This series contains adult language and depictions of graphic violence.

Listener discretion is advised. Many Williams dreamed of being a star.

Having acted in plays in her hometown of Dallas, Texas, and being told repeatedly how talented she was,

she figured Broadway to be in her future.

But she always found a reason to stay.

Also, she was still a kid, barely 20 years old. She had all the time in the world.

Minnie's mother had died when many was still a child and her father, a successful doctor, had raised her and her brother and sister.

It wasn't until her father died unexpectedly that many, now an orphan at 21, decided to go follow her dreams. Her father had left her a nice

inheritance not enough to retire but enough to be comfortable until she could make

her own way. The inheritance included a savings account,

plus some stocks and bonds that were sold and the proceeds were divided among

many and her siblings. But there was also a real estate portfolio that included property in Fort Worth

that provided a monthly income, also divided among her siblings. She had the means,

barely, but she had the means to give it one good shot in New York.

So Minnie Williams shuttered the fledgling theater company she had started in Dallas and booked a one-way train ticket to Manhattan.

But when she arrived, she realized that the landscape of live theater in New York was shifting beneath her feet

with the early days of vaudeville completely taking over.

This new still developing style of entertainment didn't align with many skill set and she was back in Texas within a year.

However, her hopes were revived when she heard about the World's Colombian Exposition that would be held in Chicago the following year and she knew in her heart that her destiny awaited.

Plus, she had actually met a man in New York

who told her that he would be relocating to Chicago

because of the world's fair

...