Texas Guinan: Queen of Clubs

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

• • There are several interesting Movietone news reel subjects.  . . . 
• • Night Clubs and Murders.
• • QUEEN OF THE NIGHT CLUBS, with Texas Guinan, Eddie Foy Jr., Lila Lee, Jack Norworth, John Davidson, John Miljan, Arthur Houseman, William Davidson, Charlotte Merriam, Jimmie Phillips, Lee Shumway, James T. Mack, Agnes Traney and Joseph Depew, directed by Bryan Foy;  . . .   At the Mark Strand.
• • Source: Movie Review by Mordaunt Hall, N.Y. Times; published on Monday, 18 March 1929
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• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Texas Guinan is in some scenes, too. Watch a scene on YouTube.
• • Website for all things Mae West — http://MaeWest.blogspot.com 

• • Exciting Texas Guinan news is on the horizon. More anon.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • in 1929 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Mae & Money

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: Drena Beach

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: Snakes & Sam

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.