Tessie Wall

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Tessie Wall
Tessie Wall.png
Photograph of Tessie Wall
Born
Teresa Susan Donohue

May 1869
DiedApril 1932 (aged 62)
San Francisco, California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation Madam
Known forProprietor of brothels in San Francisco
Spouses
  • Mr. Wall
  • Frank Daroux
Childrenone son

Teresa Susan Donohue (May 1869 April 1932), better known as Tessie Wall was an American madam who owned and operated brothels in San Francisco, California, from 1898 to 1917. She was married to gambler and political boss Frank Daroux, whom she attempted to kill in 1917 as he sought to divorce her. In the 1920s she was the unofficial "queen" of the annual policeman's balls that were held at the Civic Auditorium. She was the most successful madam in San Francisco in the early 20th century. [1]

Contents

Origins

Donohue was born in San Francisco, California into a working-class Irish Catholic family that lived south of Market Street. [2] She was described as having been blonde-haired with blue eyes. In the early 1890s, her first husband Mr. Wall, who worked as a fireman, died and she was left to support herself and small son. She entered the household of wealthy banker Judah Boas as a domestic servant. [3]

Madam

It is not known when she left the Boas household, but at some stage she became a dance hall girl and had earned the reputation of having been a hard drinker. She allegedly outdrank boxer John L. Sullivan. In 1898, she opened her first brothel – ostensibly a "boarding-house" – at 211 O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin district, according to 1900 US Census, San Francisco, district 257. In 1906, after the devastating fire which followed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake had destroyed her first brothel, she opened her second establishment on the same street at 337 O'Farrell (the current site of the San Francisco Hilton hotel). In the same year, she married Frank Daroux, a political boss who also owned pool halls and gambling dens in the city.

Tessie was fond of horse racing and collecting antiques. She owned an elegant townhouse on Powell Street. [4]

In 1917, after her husband sued her for divorce, Tessie attempted to kill him by shooting him several times with her revolver. Daroux survived and declined to press charges against Tessie.

From the 1920s until her death in April 1932, Tessie was the unofficial "queen" of the annual San Francisco policeman's balls, and it became her custom to lead the Grand March in the Civic Auditorium. On one such occasion Mayor Sunny Jim Rolfe was her escort. [5] Her last public appearance was at a policeman's ball in 1932, a month before her death. She was described as having worn a blonde wig, white satin gown, and part of her collection of diamond jewelry.

Related Research Articles

Betty Jean O'Hara was a famed prostitute in Honolulu's "vice district" during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civic Center, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood of San Francisco, United States

The Civic Center in San Francisco, California, is an area located a few blocks north of the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue that contains many of the city's largest government and cultural institutions. It has two large plazas and a number of buildings in classical architectural style. The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the United Nations Charter was signed in the Veterans Building's Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the United Nations. It is also where the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco was signed. The San Francisco Civic Center was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedel Klussmann</span>

Friedel Klussmann was a prominent member of San Francisco society. She is credited with leading the campaign that saved the San Francisco cable car system in the 1940s and 1950s, and the foundation of the San Francisco Beautiful organization in 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Levee, Chicago</span> Vice district of Chicago

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbary Coast, San Francisco</span> Red-light district in San Francisco (1849-1917)

The Barbary Coast was a red-light district during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in San Francisco that featured dance halls, concert saloons, bars, jazz clubs, variety shows, and brothels. Its nine block area was centered on a three block stretch of Pacific Street, now Pacific Avenue, between Montgomery and Stockton Streets. Pacific Street was the first street to cut through the hills of San Francisco, starting near Portsmouth Square and continuing east to the first shipping docks at Buena Vista Cove.

