is featured on this 1933 sheet music: "When You Were the Girl on the Scooter and I Was the Boy on the Bike." The tune was on the soundtrack for 20th Century Pictures' release, Walter Winchell's "Broadway Thru a Keyhole" featuring Texas Guinan, Constance Cummings, Abe Lyman and his Band, Russ Columbo, Blossom Seeley, Paul Kelly, Frances William, and Eddie Foy Jr.
• • Little known during the early years of the Depression was beautiful Ann Sothern [born Harriet Lake on 22 January 1909 in Valley City, North Dakota], who danced in this flick.
• • Well established star Eddie Foy Jr. [4 February 1905 - 15 July 1983] originally met Texas when both had a stage career.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: 1933 sheet music "Broadway Through a Keyhole" with Texas Guinan
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: 12 January

2006-01-12T08:34:00.000-05:00

• • On her birthday, let's give the little lady a nice big hand!
___ ___
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • photo: Texas Guinan
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: A Birthday Toast

2006-01-04T06:31:00.000-05:00

Janus the Roman god of doorways - - taking the place (temporarily) of Old Jeff, who is away visiting the Jeffersons - - will use this opp to reminisce in January about a fearless female who knew Jefferson Market Court, the Federal Court House, judges, and Dry Agents intimately during the Roaring 20s.

______________________________
• • Greenwich Village resident Texas Guinan always insisted that she didn't have to sell the hard stuff because she got as much for sparkling water as people paid for Scotch before Prohibition. She said her clients brought their own hooch on their very own hips, and what could she do except provide set-ups? Of course, you could buy a "booster" in her gin-joints if you knew the headwaiter, or if you looked as if you knew him, or if you knew somebody who was pretty sure he knew him, or maybe if you were good and thirsty and didn't have the seedy look of the Dry Agent.
• • Often in a tight spot due to her night spots, Texas had more than her share of arrests and padlocks and paddy wagons.
• • Returning to her speak after winning an acquittal at court once, Texas sang this ditty:
Judge Thomas said, "Tex, do you sell booze?"
I said, "Please, don't be silly.
I swear to you my cellar's filled
With chocolate and vanilly!"
• • A woman of courage and charm if not convictions, her birthday is 12 January 1884.
• • Let's give the little lady a nice big hand!
___ ___
Source:http://jeffersonmarketcourthouseny.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Jefferson Market
• • Photo: 1929 Texas Guinan in a nightspot
• • Photo: 17 West 8th Street [near Jefferson Market Court] is where Texas made her home. Unfortunately, West 8th Street is the most hideous looking thoroughfare in Greenwich Village nowadays.
NYC
New York Public Library
Jefferson Market.

Texas Talks

2005-12-30T02:53:00.000-05:00

The year was 1927.

New York's reigning queen of nightlife Texas Guinan was taped by newsmen while waiting to board a ship. In this footage, Texas and a group of pretty young women sing "Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" Then Guinan, in close-up, talks about going to jail.
1927 news footage - - http://www.efootage.com/view_clip.php?clip_id=13056
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
Illustration: Texas Guinan
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas: Fat or Fate?

2005-12-28T07:04:00.000-05:00

Every human being has at least one regret. For Texas Guinan, her most embarrassing dilemma was this flim-flam diet scam. Here's a small portion of the sappy ad copy printed in the early 1900s:
• • FAMOUS ACTRESS LOSES 70 LBS. OF FAT • •

Texas Guinan, Star of the "Passing Show" and N.Y. Winter Garden Company, Offers Her Own Marvelous New Treatment to Fat Folks
NEW TREATMENT GIVES ELEGANCE OF FIGURE AND STARTLING RESULTS QUICKLY

