Talking about Bugsy in the other thread brings up a question I've wondered about.

Is it just me or was Virginia Hill not really all that attractive?

I've seen all the usual pics and a few quick clips of the Kefauver testimony and take it for what it is but just don't really see why all those guys would've been after her.The pics with her hair pulled back give her a bit better look but still...?Maybe she really was great in the sack but I'm sure most of those guys had plenty to choose from.

Or...maybe it's just me?

Ron

she said was the best c*cksucker in the whole town.

I've seen still photos of her that didn't do much to me but she looked a lot better in the newsreels. It may have been something about how she carried herself and moved.

I suppose it'd be in poor taste to say that Bugsy kept an eye out for her.

It's common knowledge that her nickname was "The Flamingo". I've seen some sources attribute that nickname to her long legs BUT I've also seen some sources attribute that nickname to her prowess at performing orally.

Here's a quote from Marlon Brando's biographical story "Brando Unzipped":

On the set of 'The Fugitive Kind' he told Tennessee (Williams), "I've been blown by some of the most skilled fellatio artists in the world, including yourself. But I'll always regret not getting a blow job directly from Virginia Hill. From all reports, she was the best of the best".

It would have been better if she had looked like Annette Benning!

Hill was 35 or so when she appeared at the Kefauver hearings--not old today, but past-prime for a woman of that generation, especially one who lived hard. She'd also put on weight. She was a lot better looking in some of the publicity stills the studios made of her.

The "world's greatest you-know-what" remark was given by her in public testimony at the Kefauver hearing. One member of the subcommittee, noting that she was also the mistress of Joe Epstein (second in command to Jake Guzik, the Capone mob bigwig) at the same time she was carousing with Bugsy, asked her how she could retain the loyalty of two gangsters. That was her response. You won't find it in the Congressional Record.

BTW: The usual accounts have it that Bugsy named the Flamingo after her. Not true. It was already called the Flamingo by its original builder, Billy Wilkerson.

It's gotta be one in a million that Hill's nickname and the casino name were around at the same time!

I bet "Bugsy" was estatic about the casino being called what it was. He must have kept the name as it was due to her.

Turnbull, when Hill died in Austria, do you think it was her poisoning herself or the mob holding her down and making her swallow it?

Most likely it was a suicide--volatile by nature she'd been depressed because she had separated from her husband and was broke. The rumor got started in the Austrian press because she'd reportedly been in the company of former lover Joe Adonis, who'd be exiled to Naples in 1953. But keep in mind that she died in 1966--19 years after Siegel was killed and 15 years after the Kefauver hearings. If the mob wanted her dead, they'd have acted long, long before then.

How was her successor, Ida Devine chosen?

What exactly do you mean by "her successor?"

The Bagwoman that Chicago picked. She must have known one of the Outfit members to get the job.

Yeah, would agree it was suicide. She had tried on several occasions in the past and went through depression for years.
Supposedly Lucky wanted her clipped before the Kefauver testimony for fear she would talk but plenty of guys stood up for her. But they had plenty of time to get rid of her before '66 if they had wanted to.

Ron