Texas Guinan, Queen of the Night Clubs"Hello, Suckers!" Every night she flung that greeting at the Jazz Age flappers and gents who crowded in to see the "Queen of the Nightclubs" work her magic. They came to laugh and drink and forget the world outside - and Texas Guinan kept the party going. She was the wittiest nightclub hostess in New York, and her clubs had the best floor shows, the most elegant decor, and all the bootleg liquor that furtively exchanged dollars could buy. Here is the story of Texas Guinan - nightclub hostess, theater and vaudeville actress, and star of silent westerns. Louise Berliner, a granddaughter of the lawyer who defended Guinan at her notorious "public nuisance" trial in 1929, follows the whole course of Guinan's life (1884-1933), from her childhood in a devout Catholic home in Waco, Texas, to her celebrity funeral and burial with diamonds in one hand and a rosary in the other. Like a female Gatsby, Texas Guinan invented a past appropriate for the character she became. Berliner explores this fascinating process of self-creation, separating fact from the fictions that Guinan wove about her life. In so doing, she illuminates the era of early musical comedies in New York and on the vaudeville circuit, the two-reeler silent westerns in which Guinan starred as a lady gunslinger, and the New York club life that Guinan promoted as "an essential and basic industry". Texas Guinan seemed to know everyone in the Roaring Twenties - the Prince of Wales, Ruby Keeler, George Raft, Rudolph Valentino, Walter Winchell, Mae West, Aimee Semple MacPherson, and even President Harding - and Berliner offers intriguing views of Guinan's relationship with many of these varied personalities. This timely book, the firstfully documented study of Guinan's life, will be important for everyone interested in popular culture, the Jazz Age, and women's studies. It brings to life a woman of amazing vitality and surprising contradictions, as captivating as any character imagined by F. Scott Fitzgerald. |
Contents
Hello SuckersA Glimpse | 1 |
She or Didnt She? An Authors Aside | 19 |
Theres a Sucker Born Every Minute | 26 |
Copyright | |
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actress adult Tex agents Aimee April Ashton Stevens asked audience Bessie Broadway Chicago circus cover charge crowd customers Denver dressed drink entertainment famous film friends guests Helen Morgan Hello Sucker Heywood Broun Hollins hostess Ibid Interview Julian Johnson jury Koven Larry Fay later Lee Shubert liquor Little Tex lived looked Lopin loved Marie Mayme memoirs Mike Miss Guinan MLAH Morrison mother Moynahan never night club Nora Bayes padlock Pearl picture played Prohibition Queen raid ranch Reginald De Koven role Ruby Keeler Salon Royale seemed Shubert Slocum stage star Stein and Grace story Street telegram tell Tex began Tex knew Tex took Tex's Texas Guinan Texas Guinan Says theater thought Tommy tour town trial turned vaudeville Voiler Waco Walter Walter Winchell wanted week West White Winchell York Evening Journal young
References to this book
Gangsters and Gold Diggers: Old New York, the Jazz Age, and the Birth of ... Jerome Charyn No preview available - 2004 |
Gangsters and Gold Diggers: Old New York, the Jazz Age, and the Birth of ... Jerome Charyn No preview available - 2003 |