• • Eat All You Want & Grow Thin - Reduce Rapidly as Much as Desired - The World's Youngest and Most Beautiful Star shows All Womankind the Way to Slim Grace and Beauty
• • "Texas" Guinan, once a plain, stout girl who suddenly and mysteriously reduced herself to fawn-like, fascinating, fairy proportions, now idolized by the thrilled and dazzled audiences before whom she appeared in "The Passing Show of 1912," "The Kiss Waltz," and "The Kissing Girl," a peerless artist whose immaculate melody of voice and bewitching beauty of face and figure have taken American theatre goers by storm. It is said she was pronounced by New York's foremost theatrical manager as "The most perfectly formed woman alive."
• • As Texas Guinan had to perform at the matinee, it seemed the easiest thing in the world to arrange an interview without consulting her. The vigilant stage doorkeeper was easily passed. The dressing-room was hospitably turned open by a maid, and then, well, Miss Guinan [that is, what is left of her] appeared.
• • "So you have come to learn the story of my weight reduction, have you?" said Texas in her breezy style, with her glorious countenance beaming in smiles at her supreme gladness, realizing how appreciative the world was in bestowing admiration and applause upon her, all on account of the new glory of her form which she transformed almost as if by magic with her own marvelous new treatment. ...
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
Illustration: Texas Guinan and her diet ad
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Party Hearty

2005-12-18T08:08:00.000-05:00

Texas Guinan didn't confine herself to Manhattan when it came to doing business. Though Texas loved to be in midtown, during the 1920s she also hosted at several speakeasies on Merrick Road in Long Island [Nassau County, New York].

________________________________________
Since her presence spelled H-O-L-I-D-A-Y for so many of her guests, do join in the celebration.
Hello, suckers! Come in and leave your wallet on the bar!
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
Illustration: Texas Guinan in her speakeasy on Merrick Road [circa 1928]
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Lone Star Spirit

2005-12-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

You're the spirit of Christmas
My star on the tree. . .
[ - from the old song "Daddy's Little Girl"]
• • Though Texas Guinan will not be decorating her annual holiday tree this December, fans can still enjoy Texas Guinan's lone star on "The Walk of Fame" in Hollywood forever:

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

Texas Guinan
Photo: Texas Guinan's lone star [Hollywood]
Texas Guinan.

Texas & The Gay Musician

2005-12-11T02:39:00.000-05:00

The year was 1909.

On September 7th, The Gay Musician opened in Guelph, Ontario (Canada) with Texas Guinan. She stayed in the cast for several months as this "comic opera" played the circuit of theatres in the American West including Los Angeles.
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Photo: The Gay Musician
Texas Guinan.

Texas: A Wilde Epitaph

2005-12-04T08:16:00.000-05:00

Texas Guinan used lines from an Oscar Wilde poem for her epitaph.
And down the long and silent street,
The dawn, with silver-sandaled feet,
Crept like a frightened girl.
[- - excerpt from The Harlot's House by Oscar Wilde]

Belatedly, in honor of the November 30th death of the author:
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde [16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900]

Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Photo: Texas Guinan mausoleum, Calvary Cemetery, NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan Elopes: Dec. 2, 1904

2005-12-01T01:42:00.000-05:00

The year was 1904.
On December 2nd, 20-year-old "Marie" Guinan eloped with her fiance "Moy."

This year was 1908.
Texas Guinan, 24, newly separated from her husband, newspaper cartoonist John J. Moynahan (who was living and working in Chicago) had taken a room on the run-down rim of Washington Square South. Still in love with his wife, and worried about her, "Moy" was sending her a few dollars every week. Determined to break into show business, Texas Guinan would soon find out that roles were plentiful in New York. Unfortunately, rehearsals were payless and ran from 3 - 10 weeks. Many times she walked through Washington Square Park with an empty stomach and a dimly focused future in her head. This is what her eyes saw.
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Photo: Washington Square Park [circa 1913]
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Gonfarone's 50-Cent-Special

2005-11-29T04:30:00.000-05:00

The year was 1908. Texas Guinan was living on the same shabby block as 61 Washington Square South, a boarding house whose lodgers included aspiring authors such as Willa Cather, John Dos Passos, Max Bodenheim, and Stephen Crane. Since Texas was spending many hours at unpaid rehearsals, listening to her stomach growl, neighbors confided that you could get a decent meal at Gonfarone's for a few cents.

