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| Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan - all photos from Wikipedia unless otherwise cited. |
The story of "Texas" Guinan has no direct relevance to New Zealand history. She touched the nation only as much as her movie appearances and the accounts in local newspapers of her career in the prohibition-era speakeasies titillated the New Zealand public. I found her story while looking for references to a masseur from Kelso. And she made "good copy."
A new Triangle star has been secured from the Winter Garden frivolities in New York, where so many of the beauty picture stars have come from. She is Texas Guinan. She established a reputation for mimicry, but in playing the stellar role in "The Merry Widow" on tour showed that she was not limited to imitations. -Star, 21/12/1917.
Texas Guinan, Triangle's latest catch from the Ziegfield Follies, and one of the most attractive-looking stars that has placed her feet on the grass plots of the Triangle Culver City studios, will soon be seen in her first production entitled "The Kissing Girl." -Free Lance, 1/2/1918.
Mary Guinan was born in Waco, Texas, the daughter of Irish immigrants. She grew up riding and shooting and her parents were able to get her a two-year scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in 1898. Thus equipped with a formidable collection of skills, she entered the entertainment business, beginning in a Wild West show.
In 1908 she advertised an offer of $1000 for any songwriter who could write her a song as popular as the current hit "That's what the rose said to me." Three years later she was headlining in Vaudeville and entangled in a court case after licensing her image for a bogus weight-loss plan. This dented her stage reputation and was a factor in her decision to broaden her career by going into the movies.
She made her first movie appearance in 1917, being cast in Westerns, and then was engaged by the Frohmann brothers in 1918. She made a dozen movies with them that year.
Mary Guinan was born in Waco, Texas, the daughter of Irish immigrants. She grew up riding and shooting and her parents were able to get her a two-year scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in 1898. Thus equipped with a formidable collection of skills, she entered the entertainment business, beginning in a Wild West show.
In 1908 she advertised an offer of $1000 for any songwriter who could write her a song as popular as the current hit "That's what the rose said to me." Three years later she was headlining in Vaudeville and entangled in a court case after licensing her image for a bogus weight-loss plan. This dented her stage reputation and was a factor in her decision to broaden her career by going into the movies.
She made her first movie appearance in 1917, being cast in Westerns, and then was engaged by the Frohmann brothers in 1918. She made a dozen movies with them that year.
The 1920 Volstead Act brought prohibition of the sale of alcohol to the United States. For many people, the limiting of the supply of fun meant massive profits were to be made. In 1923, "Texas" was engaged to sing at a speakeasy named the Beaux Arts Club in New York for the fee of $50,000 - worth $5.1 million at time of writing.
Speakeasy kingpin Larry Fay then engaged her as hostess at his Manhattan El Fay club, splitting profits with her 50/50. She became famous for her welcoming phrase: "Hello, Sucker! Come in and leave your wallet at the bar."
The El Fay was closed down by police so "Texas" opened the Texas Guinan Club which soon suffered the same fate. She and Fay went south to Miami and opened the Del Fay Club, where they took in $700,000 (about $70m) in less than a year.
Returning to New York, she was the hostess of the 300 Club whose opening was an entertainment society wedding and which was visited by many of the day's celebrities, including the Prince of Wales. (Rumour has it that the club was raided while the Prince was visiting. She shunted him into the kitchen, tied an apron around him, and had him washing dishes when police came though the kitchen door.)
This happy state of affairs was ended by a police raid in July, 1926, with two guests arrested for "violation of the section of the penal code forbidding suggestive dances."
MRS. MCPHERSON'S TOUR
EVANGELIST IN NEW YORK.
MESSAGE FOR BEAUTY CHORUS.
NEW YORK, Feb. 21. Mrs. Aimee McPherson, the Los Angeles evangelist, is being given an amazing amount of front-page publicity, as she arrived in the metropolis just at the moment when the reform wave against indelicate shows is at its height.
Miss "Texas'' Guinan's so-called Three Hundred Club, which has been raided so often, is padlocked to-day, and that famous Broadway hostess joined with Mrs. McPherson to provide an object lesson to show how decorously chorus ladies could appear at evangelistic meetings.
Mrs. McPherson had been out until 3 a.m. inspecting sin at close quarters, and had a real message to deliver last night, when "Texas" swept in with 10 girls whose chief business in life hitherto has been the display of their dazzling young bodies, covered with powder, in the sinuous measures of the "Black Bottom" dance.
Miss Guinan, who was appropriately cloaked in ermine and glittering with pearls, mounted the rostrum, accompanied by a perfume that utterly drowned the odour of the red roses worn by the auburn-haired evangelist, who followed her custom of asking everyone to shake hands with the three persons nearest.
"That's a swell idea," declared "Texas," as she hastened to comply.
It was gathered that this new custom will be introduced in the night clubs when Miss Guinan gets back to her regular job. -NZ Herald, 2/3/1927.
"I never take a drink and I never sell a drink. I am paid to put on an act and I put on an act. I once gave [U.S. Attorney General] Buckner a certified check for $100,000 to give anyone who has ever seen me take a drink or sell a drink. That check is still good, so's my offer."
Texas Guinan, December 1927 - ex Wikipedia
In Filmland
One of New York's most famous night clubs was reproduced on an elaborate scale as a setting for "The Big City," Lon Chaney's latest picture. The club is practically a replica of the famous tavern of Texas Guinan, actress and night clubs hostess, who has startled the metropolis with her daring innovations. The club, with a spectacular ballet and other features, was used as the scene for a holdup in the new picture, in which Chaney plays as a gangster leader. The story is a mystery romance of the New York underworld, with Miss Marcelino Day as the heroine. James Murray is her sweetheart, a young gangster, and Miss Betty Compson is in one of the leading roles. -NZ Herald, 26/5/1928.
