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Gladys Bagwill

Born: 8 October 1902, Carbondale, Jackson, Illinois, USA
Died: 14 December 1969, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
AKA: -
Labels: Columbia/Capitol, Supertone

 

 

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Gladys M. Bagwill's life is that, despite being the daughter of a preacher, she ended up as a gangster's moll!

Gladys was the second of five children born to a Free Baptist minister. The 1920 census finds her still living at home, and her older sister Blanche is listed as a 'picture show musician' - probably actually referring to Gladys and written on the wrong line.

Her debut for the Chicago-based Columbia Music Roll Company was in January 1923, her first two performances being Columbia #490, In A Corner Of The World and #503, I Gave You Up Just Before You Threw Me Down. Thirteen known rolls are credited to Gladys, including a rare duet with house artist or house pseudonym Wayne Love (#688 Mocking Bird Blues). Her last known roll, #788 Every Day, was issued in February 1924.

Gladys then achieved a certain degree of notoriety by becoming the girlfriend of Chicago Sicilian Mafia bigwig Tony "The Gentleman" Genna. Although disliked by the family because she wasn't Italian, he apparently had plans to marry her - these ended when he was gunned down at Grand Avenue and Curtis Streets, Chicago, on July 8, 1925 by crime rivals. Gladys was one of the only mourners at his funeral. Various sources from around this time describe her as a 'vaudeville performer' and 'pianist in a cabaret', and say it was she who learnt the name of his assassins from him as he lay dying.

The 1930 Census finds her rooming at Stoneleigh Court, a Chicago apartment hotel, and working as a 'musician - piano'. There are some media references in 1935 and 1938 mentioning her entertaining in the Knickerbocker Lounge and Club Morocco (both in the Los Angeles area) but by January 1939 she was at the Pelican Club in Chicago and was known as the 'Clever Songstress'. In 1943 she was at the Barney Ross cocktail lounge, Chicago.

Nothing further is known of her life until her death at the relatively young age of 67 in Los Angeles. She appears to have never married, perhaps unsurprising considering the traumatic death of her husband-to-be.