***50-Cent-Meal, Gonfarone's Restaurant, New York, 1920s***
A pint of California red wine, assorted antipasto, minestrone or spaghetti with meat or tomato sauce, choice of main dishes (boiled salmon with caper sauce; sweetbread with mushroom gravy; broiled spring chicken or roast prime ribs of beef), vegetables and salads (spinach, potatoes, green salad), a dessert (biscuit, tortoni or spumoni), fresh fruit, assorted cheeses, and coffee [a 'demi-tasse'].
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
Photo: Hotel Gonfarone, 38 West 8th Street at MacDougal Street [circa 1913]
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Wishbone

2005-11-24T08:12:00.000-05:00

The year was 1908. Texas Guinan was hired to play the part of Rita Santacierci, a supporting role in the three-hour comedy with music "The Hoyden."
The play had been written for the sublimely talented Elise Janis, who had starred onstage since the age of 8. Texas Guinan joined the production when the show was in Chicago at the Studebaker Theatre, May 17 - June 20, 1908.
Chicago critics noted that Texas was "handsome, clever, and a decided feature in the reckoning of support." Texas Guinan was getting her wish: the critics were paying attention.
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Illustration: Elsie Janis [1889-1956] in "The Hoyden" -- a song sheet from 1908
Texas Guinan.

Texas Takes to the Fifth

2005-11-23T04:25:00.000-05:00

The year was 1909. In May, Texas Guinan was appearing in her own act, engaged as a "Lone Star Novelty" at Keith and Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre [27-31 West 28th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Broadway].

Nightly, the 25-year-old performer floated above the audience, inside an airship. Her songs included "To the End of the World with You," "Pansies Mean Thoughts," and "Shine on, Harvest Moon." Jack Mason did the staging for Guinan's first attempt as a soloist.
Variety applauded her "good soprano voice."
An anonymous theatre critic advised his readers to "keep your eyes on that girl. She has zip and fizz, and that's what the public wants. . . ."
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Illustration: Fifth Avenue Theatre: 27-31 West 28th Street [1891-1939]
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan with Fatty Arbuckle

2005-11-20T20:01:00.000-05:00

Before the death of Virginia Rappe in 1921, before the non-stop media coverage of the murder trial, Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle [March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933] was an established silent film star. Here he serenades two women whose careers were not yet established: Vivian Duncan [of the "Duncan Sisters"] and Texas Guinan. Their court room days would alter the picture. After the trial, however, Fatty Arbuckle appeared several times on the same stagebill as Texas Guinan.
Coincidentally, he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 46 in the summer of 1933, the same year that Texas would die at age 49.

Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Illustration: Sixth Avenue El on West 8th Street: Edward C. Caswell
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan & the 6th Avenue El

2005-11-19T09:47:00.000-05:00

On November 22nd, 1908 the newspaper New York Telegram printed an interview with Texas Guinan, asking her about her unusual first name. Mary Cecilia Guinan had taken to telling New Yorkers that TEXAS was her real first name.

She loved creating myths about her background and this was only one of the tall tales she would start spreading around.

Meanwhile, as a fledging actress onstage, Texas was still riding public transportation to and from the theatre. Her station was 8th Street on the Sixth Avenue Elevated line. It was located right opposite Jefferson Market Court House, a place she would come to know well during Prohibition. This is how the 8th Street station looked when she used it every day.
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Illustration: Sixth Avenue El on West 8th Street: Edward C. Caswell
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan in Greenwich Village

2005-11-18T08:15:00.000-05:00

By 1907, Texas had tucked out to the East Coast to take to the stage. Reginald DeKoven had said he'd give her a job if she ever came to New York, and Tex finagled her way into his current production: The Snowman [a.k.a. The Girls of Holland, which is the new title it used when it arrived on Broadway in November 1907].
Tex had gotten herself a room in a run-down Greenwich Village boarding house at 72 Washington Square South. She paid $2 a week for rent and breakfast.
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Illustration shows Judson Memorial Church and the buildings east of it around 1900. Situated between Wooster and Thompson Streets in 1907, 72 Washington Square South was a 4-story brick building on a lot size of 23' x 104.8' -- not far from a rooming house known as "The House of Genius" [61 Washington Square South].
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan Says: 14-K Wisdom

2005-11-16T06:09:00.000-05:00

In her popular newspaper column, Texas Guinan Says, the nightingale of nightlife often fictionalized mundane episodes in her life to amuse her audience. But tossed in with the gossamer, the white lies, and the flights of fance would be a nugget of solid stuff.
Here's timeless advice from Texas:
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 or 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 are bound to win.
Doncha love her madly?
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
PHOTO: Jefferson Market Night Court or Bust [Texas in 1926]

Texas Guinan & Mae West in Court

2005-11-13T19:06:00.002-05:00

In 1930 Texas Guinan was asked by the New York Journal [a daily newspaper] to do some freelance reporting. Her first assignment: cover the Mae West trial at Jefferson Market Court House on Sixth Avenue.
Actress Mae West had been charged with writing many of the skits in the homosexual-themed play "Pleasure Man" that New York's police and prosecutors declared were too shocking for the stage.