In June, 1928, "Texas" was one of 104 people indicted before a Grand Jury as a result of mass raids on New York night clubs under the orders of Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrant. Guinan and two other hostesses faced a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of $10,000 if convicted.
ALL EXCITED
SHE’S BEEN INDICTED!
BROADWAY RAIDS
NEW YORK, August 3. One hundred and eight night clubs including “Texas” Guinan's have been indicted for sly-grog selling - the result of the latest moral wave which is sweeping Broadway.
At the same time, for the good of the tourist trade, the authorities do not want prospective visitors to vision Broadway as “Orange-juice Gulch.” It is announced that, while drinks are no longer served in the “denatured” resorts, hip flasks are still being worn in large numbers, and there is cracked ice and ginger ale even in this vale of tears.
“She’s all excited, she’s been indicted,” is the latest ditty whistled on late nights, and Guinan is represented as terribly angry at being the victim of what she calls a farcical outrage. Dozens of places where the “night girls” usually shake their "scanties" are doing no business whatever. The Broadway theory is that the entire racket is just a little row amongst three girls — “Tex” Guinan, Helen Morgan, and Mabel Willebrandt. -Stratford Evening Post, 10/8/1928.
QUEEN OF NIGHT CLUBS.
RE-ENTERING THE MOVIES
HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 3. Miss “Texas” Guinan, with a fairsized jewellery shop, arrived at 9.15 this morning with the purpose of reentering the movies. The Queen of the New York night clubs has not been up so early for eight years.
She looked aghast when she saw the sun. “Gee! turn it off,” she begged.
She wore all black, except for her make-up, blonde hair, and jewels, which consisted of pearls, platinum, diamonds, and rhinestone pearls. She had two strings of the last named around her neck, each big enough and long enough, as one of the welcoming party said, to tie the battleship Hood to a pier. Around the same neck were two other necklaces with platinum and diamonds, while her arms were sheathed in bracelets. -Manawatu Standard, 15/9/1928.
MODERN GOMORRAH.
NEW YORK SIN CHASERS.
NIGHT CLUB "HOSTESSES" INDIGNANT.
A dramatic climax has followed the publication of the report of the Committee of Fourteen, an official body appointed years ago to investigate conditions in New York. Their report is staggering in its frankness and denunciation. The American capital is dubbed a modern Gomorrah with Broadway as a glittering highway of shame.
"The city," says the report under the signature of Mr. George E. Worthington, chairman, ''abounds in sinners and the opportunity to sin." The prevalence of commercialised vice is laid straight at the door of prohibition. The speak-easies, night clubs and other fungi that have followed in the wake of the Eighteenth amendment "are directly responsible for a marked increase in the volume of prostitution," the committee states. "The hostess of the night club and speakeasy is the American counterpart of the geisha girl," says the report. "She is employed for the main purpose of increasing the sales of liquor; incidentally, she is to provide aesthetic, social and other entertainment for the men customers."
Many speakeasies have love nests, where the Broadway Magdalene roll drunken customers. Addresses of several such places were given to the police. New York discarded its "loose" district only to have its modern counterpart spread all over town, the report says. Dance halls are another source of undercover vice, according to the report, which states: "Hostesses are recruited by advertisements which seek for 'young, attractive girls, over eighteen, experience unnecessary.'" This type of dance hall, according to the committee, "is a growing and serious menace; it is here that the largest number of girls get their start toward ruin." Instructresses take the clumsy males who would like to be jazz experts, and give them instruction in locked rooms. "It is difficult to find a legitimate reason for instruction so strictly private as this," the committee comments.
Members of the committee who visited several of these resorts stated that the girl teachers made improper advances. There is a strong condemnation of taxi-drivers who prowl the streets looking for drunken Lotharios and convey them to night haunts. All in all, New York is worse than ever, according to the report, which winds up with a sop to the police in the form of a tribute to Police Commissioner Joseph A. Warren for "doing his best."
It was anticipated that the report would cause a stir. It did. And into the breach in defence of their clubs and their girls stepped Texas Guinan, Mollie Doherty, and Helen Morgan, three of the principal night club proprietors. Tex is always in the limelight. She is an institution and proud of it. Not only did she say what she thought of the Committee of Fourteen, but she went to see Mr. Worthington — and found him out.
Invitation to Night Club.
"I shall pay no attention to the report," said Tex. "What does this guy mean by calling my instructresses 'Geisha Girls?' Every one is a good girl, and they all have mothers who chaperon them behind the scenes. I'll give him 'palaces of passion' and 'inns of iniquity.'
"Worthington can come over to one of my clubs and use his wet blanket for a cover," said Tex generously. "I guarantee every customer will go out with his wife and his watch. Why, whadda I look like, Terrible Texas, the Flaming Mamie of the Foolish Forties?"
And then Tex, who prides herself on the number of mothers her girls can show, had a calmer moment. "I suppose," she said, "there are some bad places, and Worthington should be commended for driving them out. But they aren't night clubs, and he is libelling a great profession." Night club girls interviewed all insisted that the nearest they ever came to being geisha girls is when they eat supper in a Chinese cafe.
"We're too busy," Renie Valerie, one of the best known night club singers, said. "Some of the smaller speakeasies may be conducted improperly, but not the larger ones."
