Marion Roberts

Marion "Kiki" Roberts (née Strasmick)[1] (born 1909 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American dancer and showgirl. She was better known as the girlfriend and moll of American gangster Legs Diamond.[2][3]

Early life

Roberts dreamed of being a celebrity from a very young age and she placed eighth in a children's beauty pageant.[1] She won a contract to participate at the Ziegfeld Follies as a "Ziegfeld girl", but as she was too young to sign that contract, she could not participate at that time.

At age 16, however, searching for bigger fame, Roberts and her mom moved to New York, New York. She began working for Texas Guinan at Guinan's nightclub, the Moritz. Finally, at the age of 17, she was able to sign[4] on as a Ziegfeld girl.

Legs Diamond

Jack "Legs" Diamond was a major Irish-American bootlegger and mobster of the 1920s and 1930s.[4] There are various accounts as to how Diamond and "Kiki" Roberts met, but one was that she had befriended a lady named Agnes O. Laughlin, who was in turn friends with Diamond and introduced them.[1]

The two soon became lovers, gaining Roberts the celebrity she longed for. Diamond helped Roberts get introduced to New York City choreographers, in order to improve her dancing skills.

It is widely believed that Roberts was one of the last people to see Diamond alive before he was gunned down in December 1931. "Kiki" Roberts and Diamond's wife Alice were both questioned in connection with the murder's investigation, but they were not suspected of wrongdoing.[1]

Later life

Not much is known about Marion Roberts after the death of "Legs" Diamond. She did an interview for the Boston American newspaper which was recorded in film in 1931,[5] and, in 1935, she moved to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, hoping to find work, and she did, as by 1937, she was headlining a show named "Crazy Quilt" at the Allentown Lyric Theater in Allentown.[6]

But, by the 1940s, she had moved on. She disappeared from the limelight. Attempts at finding out her whereabouts and also her death date have, so far, been unsuccessful.

In pop culture

"Kiki" Roberts features prominently in writer William Kennedy's novel about "Legs" Diamond, also named "Legs".[6]

She is played by actress Amanda Greer in the 2019 biopic "The Last Day of Legs Diamond".

References
  1. Forsyth, Owen (November 23, 2018). "Marion "Kiki" Roberts & Legs Diamond".
  2. "Showgirl Marion 'Kiki' Roberts a girlfriend of the late John 'Legs'..." Getty Images.
  3. Chalasani, Radhika (October 12, 2016). "The days of glass plate negatives". CBS News.
  4. "Albany's Famous Faces: Jack "Legs" Diamond". www.albany.org. January 18, 2019.
  5. "kiki roberts interview - Bing video". www.bing.com.
  6. "SAD LEGACY OF 'LEGS' GANGSTER MOLL/DANCER 'KIKI' ROBERTS HOOFED WAY INTO -- AND OUT OF -- VALLEY". The Morning Call.
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