In her popular syndicated column "Texas Guinan Says" [The New York Daily News, 12 April 1929], Texas had playfully mentioned her friend: "Mae's a good girl at heart -- but she's got a bad heart." Of course, Texas Guinan was also a repeat offender [repeat "attender"], frequently on trial in the very same Greenwich Village court house.
Texas Guinan died on 5 November 1933.
Mae West died on 22 November 1980.
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
Jefferson Market
Source:http://jeffersonmarketcourthouseny.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan.

PHOTO: 1 April 1930 Mae West, Alan Brooks, Texas Guinan, and another gentleman pose for the press during a recess at the "Pleasure Man" trial, Jefferson Market Court

Texas Was Against Going to War

2005-11-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

The posters for many of her 2-reelers depicted the Texas Guinan character as a two-gun gal. Though she was not anti-gun, Guinan was solidly anti-war.

In her popular syndicated newspaper column Texas Guinan Says, she declared her feelings on January 5, 1931. [War] is unnecessary, it is costly, and in the end, nobdy knows what he has been fighting for. It seldom (if ever) kills off the right people. The history of war is brief as to its origins and consequences: daft, draft, graft . . . .
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Texas Guinan.

In November We Remember

2005-11-09T07:09:00.000-05:00

"All you need to make a movie," the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once said, "is a girl and a gun."
* * * Texas Guinan [1884-1933] appeared in several silent films as the gun-slinger.
* * * Mae West [1893-1980] appeared in films as the gun-moll.
* * * During the 1920s, both wound up in Jefferson Market Court.

* * * Both rated a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [Mae's star is at 1560 Vine Street.]
* * * Eventually, both died in the West during November.
* * * While on the road, Texas Guinan contracted amoebic dysentery in Vancouver, British Columbia and died there on November 5, 1933 at age 49, exactly one month before Prohibition was repealed. She is interred in the Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.
* * * Mae West was 87 years old when she suffered a stroke. She died in Los Angeles, California on November 22, 1980. She is entombed in the Cypress Hills Cemetery [833 Jamaica Avenue], Brooklyn, New York.

During November, stop in Jefferson Market Library and check out Texas Guinan: Queen of the Night Clubs by Louise Berliner and Becoming Mae West by Emily Wortis Leider.
PHOTO: September 1930 -- Mae West and Texas Guinan take a recess in the judge's chambers during Mae's "Pleasure Man" obscenity trial at Jefferson Market Court.
Source: http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
Jefferson Market
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Jefferson Market.

Texas Exits: 11-5-1933 R.I.P.

2005-11-05T03:29:00.000-05:00

It was in Vancouver, Canada when the curtain came down on Texas Guinan.

Source: http://TexasGuinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Texas Guinan.

Piece of Texas: Live Auction Nov. 12

2005-11-04T05:04:00.000-05:00

Auction Date: Nov-12-05
Roaring Twenties (Warner Brothers, 1939). Midget Window Card (8"X 14").
Heritage Gallery described this item: This last of the '30s gangster films, with James Cagney in the thinly-disguised (and humanized) lead role, was based upon the real-life rise and fall of New York mobster/ racketeer Larry Fay who had a business relationship with his brassy, frowsy saloon singer-promoter and hostess Texas Guinan [Gladys George's role as Panama Smith]. Humphrey Bogart co-stars as Cagney's ruthless second-fiddle lieutenant and then as his rival. This would be the last film in which they would co-star. This great midget card is identical to the one sheet and has a small chunk out of the upper left corner. . . . Printed on the linen-finish paper Warner's used prior to the war, this card glows with its deep colors and dynamic image. . . .
Auction to be conducted on a live auction floor [over the Internet] through eBay Live. www.eBay.com
Source: http://TexasGuinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan
Texas Guinan.