A fling at college girls was taken by Dot Justin, brunette charmer of the Salon Royale, who said: "I don't know anything about the charges except that all my girl friends in the Royale are perfect ladies and a whole lot better than some I know in colleges."
The Hanley sisters, well known in Europe and America, joined the chorus.
"We think those charges are so much bunkum," they said. "If anyone thinks that the Lincoln car we drive isn't bought by us by the labour of our feet they are crazy."
Mr. Barney Gallant, proprietor of a famous club, was scornful in his attitude toward Worthington.
"One doesn't indict the entire medical profession because of a handful of quacks," he declared. "Because there are a few 'dens of iniquity' in New York, all the night clubs are not necessarily gilded palaces of sin.
"As regards prostitution, New York is the cleanest big city in the world. And I know, for I have lived in every capital in Europe. New York is not so bad as London or Paris."
Sex Appeal a Crime?
Another night club hostess read Worthington's disapproval of her profession avidly up to page 22, where she stopped at "Her sex appeal largely accounts for her success." "Well, for the love of Mike," said she, "does he want us to go around in sackcloth and ashes, or something? Of course I've got sex appeal. So has John Gilbert. Maybe Worthington has, too. Are they going to make that a crime now?"
To these emphatic denials of straying from the straight and narrow path, the Committee of Fourteen issued a stern reply, reiterating their charges and alleging that the night-club "queens" had actually hired women to chaperon their girls and pass as their mothers. Tex, to the fore again, grouped her girls and their mothers into one big photograph, with names underneath, and sent it without compliments to the committee.
The latest phase is a general order to the police to clean up the capital. Several raids took place on a score or so of night clubs, and the girls and proprietors warned of their future conduct. Now, suddenly, has come the sin-chasers' big push. Eighteen clubs suffered their unwelcome attentions, and 108 people, including Texas Guinan, were placed under arrest. So far the changes have not been gone into. -Auckland Star, 22/9/1928.
NIGHT CLUB "QUEEN"
"TEXAS" GUINAN TO STAR IN FILMS
NEW YORK, Sept. 4. "Texas" Guinan, New York's notorious "Night Club Queen," who has been much in the news recently in connection with clashes with Federal Prohibition agents, has decided to become a movie actress.
She has just signed a contract with one of the leading film companies to make an undetermined number of pictures, the first of which will be called "The Queen of the Night Clubs," an all talking film.
It is hinted that the salary, although not made public, is quite sufficient to keep New York's Night Club Queen from starvation for a couple of years, now that the Federal authorities have "padlocked" her notorious resorts.
"Texas" Guinan's first film will go behind the scenes, and will depict the night club hostess as the world does not know it. -Poverty Bay Herald, 24/10/1928.
In New York
Night Clubs Closed.
“Curfew" has rung, and now there’s only a padlock where the doorman used to stand in front of most of Broadway’s night clubs! And there’s no person more genuinely hated in the whole city of New York to-day than Mabel W. Willebrandt, the Assistant Attorney-General, who ordered the sensational raids on night clubs. What the little boys and girls in these little gin palaces are going to do now that 50 dollar tips are no more I don't know. But, of course, the clubs will open again, stronger than ever. I do hope that when they do they won't again charge me thirty dollars for a half-pint of gin at Texas Guinan's! -Waikato Times, 8/12/1928.
"I KNOW A HOT DOGGIE"
SWEDISH PRINCE'S ADVENTURE
"DOES" NEW YORK ON 35 CENTS!
SAN FRANCISCO, 4th March. Americans have been reading with great gusto a unique adventure participated in by the Prince of Sweden, His Highness Prince Gustaf, grandson of the King, who is touring America under the pseudonym of Suderborg. Only a Prince of the royal blood could "do Broadway" for 35 cents, and it was Prince Gustaf who accomplished this seemingly impossible feat.
Prince Gustaf spent all of his 35 cents in the Parody Club of New York, but made "whoopee" up and down the "mazda belt" and in several other clubs, where they never heard of small change, without once more going into his royal pants pockets. Nils T. Grandlund, formerly wellknown radio announcer, now producer of night club revues, being Swedish himself, was introduced to the Prince, by his sister-in-law, Eileen Wenzel, an entertainer.
From thereon Grandlund took charge of the situation, and the Prince could not invest a cent. It remained for Gloria Vickers, Parody Club cigarette girl, to get the first royal 25 cents. While Gloria was at the table Grandlund addressed the Prince as "Your Highness."
"What's the gag?" demanded Gloria. Grandlund informed her that His Highness meant just that. "Well," said Gloria, "If he's a Prince I'm a Princess, and how would he like to buy a sausage?"
Gloria's sausages cost ten shillings each. "Haw, haw!" laughed the Prince. "I know what a hot doggie is; it costs ten cents at Coney Island."
"Not here, dearie." was Gloria's comeback. "Stop kidding and buy some almonds," she coaxed.
The Prince produced a quarter dollar piece from his royal change pocket. His only other expenditure of the evening was ten cents for the doorman, as he left the club with his aide-de camp and an Eton classmate, Royal Naval Lieutenant Crawford Roberts, assigned to his entourage by the British Legation in Washington. With them went Grandlund, Miss Wenzel and Dottie Jackson, a show girl, bound for whoopee at the notorious Texas Guinan Club, run by Miss Guinan.
The Prince was recognised by a couple of paying guests at Guinan's. Lord Cavendish and a party of Philadelphia social registerites arose and bowed at his entrance. Prince Gustaf did not sip anything stronger than mineral water, but he gave the customers a thrill by dancing several times with La Guinan, herself; one of Tex's "little girls," Norma Taylor, gave him a surprise kiss.
