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Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan

1930_trial_Mae_Texas(1)Commemorate Brooklyn bombshell Mae West’s August 17th birthday in the room where she faced a judge who sent her to jail.

During the 1920s, when Mae West was trying to build her career, the building all dramatists and actresses tried to avoid—Jefferson Market Court at 425 Sixth Ave.—was the very site that made a little-known performer world famous. When New York District Attorney Joab Banton had Mae West arrested and hauled in to Jefferson Market Police Court in a paddy wagon on February 9, 1927, the controversial Brooklyn entertainer made global headlines for the first time. The actress-writer also served time in Jefferson Market Jail. At her side, covering the trial for the New York Journal American, was Texas Guinan, Mae’s friend and a frequent passenger in the paddy wagon herself.

Though most Broadway headliners avoided negative publicity in the 1920s, these two diamond-draped divas flouted convention, defied the police and became as well known for being handcuffed as for blazing their way onto marquees of the best theatres. They were “onstage outlaws” during the Prohibition Era.

This presentation will include rare vintage images showing the buildings and blocks around Washington Square as these two headline-makers saw them. Sites will include the Village speakeasies where Mae socialized and bent elbows with Texas Guinan, Walter Winchell, Jack Dempsey, George Raft and Barney Gallant; significant theatres; the courtrooms where Mae and Texas fought City Hall; and off-beat addresses that made an impact. Mae West’s Jefferson Market Jail poetry will also be read.

Speaker LindaAnn Loschiavo is a Greenwich Village historian and dramatist; her plays include “Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets” and “Diamond Lil, Queen of the Bowery.”

There will be raffle prizes and also FREE REFRESHMENTS donated by East Village Cheese.

All programs are free and open to the public. Presented in the first-floor Willa Cather Community Room.

Jefferson Market Library
425 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011
212-243-4334











When: Mon., Aug. 17, 2015 at 6:30 pm

1930_trial_Mae_Texas(1)Commemorate Brooklyn bombshell Mae West’s August 17th birthday in the room where she faced a judge who sent her to jail.

During the 1920s, when Mae West was trying to build her career, the building all dramatists and actresses tried to avoid—Jefferson Market Court at 425 Sixth Ave.—was the very site that made a little-known performer world famous. When New York District Attorney Joab Banton had Mae West arrested and hauled in to Jefferson Market Police Court in a paddy wagon on February 9, 1927, the controversial Brooklyn entertainer made global headlines for the first time. The actress-writer also served time in Jefferson Market Jail. At her side, covering the trial for the New York Journal American, was Texas Guinan, Mae’s friend and a frequent passenger in the paddy wagon herself.

Though most Broadway headliners avoided negative publicity in the 1920s, these two diamond-draped divas flouted convention, defied the police and became as well known for being handcuffed as for blazing their way onto marquees of the best theatres. They were “onstage outlaws” during the Prohibition Era.

This presentation will include rare vintage images showing the buildings and blocks around Washington Square as these two headline-makers saw them. Sites will include the Village speakeasies where Mae socialized and bent elbows with Texas Guinan, Walter Winchell, Jack Dempsey, George Raft and Barney Gallant; significant theatres; the courtrooms where Mae and Texas fought City Hall; and off-beat addresses that made an impact. Mae West’s Jefferson Market Jail poetry will also be read.

Speaker LindaAnn Loschiavo is a Greenwich Village historian and dramatist; her plays include “Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets” and “Diamond Lil, Queen of the Bowery.”

There will be raffle prizes and also FREE REFRESHMENTS donated by East Village Cheese.

All programs are free and open to the public. Presented in the first-floor Willa Cather Community Room.

Jefferson Market Library
425 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011
212-243-4334

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