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Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan (January 12,
1884 – November 5, 1933) was a saloon
keeper, actress, and entrepreneur. 

Guinan was born in Waco, Texas to Irish-Canadian
Catholic immigrants Michael & Bessie Duffy Guinan.
At 16, her family moved to Denver, where she was
active in amateur stage productions, played the
organ in church and married John Moynahan, a
cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News on December
2, 1904.  According to her obituary in the RMN
(11-5-1933), his career took them to Chicago,
Illinois, where she 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 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 début
in the silent movie The Wildcat. She became the
United States' first film|movie cowgirl, nicknamed
"The Queen of the West." In addition to her film
career, she also had a sojourn in France,
entertaining the troops during World War I.

Upon the introduction of Prohibition, she opened a
speakeasy in New York City called the "300 Club",
at 151 W. 54th Street. The club became famous for
its troupe of 40 scantily clad fan dancers, and
also for Ms. Guinan's own personality. Her aplomb
made her a celebrity; arrested several times for
serving alcohol and providing entertainment, she
would always claim that the patrons had brought
the liquor in with them, and that the club was so
small that the girls had to dance so close to the
customers. She steadfastly claimed that she had
never sold an alcoholic drink in her life. At this
favorite hangout of the city’s wealthy elite,
George Gershwin often played impromptu piano for
wealthy guests such as Reginald Claypoole
Vanderbilt|Reggie Vanderbilt, Harry Payne Whitney,
or Walter Chrysler, and celebrities Peggy Hopkins
Joyce, Pola Negri, Jeanne Eagels, John Gilbert,
and Rudolph Valentino, as well as socialites like
Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt|Gloria Morgan and her
sister Thelma Morgan|Thelma, Vicountess Furness.
Texas Guinan capitalized on her notoriety, earning
$700,000 in ten months in 1926 while her clubs
were routinely being raided.

Ms. Guinan is credited with coining a number of
phrases. "Butter and egg men" referred to her
well-off patrons, and she often demanded that the
audience "give the little ladies a great big
hand". She traditionally greeted her patrons with
"Hello, suckers!".

Guinan returned to the screen with two sound
pictures, playing slightly fictionalized versions
of herself as a speakeasy proprietress in  "Queen
of the Night Clubs" in 1929 and "Broadway Through
a Keyhole" in 1933, shortly before her death.

During the Great Depression which cost her a lot
of her fortune, Ms. Guinan took her show on the
road. She made a sally towards Europe, but her
reputation preceded her, and she was denied entry
at every European sea port at which she tried to
disembark. She turned this to her advantage by
launching a satirical revue entitled Too Hot For
Paris. 

While on the road, she contracted amoebic
dysentery in Vancouver, British Columbia and died
there on November 5, 1933 apparently at age 49,
exactly one month before Prohibition was repealed.
She is interred in the Calvary Cemetery, Queens,
New York.

She was portrayed in a number of movies, including
Splendor in the Grass (1961).  The number "All
That Jazz" in the musical
Chicago_(musical)|Chicago is thought to pay homage
to her.

The bartender Guinan on Star Trek: The Next
Generation was named for Texas Guinan.

Also, in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties
directed by Raoul Walsh and Anatole Litvak, the
character played by Gladys George is clearly based
on Texas Guinan.  In the film, she goes by the
name of 'Panama Smith.' The James Cagney character
is rather loosely based on Texas Guinan's partner,
Larry Fay.

== Reference ==
* Louise Berliner, Texas Guinan: Queen of the
Nightclubs.

== External link ==
*http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articl
es/view/GG/fgu21.htm,l Texas Guinan (Handbook of
Texas Online)