Texas Guinan
| Texas Guinan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan January 12, 1884 Waco, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | November 5, 1933 (aged 49) Vancouver, Canada |
| Occupation | Actress, producer, entrepreneur |
| Years active | 1906–1933 |
| Spouse(s) | John J. Moynahan (1904–1906; divorced) Julian Johnson (1910–1920; divorced) David Townsend (19??-19??) |
Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan (January 12, 1884 – November 5, 1933) was an American actress, producer, and entrepreneur.
Guinan was one of seven siblings born in Waco, Texas, to Irish-Canadian immigrants Michael and Bessie (née Duffy) Guinan. She attended parochial school at the Loretta Convent in Waco. When she was 16 years old, her family moved to Denver, Colorado, where she was in amateur stage productions and played the organ in church. Guinan married John Moynahan, a cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News, on December 2, 1904. The union was childless. Moynahan's career took them to Chicago, where Guinan studied music before divorcing him and starting her career as a professional singer. She toured regional vaudeville with some success, but became known less for her singing than for her entertaining "Wild West"-related patter.
In 1906, she moved to New York City, where she found work as a chorus girl before making a career for herself in national vaudeville and in New York theater productions. In 1917, "Texas" Guinan made her film debut in a silent film called The Wildcat. She became the United States's first movie cowgirl, nicknamed "The Queen of the West". She claimed she had a sojourn in France, entertaining the troops during World War I.
She was one of the first female emcees. Upon the introduction of Prohibition, she opened a speakeasy called the 300 Club at 151 W. 54th Street in New York City (1920). The club became famous for its troupe of 40 scantily clad fan dancers and for Guinan's distinctive aplomb, which made her a celebrity. Arrested several times for serving alcohol and providing entertainment, she always claimed that the patrons had brought the liquor in with them, and the club was so small that the girls had to dance close to the customers. Guinan maintained that she had never sold an alcoholic drink in her life.
At this hangout of the wealthy, George Gershwin often played impromptu piano for wealthy guests such as Reggie Vanderbilt, Harry Payne Whitney, and Walter Chrysler, and celebrities such as Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Pola Negri, Mae West, Al Jolson, Jeanne Eagels, Gloria Swanson, John Gilbert, Beatriz Michelena, Clara Bow, Hope Hampton, Irving Berlin, John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, Leatrice Joy, and Rudolph Valentino, as well as socialites such as Gloria Morgan (mother of Gloria Vanderbilt) and her sister Thelma, Viscountess Furness.
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