Larry Fay (1888 – January 1, 1933) was one of the early rumrunners of the Prohibition Era in New York City.
Larry Fay | |
|---|---|
| Criminal charge | none |
Date apprehended | forty-nine arrests |
Biography edit
Fay made a half a million dollars bringing bootleg whiskey into New York from Canada. With his profits he bought into a taxi cab company and later opened a nightclub, the El Fey, on West 47th Street in Manhattan in 1924, featuring Texas Guinan as the emcee and a floorshow produced by Nils Granlund.[1] In the 1920s, he married Evelyn Crowell, a Broadway showgirl. [2]
Fay, who had a record of forty-nine arrests but no felony convictions, was involved in several enterprises in the ensuing years, and was said to have amassed and lost a fortune. He was made a partner of the Casa Blanca Club, where he was fatally shot after a 1932 New Year's Eve celebration by the club's doorman Edward Maloney, who had just learned his pay was being reduced by Fay to accommodate a new employee.[3] [4] After his murder his wife discovered he was broke.[5]
On December 15, 1960, The Untouchables television series presented The Larry Fay Story. The second-season episode (and 37th for the series) starred Sam Levene as milk racketeer Larry Fay, an associate of Al Capone, and portrayed Fay's activities in New York City milk price-fixing case.[6][7] Also, Fay's life served as the basis for James Cagney's character, Eddie Bartlett, in the 1939 gangster film, The Roaring Twenties.[citation needed]
References edit
- ^ Granlund, Nils T.,"Blondes, Brunettes, and Bullets", David McKay, New York, 1957
- ^ Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English, pg. 122
- ^ Oakland (CA) Tribune, "Racketeer, Aiding Idle, Shot Dead by Doorman", January 2, 1933, page 2.
- ^ Nightclub City: Politics and Amusement in Manhattan by Burton W. Peretti pg. 108.
- ^ Gordon, Jane (1950) Married to Charles, London, William Heinemann, p.52
- ^ The Untouchables; The Larry Fay Story on TV.com (http://www.tv.com/the-untouchables/the-larry-fay-story/episode/77083/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;39)
- ^ The Untouchables; The Larry Fay Story on the IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0737815/)