During the ’20s, club manager Mary Louise Cecilia “Texas” Guinan was the star of Gotham’s speak-easy scene, supplying humor and booze to New York’s most prominent juicers.
Called “The Queen of the Nightclubs,” this beautiful blond hostess managed some of Manhattan’s exclusive yet illegal Midtown hot spots, including the El Fay Club on West 45th Street and the 300 Club on West 54th Street.
With a sexy sass and tart tongue, Guinan raked in hundreds of thousands in Prohibition-era dollars for herself and her gangster associates.
She greeted her patrons with a cry of “Hello, suckers!” cozied up to the affluent “butter-and-egg” men and urged her clients to “leave their wallets on the bar.”
The dazzling divorcee was so popular, charmed judges and juries set her free dozens of times.
Her lucrative career ended when the Depression hit.