Biography

Texas Guinan

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Born
January 12, 1884 · Waco, Texas, USA
Died
November 5, 1933 · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (amoebic dysentery)
Birth name
Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan
Nicknames
- The Queen of the Night Clubs
- Queen of the West
- The Female Two-Gun Bill Hart

It's hard to be very specific about any dates or events early in the life of Texas Guinan. She loved publicity and frequently improvised facts about herself when she felt they made better stories than the truth. She was born in Waco, Texas, but likely not on a ranch as she often claimed. She was active in vaudeville and theater, and was in many movies (often as the gun-toting hero in silent westerns, more than a match for any man). In the prohibition era, Tex's talents for entertainment and self-promotion came together for a successful career as the owner and hostess in night clubs and speakeasies, where she made certain everyone had a good time.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ken Yousten <kyousten@bev.net>

The character Guinan, bartender hostess of the Ten Forward lounge on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) played by Whoopi Goldberg, was named after Texas Guinan.
Was future journalist/producer Lowell Thomas's Sunday school teacher when Thomas was a boy in Victor, Colorado. They remained lifelong friends even after her latter-day notoriety.
Met her first husband, John J. Moynahan, newspaper cartoonist for Rocky Mountain News, at the home of her cousin, Katie Hoban, in Idaho Springs, Colorado.
Had three brothers (William Guinan, Walter Harry Guinan (died in infancy), and Thomas Guinan) and one sister (Pearl Guinan).
In 2004, Madonna was set to play her in a biographical movie of her life, "Hello Suckers". However, the project was indefinitely shelved.

[her famous catchphrase] Hello, Suckers! Come on in and leave your wallet on the bar.
[on her frequent arrests for speakeasy activities] I'm nature's gift to the padlock makers.
I like noise, rhinestone heels, customers, plenty of attention and red velvet bathing suits. I smoke like a five-alarm fire and I call every man I don't know Fred, and they love it.
A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.
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.

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