Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Pauline Taylor
| Margaret Taylor Guinn LaRocca |
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| Pauline Taylor | |
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Pauline Taylor |
Pauline Taylor better known by her stage name "Peggy Garcia" was a nightclub singer. Described as a blonde bombshell, she was born in Virginia and was the daughter of Cornelius Taylor. She was best known for her baby-talk voice and she used to work as a hostess and sing in an all-girl chorus, she briefly worked as a hatcheck girl in Harlem.
She assumed the stage name Peggy Garcia after seeing the name "Garcia" on a cigar band and she thought that the name must be Spanish because cigars originated in Havana.
Taylor sued David Rubinoff for $100,000 in 1934[1] for breach-of-promise. In the years 1935 to 1936, her narrative began to receive greater attention. She then made the decision to sell a well-known magazine publisher her story. Newspapers followed her story daily by 1937.
At the same time Rubinoff was sued by his ex-wife Blanche Sheffer for $169,000. Taylor wanted $500,000 in 1937 and decided to continue pursing her case against Rubinoff. Taylor's suit was dismissed by a judge in the same year.
She sold her story claiming that Rubinoff had wooed her by inviting her to view an etching collection at his flat, then turned down her proposal of marriage when she said she was expecting.
She was scheduled to provide a personal message accompanied by songs, dances, and storytelling in Brooklyn. A License Commissioner and two detectives arrived at the theater two hours prior to the show's scheduled start time, and they coerced the manager into turning over the theater. They told him there had been a lot of complaints about Taylor's appearance.
After she sued Rubinoff she said that she was unable to find employment in showbusiness and had been blacklisted. Taylor would apply for a job at another nightclub and the owner would say, "Are you Pauline Taylor who is suing my pal David Rubinoff?"
Taylor claimed that she had to face the truth about who she truly was since she was so honest and incapable of lying. So she often replied, "Yes." And the nightclub owners would say, "GET OUT!"
Blue-eyed Taylor entered the packed courtroom to share her story of suffering with the many sympathetic looks around her. She came to understand exactly what she thought had been done to her.
Tossing her head, she said, "If you're Rubinoff, I'm Cleopatra!" when she was initially introduced to Rubinoff. Which she claimed was a retort of innocence. When Runbinoff told her that she excited him, she admitted that she was so naive that she had no idea what he meant. Additionally, Rubinoff was wearing lavender pajamas when she was last seen in his bedroom, and she had gone in to look at his etchings.
In her evidence, she stated that Rubinoff had exploited her since she was young, naive and immature at the time. She said she went to Rubinoff's apartment and he said, "There's my Stradivarius," and said she was so innocent that she didn't even know he was talking about his fiddle.
She was jailed in 1937 and indicted for bigamy and perjury. Kathleen Murray LaRocca said that she was Michael's "real wife" and the mother of their three children. Therefore because Taylor went through a ceremony with him, she was liable to prosecution.
Michael LaRocca claimed that he had wed Taylor in 1933, and that there was no marriage before that. However LaRocca had already been married to his first wife for 12 years before he wed Taylor. He claimed that his first wife was his "common-law" wife.
Attorney Harold Hastings went before the grand jury and won bigamy and perjury indictments against LaRocca and Taylor. The perjury charge was based on her testimony at the Rubinoff trial, that she had not been married before she met the violinist.
Taylor claimed that she was made to sleep in a cell at the police station while still wearing her clothes. And that she'd stayed up because of two women who shared a cell. When Taylor left the police station she passed the body of a man who had dropped dead in the street. "What are they doing with that dummy?" she asked. He replied, "That's no dummy, that's a stiff." She screamed and threw her arms around the officer.
She was asked by the police if was part of a blackmailing gang. "Gee," replied baby-faced Pauline plaintively. "I had nothing to do with anything like that."
Taylor's arrest jeopardized her chances of pursuing a career in theater. She was notified by a Broadway agency that she had secured a 30-week engagement due to her notoriety from her lawsuit against Rubinoff.
Before her arrest her father threatened to take her back home to Virginia. At the time she refused to go home because she wanted a career. Once she shared her story she fainted. In her hostess gown she curled up on a divan and offered to girls everywhere some advice. Broadway butterflies get no honey, and that every girl should stay in her home town. She said theatrical agent Edgar Allen who had charge of Peaches Browning's[2] career was anxious to sign her. "He thinks I got marvelous acting ability," she said.
Because of the Rubinoff case, Taylor and her husband LaRocca were "through," and he was also taken into custody and accused.[3] They were both fingerprinted, photographed and jailed. David Rubinoff responded by saying that Taylor was a character assassin.
Taylor later changed her name from Pauline and Peggy to Margaret.
Quotes
- Pauline Taylor: "Girls should stay away from Broadway and celebrities." (1937)
- Pauline Taylor: "It doesn't pay to be a butterfly." (1937)
- Pauline Taylor: "I want to advise young girls not to get into balm suits." (1937)
Death
- Pauline Taylor is deceased, after her arrest she faded into obscurity.
Trivia
- Apart from her husband Michael LaRocca's marriage, Pauline Taylor's first marriage at the age of 11 was still binding, therefore she could not contract another.
- Taylor was in the same circles as Bonnie Poe. Much like Taylor, Poe sued star George Raft[4] for breach-of-promise. Instead of using their real names, both women used faux-stage names.
- Taylor's allegation that David Rubinoff was a cheater was probably accurate. He had a reputation for cheating in his marriages, which typically led to a divorce. He had multiple marriages during his lifetime. But she herself was also a bigamist, and swore false oath in court. And much like Helen Kane who also lied in court, was eventually exposed.
- Taylor did a publicity stunt for the newspapers in which she held flowers over her mother's grave.
- She wept in jail because they wouldn't let her put on make-up, and because the food was terrible, and she wondered why her friends didn't pay her $2,500 bail and bail her out. She was later released on $1,000 bail after it was reduced from $10,000.
- "Come up and see my etchings" became a catchphrase in the late 1930s following the lawsuit.
- Her nickname was Polly.
- She is considered a "Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl" because prior to gaining publicity for her suit she sang "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" songs on stage. Taylor wasn't exactly a "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" star. She worked as a background vocalist and nightclub hostess in a similar capacity.