The Prince has been in the United States since November, when he came here to be best man at, the wedding of his father's cousin, Count Folke Bernadotte to Miss Estelle Manville, asbestos heiress. -Nelson Evening Mail, 13/4/1929.
A WORKING GIRL.
NIGHT CLUB QUEEN ACQUITTED.
The police, who have been trying for a long time to convict Miss “Texas” Guinan, finally charged her night club, the most notorious in America, with being a nuisance. Twelve good jurymen took less than an hour to decide that she was not guilty.
When she heard the verdict, the smiling blonde night club queen leaped from her chair and started kissing everyone within reach, causing a small riot. “Heaven will protect us working girls,” she joyously shouted. -Manawatu Standard, 29/4/1929.
TWO HOSTESSES IN COURT
THEIR NIGHT CLUBS IN DANGER
DUEL WITH POLICE CHIEF.
NEW YORK. New York’s two night club hostesses, vivacious Miss Texas Guinan and demure Miss Helen Morgan, are prominent in the news just now without any effort on their part.
Miss Guinan is waging a battle royal with Police-Commissioner Whalen, and Miss Morgan on April 19th was facing Mrs Willebrandt, the ardent prohibitionist, who is seeking through the court to put dark Helen in prison as a violator of the Volstead law.
When her rival, a few days ago, slipped through the prohibition net by the aid of a smypathetic jury, New Yorkers, with the exception of Mr Whalen, were delighted.
The police commissioner told her publicly that she knew she was guilty, to which she replied that her Salon Royale was as respectable as a strawberry festival.
Would he come and see? she queried.
He proceeded to lock up her other entertainment club because Miss Guinan refused to obey the curfew orders that all night clubs must shut at 3 a.m.
INJUNCTION GRANTED.
On April 18th she won from Judge Shermas an injunction restraining Mr Whalen from closing her club until the matter had been argued in court. Miss Morgan, who was formerly a Chicago saleswoman, is facing trial on identical charges. But whereas Miss Guinan threw her smiles all round the court, Miss Morgan sits as shy and demure as a schoolgirl while her lawyer argues that she is a paid employee of her “Summer Home”.
He contends that she is therefore not responsible, if liquor sales have taken place in that club.
Having failed to convict Miss Guinan, the Government seems very keen to secure a verdict against Helen, but New Yorkers are praying that she too will soon be free again to entertain them in the small hours of the morning. -Stratford Evening Post, 12/6/1929.
NEW YORK NIGHT CLUB QUEEN.
KISSED IN COURT ON ACQUITTAL.
Texas Guinan, queen of New York's might clubs, was acquitted by a jury on a charge of maintaining a common nuisance at the Salon Royale night club in violation of the prohibition law.
Crowds in the court room cheered the verdict and gathered round Guinan, congratulating her and holding a "whoopee" celebration as Federal Judge K. S. Thomas vainly rapped for order.
Al Kerwin, Guinan's manager, kissed her, and Guinan waved her appreciation to the demonstrators and then rushed to Mr N. J. Norman, the Federal Prosecutor, and exclaimed: "Mr Norman, let me congratulate you; you are a perfect gentleman." Mr Norman responded: "Miss Guinan, you are the toughest customer I ever crossexamined."
Guinan's defence was that she had no proprietary interest in the Salon Royale, but was simply an employee. She never knew whether liquor was sold there. She testified: "I have never had a drink in my entire life." She added that she supported her father and mother. She vivaciously baffled all Mr Norman's efforts to show that she had any knowledge of the night club's anti-prohibition activities.
Guinan shook hands with the jurors and then triumphantly left the the court with her admirers. She took a new position last night as hostess at the Club Intime, where she was acclaimed by large crowds, including Mr Harry Thaw. A jazz band serenaded her, and hundreds of telegrams of congratulation arrived during the night. -Dunstan Times, 24/6/1929.
WHY HUSBANDS STAY OUT
NIGHT-CLUB QUEEN TELLS
WIVES SHOULD NOT NAG
CHICAGO, November 7. "Why, do husbands stay out at night?" The wealthy and notorious "Texas" Guinan, keeper of night clubs and "speakeasies" blames nagging and worrying wives, who, she declares, force their men to seek meals and amusement elsewhere.
Addressing several hundred members of the Illinois Athletic Club, "Tex" asked; "Do you want to know what's made me a rich woman? I'll tell you. It's the wives who bother their husbands with bills and servant problems. If you women would amuse your husbands when they come home, they wouldn't slip away and pay a five dollar cover charge to get amusement."
"I don't sell liquor, and I'm not guilty," challenged the blonde, perfumed "Tex," who was dressed in black velvet and ermine, her skirt being the longest in the room. She opened her lecture on the subject of "Why husbands stay out at nights," with the admission that she had had three husbands, and had run a New York night club for eight years, occasionally moving on, "by request,"
"Do you know what breaks up homes? It's jealousy," she continued. "All jealousy is the product of an imaginative mind, one that hasn't anything to do. Most of you women don't have to get up in the morning and go to work, so you sit round and imagine.
"Men don't drink and carry on because they just want to go out and get drunk. Quit nagging, and remember that without men you couldn't have any love and affection worth while. What if he doesn't tell you everything? Don't ask him! He's just going to tell you what he wants to, anyway." -Poverty Bay Herald, 21/11/1929.
KEEPING HUSBANDS HOME,
WIVES OF CHICAGO LEARN A LITTLE WISDOM.
