"BROADWAY THROUGH A KEYHOLE"--A TEXAS GUINAN JOINT
On the night of July 21, 1933, gossip columnist, man about Broadway and true, stone-hearted son-of-a-bitch Walter Winchell was knocked on his ass by singer, entertainer, blackface performer and exhaustingly self-consumed star of stage, screen and radio Al Jolson at the Hollywood American Legion stadium, where the fight matches were then held (boxing at that time occupying roughly the same place in Hollywood entertainment society that Lakers games do now). The reason? A film that had just been released which Winchell had provided the story line for called "Broadway Through A Keyhole" and which Jolson considered--not without valid reason--to be an invasion of privacy (and thus an attack) on him and his young wife Ruby Keeler. The plot of the film--as authored by Winchell--revolves around a young nightclub singer, played by Constance Cummings, who is involved with the club's gangster owner Frank Rocci (played quite well by an actor nam...