Texas Guinan: Race Artists

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

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

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

Texas Guinan: Gypsyland

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

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

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

Texas Guinan: Ladies, Nag Not

TEXAS GUINAN spoke to a Los Angeles Women's Club and told them how they helped her get rich by nagging their husbands which heightened the men's desire to escape to her rowdy pleasure dome. As usual, pragmatism and an understanding of human nature were held high in her hand of aces.
• • "Texas Guinan Made 'Whoopee' a Source of Fame" • •
• • West Coast journalist Cecilia Rasmussen wrote: She was a purveyor of speak-easy booze — — and other illicit pleasures — — whose advice to other women would have set even a tepid feminist's teeth on edge:  "If you women would amuse your husbands when they come home, they wouldn't slip away and pay a $5 cover charge to get a little excitement," Texas Guinan once told members of a Los Angeles women's club. "Humor them! Don't nag them! Do you know what made me a rich woman? Wives who talk to their husbands about gas bills and curtains."
• • Cecilia Rasmussen explained:  It wasn't exactly an example of elevated consciousness, but it was the sort of unembarrassed pragmatism that took a small-town Texas girl from the music hall stage to the silent screen to the glamorous gin mills of the Great White Way and back again — — with stops in between for appearances in various courtrooms, where she also was something of a hit.
• • Cecilia Rasmussen continued:  Years before she achieved a kind of celebrity — — or notoriety — — as the wisecracking "Queen of the Night Clubs," which she ran for the New York mob, Guinan was a Catholic schoolgirl in Waco, Texas, the daughter of Irish immigrant parents to whom she was born in 1884. . . .

• • Source: Article: "Texas Guinan Made 'Whoopee' a Source of Fame" by Cecilia Rasmussen for the L.A. Times; published on 3 September 2000
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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.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • in 1933 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Make Whoopee

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.