CHICAGO, Nov. 16. Texas Guinan, night club queen turned moralist, took several hundred Chicago wives to task recently for their omissions, chief among which Texas ranked the sin of taking husbands seriously. A crowd of women which filled the ballroom of the Illinois Women’s Athletic Club expectantly waited an hour before the blonde and perfumed Tex, dressed in black velvet and ermine, her skirt the longest in the room, burst in with the remark that she felt as if she faced a jury.
“I don’t sell liquor and I’m not guilty,” she said, surveying her audience of wives. “Now I don’t know what you all came for. Curiosity, maybe. Maybe you really want to know why husbands stay out nights.” That was the subject of her lecture — “Why Husbands Stay Out Nights.” She said she was qualified to speak. She, had had three husbands, and she had been running night clubs in New York for eight years, moving occasionally by request, she said.
Then she stopped wisecracking. Any wives who came expecting to be shocked by Tex’s revelations of night life were disappointed. Some of them appeared a little uncomfortable for a time, as if they had been tricked into going to church.
“What do men want when they go home?” she asked. “Do they want to hear about the servant question? Do they want to hear about bills? They have to pay them — that’s enough. I tell you, that’s what made me a rich woman — wives who talk about the gas bill and the curtains. If you women would amuse your husbands when they came home, they wouldn’t slip away and pay a five-dollar cover charge to get a little amusement.
Texas, the hard-boiled, then delivered a bit of gentle wisdom. “Men are like children,” she said. “Yes, and they must be treated like children. If they want to play boss, let ’em play boss. Because what do you care? You know you have the edge on ’em.”
But she wasn’t through with the wives. “Do you know what breaks up homes more than anything else? Jealousy. And this is what jealousy is — it’s the product of an imaginative mind. A mind that hasn’t anything to do. Your husbands are pretty good to you. Most of you women don’t have to get up in the morning and go to work. You haven’t enough to do. So you sit around and imagine things. And I want to tell you something. Just because a man is married doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have other friendships and interests in life.” -Poverty Bay Herald, 4/1/1930.
CHICAGO'S LATEST “ATTACK” ON VISITORS
BLACKMAIL OF ENGLISH ACTRESS
LONDON, March 5. One of Chicago’s latest crime developments is an efficient system of blackmailing visiting English actors and actresses, according to Miss Jill Esmond Moore, daughter of Miss Eva Moore, who landed at Liverpool yesterday after working for nine months in New York and Chicago as leading lady in Mr. John Drink-water's play, “Bird in Hand.”
“We had hardly arrived in Chicago,” said Miss Moore to a press representative, “when a man rang me up and said that unless I donated about £15 to his charity my life would he misery. I found all the principal members of the company had received similar demands.
“We were wise, and paid. Other English actors, less wise, have defied the charities, and have been hounded out of Chicago for it. Charity! You cannot talk about English hypocrisy after that.
“The rest of Chicago has a wonderfully kind heart, however, it exceeds the rest of America in hospitality just as much as it does in crime.”
Miss Moore, herself a typical English girl, does not think that the American gunman has as much real courage as the average English Rugby forward.
“Texas Guinan the night club queen, who wears America’s most wonderful clothes and is one of the wittiest women we met, entertained us in her club one night, where society dowagers come in, preceded by a page carrying a brownpaper parcel containing their gin.
UNROMANTIC GIRLS “Texas introduced us to two notorious gunmen. They were not he-men, but merely sloppy, under-sized youths, who seemed to extract most of their ‘toughness’ from a dope syringe. Their girls were most unromantic — diamonds on their arms, and frocks tight round the waist, then swish! right down to the ankle.
“They were all proud of Chicago's civic development, and greatly curious about English girls.
“The most awkward moment came when I was leaving Chicago. One of the theatre’s minor officials, who was also a State Senator, gave, me a wonderful bouquet of carnations. When I thanked him, he replied: ‘That’s all right, miss. I got them at the funeral of a pal of mine, who was a great bootlegger. There was 20,000 dollars worth of flowers. These were once a cross, with a card saying: ‘From Ed.'" -Poverty Bay Herald, 29/4/1930.
QUICK WAY TO RUIN.
BROKER'S WASTED MILLION.
"THE PRINCE OF SPENDERS."
New York was recently being regaled with amazing stories of profligacy told of Harold Russell Ryder, known as "the Prince of Broadway Spenders." He is a member of a brokers' house, whose affairs are under investigation by a grand jury. When the firm failed its bank balance was little more than £100, but the assets were given as up to £140,000, including a Stock Exchange seat valued at £90,000.
Ryder is reported to have spent on Broadway in his short career nearly a million sterling and Texas Guinan, the night club queen, describes him tersely as "the biggest sucker of them all." Night club habitues assert that he used to give £20 apiece to the members of any orchestra that played "How do you do, Mr. Ryder? How do you do?" Cloak room girls would receive £2 tips, £200 disappearing in such largesse during a single night.
Ryder owned a Rolls-Royce car and Minerva, "the finest saddle horse in the world," valued at £2000. He also had a string of polo ponies worth £4000. Among his many gifts was £20,000 to his college for the erection of a hall named after him. His wife is reported to have lost £200,000 in the crash. -NZ Herald, 9/8/1930.
“SPEAKEASY” FOR LONDON
NIGHT CLUB QUEEN TOURS WITH HER OWN BODYGUARD
NEW YORK, April 14. Texas Guinan, the night club queen of New York, is going to take a “Wild West Night-Club,” including 55 girls, 10 men, and a complete orchestra, with her when she visits London in June.