Dallas Morning News: 6 November 1933

2005-10-31T05:38:00.000-05:00

Texas Guinan, the 49-year-old speakeasy hostess and entertainer, had confided to a reporter:
I like noise, rhinestone heels, customers, plenty of attention, and red velvet bathing suits. I smoke like a 5-alarm fire. I eat an aspirin every night before I go to bed. I call every man I don't know "Fred" and they love it. I have six uncles. I sleep on my right side. I like carrots. I eat a dozen oranges every day and I once took off 35 lbs in two weeks. I guess that settles my personality. . . .
- Dallas Morning News * * 6 November 1933 -
Note: Prohibition was repealed one month after Guinan’s death.
Source: http://TexasGuinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan

Texas Died from a Drink of Water

2005-10-30T18:26:00.000-05:00

Did diamond-draped rebel Texas Guinan really die on November 5th, 1933 from a drink of water? The 1942 obituary of cafe king Jacques Bustanoby [who claims he gave Guinan her high-heeled start in his nightspot] quotes the speakeasy superstar herself.

May 10, 1942 (The American Weekly)
JACQUES BUSTANOBY, PAPA OF CAFE SOCIETY [obit]
Strange pages from the guest book of New York's most famous restaurateur (better known as 'Bust Anybody'), who originated the women's bar, dance floors, gigolos (including Rudolph Valentino), sidewalk cafes, and entertained more notables (including Reggie Vanderbilt's horse) than all the modern night clubs combined.
.
Descendant of a long line of French chefs, Jacques Bustanoby was "born to the purple" of the restaurant business and he ruled it, in New York, during its golden age, when dining out was not only an art but almost a sacred ritual. This great genius of the culinary art died the other day at the age of 62. He had outlived his era and strangely enough, had probably done more than any other person or thing - - even Prohibition - - to kill the age of the royal dinner. He had introduced to the dining room two deadly enemies, bound to be as devastating to the fine art of his ancestors, as they would be to the sermon, if introduced into church services. One was the cabaret, which his horrified competitors called, "din with dinner"; the other, perhaps even more fatal to serious eating, the modern custom of jumping up every few minutes to dance, while the food gets cold. . . .
* * Enter "a blonde of the buxom, corn-fed, Wild-Western type" * *

A blonde of the buxom, corn-fed, Wild-Western type breezed into New York but could get no work until she saw Jacques, who immediately put her on his payroll. She was Texas Guinan who lived through the twilight of the great dinner days, adapted herself to the Prohibition night club, as the famous "Howdy, Sucker!" greeter, and finally died, of all things, from a drink of water. Joking, even on her deathbed, Guinan said: "The water rusted my iron constitution." The doctors, however, blamed it not on the tap water, but on the germs of amoebic dysentery in the water.
Retribution also began to catch up with the Napoleon of novelty. Jacques, having introduced the tea dance and the first bar for women, blamed them for the divorce from his first wife, Ruth Boyd. ...
- excerpt May 10, 1942 (The American Weekly) -
Source: http://TexasGuinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan

Texas Guinan: Public Nuisance?

2005-10-29T17:54:00.000-04:00

Texas GUINAN to Be Heard July 19 on Nuisance Charge
Denies She Owns Night Club or That She Ever Sold Liquor

publication: Brooklyn Standard Union
1 July 1928
IN THE COURTS

Having furnished bail to the extent of $1,000, Texas GUINAN is free until July 19, when her presence will be desired in the Federal Court to explain why her latest night club is not a nuisance.
This [it will be remembered] will be the fifth time since the blonde night club hostess first hit the street of twinkling lights, that she has had to explain away a similar charge. Yesterday in the Federal Courts Building, she seemed very cheerful and refused to take the matter seriously.
"I don't own a night club and never have." she declared. "So far as liquor is concerned, I don't care if they never make another glass of whiskey. I offered District Attorney Buckner a certified check for $100,000 once, if he could prove that I had ever either taken or sold a drink in my life."
With her in the court was Helen MORGAN, a sister night club hostess, for whom court experiences are not quite so frequent, and who seemed somewhat subdued by it. She, too, denied that she was ever an owner of night club and adding that since she did not own the club or any part of it, how, she demanded, could she be maintaining a public nuisance. . . .
- Brooklyn Standard Union * * 1 July 1928 -
Source: http://TexasGuinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Texas Guinan