Carter Henry Harrison IV was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic politician who served a total of five terms as mayor of Chicago but failed in his attempt to become his party's presidential nominee in 1904. Descended from aristocratic Virginia families and the son of five-term Chicago mayor Carter Harrison Sr., this Carter Harrison (IV) became the first native Chicagoan elected its mayor.
The Everleigh Club was a high-class brothel which operated in Chicago, Illinois from February 1900 until October 1911. It was owned and operated by Ada and Minna Everleigh.
John Joseph Coughlin, known as "Bathhouse John" or "the Bath", was an American politician who served as alderman of Chicago's 1st ward from 1892 until his death. Representing the Chicago Loop and in later years its environs, he represented what was often called the "world's richest ward". Alongside his partner, fellow 1st ward alderman Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, he controlled the ward for most of the first half of the 20th century.
Michael Kenna, also known as "Hinky Dink", was an American politician who served as alderman of Chicago's 1st Ward from 1897 to 1923 and again from 1939 to 1943. In addition to his position as alderman he was committeeman of the 1st Ward for the Democratic Party from 1893 to 1944. Representing the Chicago Loop and later its environs in such capacities, he led what was often called the "world's richest ward". He and his partner, fellow 1st Ward alderman "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, controlled the ward for most of the first half of the 20th century.
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution.
George Robert Wendt Jr. is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom Cheers (1982–1993), which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Wendt also appeared in films Fletch, Gung Ho, Dreamscape, House, Forever Young, Hostage for a Day, Man of the House, and Lakeboat.
The Levee District was the red-light district of Chicago from the 1880s until 1912, when police raids shut it down. The district, like many frontier town red-light districts, got its name from its proximity to wharves in the city. The Levee district encompassed four blocks in Chicago's South Loop area, between 18th and 22nd streets. It was home to many brothels, saloons, dance halls, and the famed Everleigh Club. Prostitution boomed in the Levee District, and it was not until the Chicago Vice Commission submitted a report on the city's vice districts that it was shut down.
John Warne Gates, also known as "Bet-a-Million" Gates, was an American Gilded Age industrialist and gambler. He was a pioneer promoter of barbed wire. He was born and raised in what is now West Chicago, Illinois. He did not enjoy farm life and began offering neighbors various business propositions at an early age, including the sale of firewood to homes and to the local railroad. When he started a local grain brokerage that failed, Gates began spending time at the local railroad station and became reacquainted with the men he previously sold firewood to. He was invited to join their poker games and through this, Gates' aptitude for cards and other games of chance was developed.
Lords of the Levee is a 1943 non-fiction book by longtime Chicago Tribune reporters Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan in one of three collaborations about the city of Chicago, focusing on its politicians "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and "Hinky Dink" Kenna, notorious alderman for the City of Chicago's lakeside First Ward. The book was reprinted in 1967 by Indiana University Press. In 1974, Indiana University Press published the book again under the title Bosses in Lusty Chicago, along with a new introduction by Illinois Senator Paul Douglas. The book appeared under its original title in 2005 when it was reprinted by Northwestern University Press.
Ike Bloom was an American businessman, cabaret and nightclub owner in Chicago from the turn of the 20th century and throughout Prohibition. An early organized crime figure in Chicago, he was an associate of "Big Jim" Colosimo and owner of some of the city's most popular nightclubs such as Midnight Frolics and Freiberg's, a well known dance hall in The Levee vice district at 20 E 22nd St. The Midnight Frolics was the club in which comedian Joe E. Lewis began his career in 1926.
The history of Omaha, Nebraska, began before the settlement of the city, with speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa staking land across the Missouri River illegally as early as the 1840s. When it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs to Omaha. A treaty with the Omaha Tribe allowed the creation of the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha City was founded on July 4, 1854. With early settlement came claim jumpers and squatters, and the formation of a vigilante law group called the Omaha Claim Club, which was one of many claim clubs across the Midwest. During this period many of the city's founding fathers received lots in Scriptown, which was made possible by the actions of the Omaha Claim Club. The club's violent actions led to the U.S. Supreme Court trial, Baker v. Morton, which led to the end of the organization.
The Sporting District was an area near 16th and Harney Streets in Omaha, Nebraska where city boss Tom Dennison kept the majority of his gambling, drinking and prostitution interests from the late 19th century until the end of his reign in 1933. "Cowboy" James Dahlman was reputedly voted to the first of eight terms as mayor of Omaha because he was more tolerant of the Dennison's "Sporting District" in the middle of the city.
Anna Wilson was a pioneer madam in Omaha, Nebraska. When she died she bequeathed her life savings to the City of Omaha, along with her 25-room mansion brothel, which was used as a hospital. Wilson was responsible for "establishing Omaha's first serious comfort station", and was known as the "Queen of the Underworld."
Nathaniel "Nathan" Ford Moore was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was the son of James Hobart Moore, a wealthy businessman with controlling interest in National Biscuit Company, Continental Can, Diamond Match and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. He died of natural causes in the Chez Shaw brothel in Chicago's Levee district after spending much of the previous night at the Everleigh Club.
Abbott Kahler, formerly known as Karen Abbott is an American author of historical nonfiction. Her works include Sin in the Second City, American Rose, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy and The Ghosts of Eden Park.
Lizzie Lape was a mid-Ohio madam who owned and operated multiple bordellos at the end of the 19th century and early into the 20th.
The Dumas Brothel was a bordello in Butte, Montana. The brothel was founded by French Canadian brothers Joseph and Arthur Nadeau in 1890 and named after the nominal owner, Delia Nadeau, née Dumas, who was Joseph's wife. It grew considerably through the years, with the miners employed by the city's copper mines often patronizing the establishment. After several changes of the "madams" and continuing pressure from authorities, the brothel closed in 1982, described as "a rare, intact commentary on social history". At the time of its closure, it was the longest operating brothel in the United States, having operated years after prostitution was made illegal. After closing, the brothel changed hands several times, eventually becoming a tourist attraction owned and managed by a series of Butte residents.
Vina Fields was one of the most successful and well known African American brothel madams to come out of Chicago at the turn of the century. Her career began in the 1870s when she established her brothel, House of Pleasure, in the Levee District of Chicago. At the height of her 30 year long career she was housing and managing 60 women; this enabled her to become one of Chicago's wealthiest African Americans with a reputation as a smart and giving business woman. She was described as a true “character of the red light district.” Not much is known about Vina Fields’ personal life, but historian Cynthia Blair details her massive impact on the sex industry of Chicago, giving her the recognition she deserves as an influential and important African American woman in the history of Chicago.