The announcement was made to-day by Texas’ manager, who states that the blonde hostess will leave on May 22 on a world tour.
Her first halls will be Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, and Copenhagen, after which she will take her troupe to other world cities.
Texas aims to put on a show combining the atmosphere of the Wild West days of the American frontier and a modern speakeasy. So, according to her manager, she will travel dressed as a cowgirl, complete with chapperajos and wide sombrero and carrying two pistols.
She will wear this outfit in the street. For night club wear she will be arrayed in the “full dress” uniform of a cowgirl, consisting of a velvet shirt, and skirt, gaily decorated sombrero, and ornamental guns.
Her manager also states that “Texas will impersonate a female William S. Hart,” the old time film actor and one of the original “two-gun” heroes of the screen.
Texas, again according to the managerial announcement, will disdain motor cars during her trip abroad. She will always ride a white horse, and plans to transport her troupe throughout Europe in an old-fashioned covered wagon, with herself riding at the head of the procession.
The show to be put on by the troupe will include raids by “Federal" agents on “the speakeasy where a whisper is a mouthful,” the agents letting off their guns and searching the guests in approved American fashion. Texas will take her famous jewels, said to be worth a fortune — and a personal bodyguard.
According to her manager, she will appear in a cabaret and in vaudeville turns during her London visit. -Poverty Bay Herald, 26/5/1931.
NIGHT QUEENS.
YANKEE TO BE BANNED.
LONDON, May 28. London is no place for night club queens. Mrs. Meyrick, the best known of them all, who was released from prison at the beginning of the year, has been resentenced to seven months' imprisonment for selling unlicensed liquor at the notorious "43 Club."
Evidence given by the police was that pools of champagne on the floor had been poured by guests fearing a raid.
The Home Office has issued a ban on "Texas" Guinan, New York's "Whoopee Queen," who is reported to have sailed for Europe by the liner Paris. She will not be allowed to land in England, upsetting her plans to ride a white horse down the Strand as a Lady Godiva act to show Mayfair real "Whoopee." -Auckland Star, 4/6/1931.
“QUEEN OF WHOOPEE.”
TEXAS GUINAN BARRED FROM FRANCE.
(Sun Special). HAVRE, Friday. After shouting from the top deck of the steamer, ‘‘I have been thrown out of better places than this,” Texas Guinan, the notorious American night club “Queen of Whoopee" has gatecrashed into France. This was the characteristic defiance of “Tex,” who had been refused permission to land in France after being barred from England. Guinan, plastered with diamonds and wearing white riding breeches, is accompanied by 20 “whoopee” girls, some of whom have motor cars and maids.
The party were accommodated at a hotel, where Guinan went to sleep. One of the girls explained that it was a “swell voyage," and that they had lots of fun.
Harry Pilcer, Guinan’s manager, said the trip had cost £3400, and it would be terrible if the prohibition against entering France were enforced. Guinan hoped to ride into Paris as a cowgirl, wearing a huge Stetson hat, and astride a white horse, and after that to open the Club Florida.
Her entry into London, she said, would have been as Lady Godiva, riding down the Strand.
(Published in the Times.) LONDON, Friday. The reason for forbidding “Texas” Guinan to tour France with her company, says the Paris correspondent of “The Times,” is that she does not possess authority to work there. -Horowhenua Chronicle, 9/6/1931.
NIGHT CLUB "QUEEN"
BANNED FROM FRANCE ACCOMPANIED BY “BEAUTY CIRCUS.”
PARIS, May 30. “Texas” Guinan, the New York night club “queen,” who, with twenty girls, was recently refused permission to land in Great Britain, will not be allowed to stay in France. An order to this effect was issued by the Ministry for the Interior. Members of the party are at Havre. They will be sent back to the United States on Monday.
Guinan says that she wants to go to Russia, but she will have to start afresh from the United States. She was furious at being refused permission to land. She tried to brush past the migration officers, and then she made a short speech in which she shouted: “Say, is this the country where Pershing and 2,000,000 American soldiers landed? There is no more liberty here than in Russia. I understand now why the French shipped the Statue of Liberty to New York. Someone once said that 50,000,000 men can’t be wrong. But they can be. They don’t know what they’re missing by banning the beauty circus.”
When the detectives were leaving the steamer Guinan sent them a parting shot from the top deck. “Say,” she shouted, “I’ve been thrown out or better places than this.”
Guinan was wearing a large number of diamonds, and was dressed in white riding breeches. She was accompanied by twenty “whoopee” girls, some of whom have motor cars and maids. One of the girls explained that it had been a “swell” voyage, and they had had lots of fun.
Harry Pilcer, Guinan’s manager, said that the trip had cost £3,400. It would be terrible if the prohibition against entering France were enforced. Guinan had hoped to ride into Paris dressed as a cowgirl, wearing a huge Stetson hat, astride a white horse. Afterwards she intended to open at the Club Florida.
[Officers from Scotland Yard prevented the party from landing at Plymouth on May 21, Guinan said that she intended to show London “real whoopee.” She wanted to "shake up old London" by riding along the Strand on a white horse in cowboy costume.] -Evening Star, 12/6/1931.
“TEXAS” GUINAN GOES HOME HEART-WHOLE
HAVRE, June 4. “So long, sucker!’’ was “Texas" Guinan's farewell to an Englishman, as she kissed him good-bye on the pier. He had come, so she alleges, all the way from Plymouth to propose marriage to her, so that he could take her into England as an Englishwoman and surmount the Home Office ban. She had let him be photographed with her on the pier.
