NEW ORLEANS FEATURES - New Orleans Past - Storyville
Storyville
In the early part of the 20th century, many visitors came to New Orleans seeking the entertainments of "jolly good fellows." According to the euphemisms of the times, such "fellows" were prostitutes. And passengers arriving at the Basin Street train station couldn't help but fall into their arms.
Just south of the station, which is gone now, lay the French Quarter. And lining the tracks on the northern side were the saloons, bordellos and cribs of Storyville, the nation's first legally designated prostitution district. Over its twenty-year lifetime, the district grew more and more crowded with prostitutes, early jazz musicians and saloons. And it anchored the city's reputation as the Babylon of the South.
Ironically, Storyville was created in an attempt at social reform. But the outrageous district defied many of the sensibilities of its times. And that's probably why it thrived.
At the end of the Victorian era and in the middle of growing national progressive reform movements (like the temperance movement that resulted in Prohibition), Storyville was created by city ordinance in 1897. Social reformers in the city wanted to limit and regulate prostitution. So they turned a not so nice residential neighborhood into the only district where prostitutes could live and work. Supposedly this would keep brothels from trashing other neighborhoods in either their morals or their property values. More significantly, they created a nationally known center of vice. Councilman Sidney Story, who sponsored the reform, was rewarded by having the district unofficially named after him.
The bordellos of Storyville became great mansions of vice. Many madams became extraordinarily wealthy. As did saloon owners and politicians and policemen who took a large cut in graft. As the years passed, the neighborhood changed so that by the time it was closed down almost every available building was either a bar or a brothel. Much of the money made in Storyville came from the outrageous prices charged for liquor. And while many of the bordellos, like Lulu White's Mahogany Hall, were lavish and catered to customers who could meet her prices, there were also hundreds and hundreds of "crib" girls, who charged much lower rates and worked out of small one and two room cribs, furnished with only a bed and a chair. They might rent a crib for a night for as much as three dollars. Then they might charge men anywhere from ten to fifty cents. Competition tended to keep the prices brutally low in the cribs.
Some of the better sources of information on Storyville are the "Blue Books," which were directories of the more expensive prostitutes working in the district. Billy Struve, a former police reporter, published many of the books. At times he kept an office in Lulu White's saloon. And he was also known to work for Tom Anderson, the unofficial mayor of Storyville. Anderson owned the largest saloon and had a stake in many others.
The Blue Books advertised the beauty and quality of the bordellos and the women who worked there. Sex was never mentioned in the books and no mention was made of prostitution. But the message was clear. One of the early books carried the title "Blue Book" at the top and "Tenderloin 400" at the bottom. Tenderloin was one of the terms for districts known for prostitution. The 400 parodied a published list of important and influential Americans.
The books contain portraits and descriptions of some of the better known madams. Lulu White, Josie Arlington and Willie Piazza were among the most famous. Before Storyville, White had been arrested countless times on charges of prostitution and assorted civil disruptions, the result of which was that she eventually seemed to know all the right people. During the Storyville era she became very wealthy and was known for wearing diamonds on all her fingers and a wig of wild red hair. In Belle of the Nineties, Mae West's character was supposedly based on White's persona. White herself considered moving to Hollywood to break into movies but never did so.
Josie Arlington was another notorious prostitute who reigned in Storyville. Born into the demimonde of society, at seventeen years old she became involved with Philip Lobrano, who introduced her into the world of "sporting houses," or brothels. She worked as Josie Alton for a while, and as Josie Lobrano, and even Josie Lobrano d'Arlington. As her business acumen improved she opened the Chateau Lobrano d'Arlington. But her more simply titled Arlington was one of the biggest and bawdiest of the bordellos, allowing Josie to support Lobrano and many others who lived in her home. She went on to buy herself an expensive mansion on Esplanade Avenue, and later a lavish tomb in a historic cemetery.
The Blue Books also highlight one of the biggest draws to Storyville, says Katy Coyle, a historian researching the lives of women who resided in Storyville. Politics of the times enforced racial divides. Plessy vs. Fergusson had recently been handed down and segregation was legally instituted everywhere, she says. Segregation legislation was passed in New Orleans in 1894. But Storyville held out the allure of sex across color lines. The books listed prostitutes by race, noting whether they were white (W), Creole (C) or octoroon (Oct.). French women and Jewish women were also designated.
New Orleans had always had a reputation for interracial social mixing, especially because so many free people of color lived in the city before the Civil War. There was a special society niche of mixed race people. Quadroon and octoroon balls were held to match white men and women with one quarter or one eighth black lineage. It was understood that the couples would never marry, and the women were set up like mistresses in homes of their own. Against this backdrop, Storyville's social mixing was to be expected. And often preferred. White women were known to work in brothels which advertised themselves as Creole establishments, Coyle says.
Aside from the books, not much remains of Storyville. In 1917, the Department of the Navy closed it down saying it was a threat to national security. On the eve of World War One, a military base opened in New Orleans and it was illegal for prostitution to operate within five miles of a base. So the district was officially closed, but not before the mayor went to Washington D.C. to try to save it. He even let the local papers know that that was his mission. He lost the battle because Washington was dominated by social reformers. Prostitution certainly didn't stop, but it was no longer centralized in the district even though many madams continued to work there.
Eventually, the city razed most of the district to build the Iberville housing development. Most of Storyville's buildings were lost. Only three currently remain and none are likely to be land-marked or preserved, although two were famous addresses. On the corner of Basin and Bienville streets is part of the building that housed Lulu White's Saloon, which was adjacent to her famous Mahogany Hall. Only the first floor of the current building dates back to her ownership. Further in on Bienville Street, at the end of the block, is what remains of Frank Early's saloon. It's now a convenience store.
Much of what is known of Storyville is archived in the history of jazz. Many early jazz musicians, like Jelly Roll Morton, played in the parlors of Storyville. Though jazz started its development elsewhere in the city in the decades before Storyville, many believe that the music came of age there. As that view became more common, some musicians exaggerated their careers there. Photographs show Jelly Roll playing piano in Mahogany Hall and he later claimed that he played there for fifteen years, but that is unlikely.
Jelly Roll was a "professor," the term for piano players who worked in bordello parlors. They worked entirely for tips and were expected to know a great variety of music to entertain whomever dropped in. Jelly Roll was renowned for his scandalous versions of all sorts of popular songs. Other famous professors included Tony Jackson, author of Pretty Baby, and Frank "Dude" Amacker.
Many early jazz musicians played in Storyville orchestras and bands, including King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet and Louis "Big Eye" Nelson. The bands played in the saloons, though there were also establishments that considered the new music vulgar and unworthy of their clientele. Louis Armstrong got one if his first jobs in Storyville, carting coal to the cribs.
Looking back, it's probably the emergence of jazz that encourages such a romanticized image of the District. Its characters were certainly colorful. But what we know least about are the lives of the women who lived in Storyville. Historians like Coyle are trying to fill in those details. It's welcome scholarship. While the city never seriously tried to recreate the legal red light district, the curiosity remains.
Pictures and information regarding Storyville can be found at the Louisiana State Museum jazz exhibit at the Old U.S. Mint. (400 Esplanade Ave., 568-6968). Blue Books are archived at the Williams Research Center (410 Chartres St., 598-7171).