Sally Stanford was an American madam, restaurateur, city council member, and a former mayor of Sausalito, California. From 1940 to 1949, she was madam of a bordello at 1144 Pine Street in the Nob Hill neighborhood, in a house designed by architect Stanford White.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Brown (prostitute)</span> American prostitute and brothel madam

Julia Brown was an American madam and prostitute active in mid-nineteenth century New York City. Brown has been described as "the best-known prostitute in antebellum America". Brown was known for playing the piano in her brothel and for being a guest at functions hosted by the best families in New York. She also had season ticket to two theaters, paid for pews in various churches and contributed generously to local bible societies. She became a popular subject of tourist guidebooks, and her name appears often in diaries from the period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Francisco</span> American actress

Betty Francisco was an American silent-film actress, appearing primarily in supporting roles. Her sisters Evelyn and Margaret were also actresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lou Graham (Seattle madame)</span> American brothel owner

Lou Graham, born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who became famous as the madame of a brothel in what is now the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington, United States. She was referred to as the "Queen of the lava beds," with 'lava beds' referring to the area of tide flats that were filled in with sawdust from the sawmill. She became one of the city's wealthiest citizens before dying in her forties.

Fannie Porter was a well-known madam in 19th-century Texas, in the United States. She is best known for her association with famous outlaws of the day and for her popular San Antonio brothel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenderloin, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood in California, U.S.

The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. Encompassing about 50 square blocks, it is historically bounded on the north by Geary Street, on the east by Mason Street, on the south by Market Street and on the west by Van Ness Avenue. The northern boundary with Lower Nob Hill has historically been set at Geary Street.

Ah Toy (Chinese: 亞彩; Sidney Lau: Aa3 Coi2; 18 May 1829 – 1 February 1928) was a Chinese American sex worker and madam in San Francisco, California during the California Gold Rush, and the first Chinese sex worker in San Francisco. Arriving from Hong Kong in 1848, she became the best-known Asian woman in the American frontier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gertrude Messinger</span> American actress

Gertrude Dolores Messinger was an American film actress known for her B-movie roles from the 1930s through the 1950s. She began as a child actor in silent films, but found her greatest fame in talkies of the 1930s. During her career she appeared in more than 50 motion pictures, with particular success in westerns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lulu White</span> Brothel madam in New Orleans, Louisiana, US

Lulu White was a brothel madam, procuress and entrepreneur in New Orleans, Louisiana during the Storyville period. An eccentric figure, she was noted for her love of jewelry, her many failed business ventures, and her criminal record that extended in New Orleans as far back as 1880.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Stackpole</span> American artist (1885–1973)

Ralph Ward Stackpole was an American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator, San Francisco's leading artist during the 1920s and 1930s. Stackpole was involved in the art and causes of social realism, especially during the Great Depression, when he was part of the Public Works of Art Project, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration, and the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture. Stackpole was responsible for recommending that architect Timothy L. Pflueger bring Mexican muralist Diego Rivera to San Francisco to work on the San Francisco Stock Exchange and its attached office tower in 1930–31. His son Peter Stackpole became a well-known photojournalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Dumont</span> American gambler

Eleanor Dumont, also called Eleonore Alphonsine Dumant, was a notorious gambler on the American Western Frontier, especially during the California Gold Rush. She was also known by her nickname Madame Moustache due to the appearance of a line of dark hair on her upper lip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belle Cora</span> Madam of the Barbary Coast

Belle Cora, also known as Arabella Ryan, was a madam of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco during the mid-nineteenth century. She rose to public attention in 1855 when her lover, Charles Cora, killed US Marshall William H. Richardson after they had a conflict at the theater. She died in 1862.

Willie Vincent Piazza was a prostitute and brothel proprietor in the Storyville during that red light district's period of legal operation. From 1898 until the district's closure in 1917, Piazza worked as a madam and specialized in providing octoroon women for her clients; she herself was mixed-race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotel Utah (San Francisco, California)</span> Historic building in San Francisco

The Hotel Utah, is a historic mixed-use building known as a saloon bar, live music venue, and residential hotel, built in 1908 and located in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is known for its diverse open mic nights, which have historically attracted some people who have later become famous. It is also known as TheUtah Inn, TheHotel Utah Saloon, and simply The Utah.

References

  1. Kevin Starr, The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s, p.142, Google Books, retrieved on 4 January 2010
  2. Kevin Starr, The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s, p. 142
  3. Starr, p.142
  4. King, John (January 29, 2012). "Frankie and Johnny would feel right at home". San Francisco Chronicle.
  5. Starr, p.142