Then "Texas" and her "Whoopee" troupe were escorted aboard the liner Paris and sailed back to America. Their only diversions in the four dreary days of detention in the migration hostel were making whoopee with a mechanical piano and the swift dash of three of the girls in a car to Paris by night with two Frenchmen. The police brought them back. -Poverty Bay Herald, 13/6/1931.
VAUDEVILLE NOW!
"MA" KENNEDY'S LATEST.
BOSTON, October 22,
"Ma" Kennedy, the mother of Aimee Sempill McPherson, and her new husband have opened in vaudeville under a contract, for £300 a week, under the team name of Kennedy and Hudson.
Meanwhile, Aimee and her latest husband are conducting an evangelistic mission here.
The Mayor of the city has induced her to give half of her collection to the city's unemployed. Aimee had demurred until the Mayor told her that Texas Guinan, the New York night club queen, recently gave half her takings to the jobless. -Auckland Star, 28/10/1931.
TEXAS GUINAN
Texas Guinan, the American cabaret queen, held something like a regal reception of people connected with the entertainment world when she arrived in Paris from New York recently. Dressed in a light beige frock and a coat trimmed with mink fur, with a profusion of silver curls spread beneath a small, closely fitting fabric hat of a similar shade, she gripped a goldmounted malacca cane firmly in her right hand.
"Let me tell you," she said to me, "I have not come to Paris to make whoopee. But I am just delighted to be here. I have come to buy dresses for my girls for my next show, in New York, and I shall not stay in Paris more than four days,"' says a writer in the "Daily Mail."
"When I asked if she had come to Europe to get married also," she answered:
"No. I have been married twice and have come to the conclusion that marriage is carrying love too far.
"How are all my friends in England?" she asked me with a broad smile. "Although the French held me prisoner at Le Havre last year they treated me fine. I do not know yet whether I shall go to London on this trip, but I may"
Texas and her troupe of sixteen "beautiful kids" arrived at Le Havre on 29th May, 1931, to visit Paris; but they were interned by the immigration authorities and sent back to New York five days later. -Evening Post, 2/9/1932.
"GOT RELIGION."
"TEXAS" GUINAN CONVERTED.
LOS ANGELES, September 14. "Texas" Guinan, most famous of American night club queens, has "found religion." When Rheba Splivalo, former "Angel of Broadway," called for converts at the Angelus Temple "Texas" thrust her hand into the air; on a finger was a huge square diamond.
She and 25 other converts filed to the platform and surrendered themselves. She added her husky contralto to the thundering chorus of "Looking Over Jordan."
Now "Texas," the girl who made the expression "Hello, sucker," famous, says that in future she will give night-club "suckers" something besides a headache.
"Texas" Guinan had the title of the "Night Club Queen of New York." A few years ago she arrived at Cherbourg, with a troupe of "Whoopee" girls, but was not allowed to enter France. Splivalo, formerly a Salvation Army girl, was appointed State Director of Social Welfare in California by the Governor, Mr. James Rolph. -Auckland Star, 19/9/1933.
"Too Hot for Paris" was the name of the revue that Guinan and her "beautiful kids" toured in the US and Canada in 1933. While staying in the Congress Hotel, Chicago, she contracted amoebic dysentery during an epidemic of the disease and fell ill on the other side of the continent, in Vancouver. She died on November 5, 1933, aged 49, exactly one month before the end of Prohibition.
"NIGHT CLUB QUEEN"
DEATH OF TEXAS GUINAN
NEW YORK ENTERTAINER
VANCOUVER, Nov. 5 The death is announced of Miss Texas Guinan, noted cabaret owner and entertainer of New York during the so-called prohibition decade. She was also a variety and motion picture actress.
Born on a ranch in Texas and brought up among cowboys, Miss Texas Guinan, "cowgirl," circus rider, actress and New York "night club queen," was accustomed to riding horses from childhood, and at 16 she became a bareback rider in a circus. Then she was an actress and later ran a night club in New York. She had just the qualifications needed — unbounded self-confidence and courage, an air of breezy geniality, an unlimited capacity for talking and a gift for organisation. Soon there were two or three clubs under her control and she had her own troupe of girl dancers and singers. With a highly developed sense of advertisement, she would ride through the city in state on her favourite horse, dressed in a brilliant costume, which included a sombrero, an open-necked shirt and white cowboy trousers. On such occasions she acted as mounted escort to a motor-coach load of her cabaret girls —her "kids," as she called them. She never tasted alcoholic liquor herself, but she provided it for her "guests" and this led to trouble with the authorities. On one occasion when prohibition agents paid a surprise visit to one of her clubs after she had gone to bed, she got through a trap-door in her pyjamas and led them a long chase over the roofs before she was captured. In 1931 she resolved that her fame should extend to Europe and, shipping l6 of her "beautiful kids" (a phrase rendered literally in the French papers as "beautiful young goats") with a band, two comedians, a maitre d'hotel and her white horse, she left for London and Paris. She was, however, prohibited from landing in England. At Havre she found a similar bar regarding France. She and her company were detained for some time in the hostel for migrants until they could be shipped back home. The failure of her plans was a great disappointment to her. -NZ Herald, 7/11/1933.
Stage and Screen
Texas Guinan's Career. - The recent death of Texas Guinan, the noted cabaret owner and entertainer of America, removed a picturesque figure who attained notoriety some years ago by her open defiance of the prohibition laws, not to mention the censorship restrictions of the States. A dynamo of energy, a ceaseless worker, and a woman of ideas, Texas was no longer in her youth, but her "gang" was composed of girls who sang or danced and whom she mothered. Gifted with an independent mind, and utterly unafraid of criticism of her actions or sayings, she spent years of battling as a night club hostess, fought reformers and police, and as a result achieved a poise capable of coping with any situation. The glare of publicity had left little mark on her disposition or her attitude towards life. Nor was her domesticity dulled by her notorious public life. One of her triumphs in her career was her conquest of Casey, "the terrible censor of Boston," who completed his capitulation to Texas by offering her the bouquet of his admiration — "anyone who can make a crowd laugh as did Miss Guinan and her gang cannot be all wrong or bad," he said. Another high light was her battle with the Paris officials who denied her and her girls full freedom of the city, and kept them under partial restraint till they could conveniently leave the French capital. -Evening Post, 9/11/1933.
Her funeral was attended by 7500 mourners and she was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. The sale of her sumptuous estate, at the height of the Great Depression, was disappointing in term of cash but the description of what was on offer is tantalising.
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| Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 13 October 2019), memorial page for Mary Louise “Texas” Guinan (12 Jan 1884–5 Nov 1933), Find A Grave Memorial no. 8338, citing Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave . |
"NIGHT CLUB QUEEN'S" SALE
The three days' sale, of the personal property of "Texas Guinan," "night club queen," which was expected to realise £50,000 at least, brought just more than £3000. Of this £1500 was derived from her diamonds and other jewellery. The proceeds will go to the Actors' Relief Fund. Guinan's £6000 armoured limousine, listed as having been "made for the King of the Belgians," in which for several years she defied gangsters, brought £l6. Her Rolls-Royce went for £80. The armour-plated car came to Guinan as a gift from the late Larry Fay, a "racketeer" who was murdered recently. He claimed to have bought it from the estate of Alfred Lowenstein, the financier, who met his death by falling from an aeroplane into the English Channel. It bore the crest of the King of the Belgians.
Guinan's gold dinner set, valued at £200, went for £25. Ivory swords, said to have been presented to Blanche Sweet, the film actress, by the Emperor of Japan, were sold for £1 each. An exquisite clock from the Palace of Fontainbleu went for £4 10s, and a gold and coral telephone, which cost £40, for £8. Chinese draperies, etchings and books were almost given away. Some etchings, described as being valuable, fetched only 6d. -NZ Herald, 24/2/1934.
The legend of "Texas" Guinan continued after her death.
CARL LAEMMLE, Jun., absent from picture making for three years, plans a comeback with "The Life of Texas Guinan." -Auckland Star, 21/10/1939.
Hollywood Says. . .
"JONNY GUINAN, brother of the late "Texas," has been paid £5000 by Paramount for the right to film his sister's life story. The price also includes the use of 10 bulky scrap books belonging to the "Hello sucker" lady of the glittering twenties. The picture, titled "Tex Guinan," will feature several songs and a musical background. Producer Robert Sisk would like to get Carole Lombard for the leading role. -Auckland Star, 4/10/1941.
NEXT FRIDAY!
Paramount's Glittering Technicolour Cavalcade of America's Reckless Age!
THE FASCINATING STORY OF THE DAREDEVIL QUEEN OF THE RODEOS, WHO BECAME THE TOAST OF BROADWAY
THE FIERY LIFE OF TEXAS GUINAN, WHO MADE THE GREETING "HELLO, SUCKER," FAMOUS!
'INCENDIARY BLONDE' 'INCENDIARY BLONDE'
'INCENDIARY BLONDE' 'INCENDIARY BLONDE'
— Starring —
BETTY HUTTON BETTY HUTTON
(As Texas Guinan), The Incendiary Blonde, is the Live-wire Counterpart of the Woman Whose Personality Wowed the Show World.
ARTURO de CORDOVA ARTURO de CORDOVA
Dashing Latin Lover of 'Frenchmen's Creek,' Whose Name Stands for the Kind of Romance Women Dream About.
BARRY FITZGERALD BARRY FITZGERALD
In a Role as Lovable as Academy-winning One in 'GOING MY WAY.'
— Plus — CHARLES RUGGLES, ALBERT DEKKER And Many Others.
(Approved for Universal Exhibition.)
BOX PLANS NOW OPEN D.I.C. ... or EMPIRE ... 12-433. -Evening Star, 29/5/1946.
CURRENT FILMS
ST. JAMES THEATRE The suspenseful and intriguing mystery drama “The Mysterious Doctor,” with John Loder, Eleanor Parker and Bruce Lester in the featured parts and the zestful musical, “Carolina Blues,” will be shown finally to-night, at the St. James Theatre. These two features, plus the serial, make an excellent programme of entertainment.
Saturday’s Attraction
Versatile, volatile Betty Hutton was a perfect choice for the role of the fabulous Texan. Guinan, in Paramount’s latest Technicolour spectacle, “Incendiary Blonde,” which will be the attraction at the St. James Theatre on Saturday and Monday at matinee and night sessions. Co-starring with Betty in this true-to-life and very entertaining production is Arturo de Cordova, with Barry Fitzgerald, the lovable old priest of “Going My Way,” Charles Ruggles, Albert Dekker, the Maxellos, a clever specialty troupe, and Maurice Rocco, the demon pianist, in the supporting roles. Texas Guinan was the girl who won fame as a rodeo queen and went on to stardom on the Broadway show stage. It is Betty Hutton’s biggest role to date and one which she fits to perfection. Eighteen favourite songs are presented in spectacular settings. The whole production is filmed in beautiful technicolour, making it one of the year’s brightest entertainments. -Ashburton Guardian, 18/10/1946.
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