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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor kend Kanor, joined as always by fellow editor

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Speaker 1: Katie Lambert. Hey, Candice, Hey there, Katie. We have got

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Speaker 1: a special request today that came in from Mallory who

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Speaker 1: works at the Louisiana State Museum, and she wrote to

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Speaker 1: us and suggested that we talk about how Storyville worked.

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Speaker 1: And it's a fascinating suggestion, one that we could not

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Speaker 1: say no to. But before we launch into our discussion

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Speaker 1: of New Orleans famous red light district of your I

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Speaker 1: did want to say that if there are any younger

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Speaker 1: listeners out there, you may want to put on your

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Speaker 1: ear muffs. We don't have any salacious information. It is

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Speaker 1: all based in fact, but perhaps consider the content before

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Speaker 1: you go any further. That said, here we go. So

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Speaker 1: Storyville was a legal twin t block red light district

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans, but it wasn't the first. After the

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Speaker 1: Civil War that were actually quite a few cities who

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Speaker 1: were battling with certain areas of vice and after the

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Speaker 1: Civil War in general and the reconstruction era South and

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Speaker 1: even in some parts of the North, really um you

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Speaker 1: have to consider that a lot of men had been

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Speaker 1: killed at war, women were left widowed and they had

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Speaker 1: children to care for, and they had to find some

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Speaker 1: way to get by, and women work and family in

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Speaker 1: the Antebella Mountains, South Wilma A. Dunaway explains that prostitution

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Speaker 1: was actually a type of honest work because it was

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Speaker 1: a job. It wasn't begging, so women could actually support

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Speaker 1: themselves and their children instead of relying on the community

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Speaker 1: for handouts. And an interesting thing about New Orleans was

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Speaker 1: that in seventeen one, King Louis fourteen actually sent convicted

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Speaker 1: Parisian prostitute to Louisiana. And you have to put yourself

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Speaker 1: back in time to think about Louisiana for what it was,

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Speaker 1: as it was a swampy and mosquito ridden place that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people were not enthusiastic to go to.

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Speaker 1: So he figured he would excommunicate these women and there

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Speaker 1: would at least be women in the colony to be

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Speaker 1: fruitful and multiply. And if you keep up with the

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Speaker 1: stuff you missed in history class blog, this may sound

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Speaker 1: like a somewhat familiar plan because this was the same

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Speaker 1: Louis he had the feed raw who went to Canada

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Speaker 1: to be fruitful multiply there. So I know it's that's

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Speaker 1: such a great way of getting women to these new

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Speaker 1: territories that you own ums and the prostitutes and the

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Speaker 1: young marriable ones. It worked, except that New Orleans became

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Speaker 1: sort of nationally recognized as a city of vice. So

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Speaker 1: in Alderman Sydney story suggested Ordinance number thirteen thousand, thirty

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Speaker 1: two in seven he thought he was doing something good

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Speaker 1: by controlling vice by putting one area of the city

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Speaker 1: and setting that apart for certain unsavory activities, because is

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing was running rampant in New Orleans,

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Speaker 1: and he thought if he put all the prostitutes in

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Speaker 1: a twenty block area that that would save the rest

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Speaker 1: of the city. And he was devastated when they called

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Speaker 1: its Storyville sort of sellied his good name there, a

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Speaker 1: good man with the plan. But the ordinance actually didn't

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Speaker 1: make prostitution legal in that area. It just made it

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Speaker 1: illegal everywhere else. So it was a tricky little way

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Speaker 1: of getting that through. And in the Encyclopedia of Prostitution

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Speaker 1: and Sex Work, yes there's such a book, well as

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Speaker 1: the Hope did More explains and this is a direct

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Speaker 1: quote I had to share with you. The district was

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Speaker 1: famous for its extravagant bordellos, its jazz music, and its

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Speaker 1: promotion of interracial sex and octoroon prostitutes at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the Jim Crow era. And ultimately this would be

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Speaker 1: the downfall of Storyville, or one of the downfalls, because

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Speaker 1: it was a part of the Deep South that was

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Speaker 1: not honoring the code of Jim Crow laws. You know,

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Speaker 1: it was where blacks and whites mixed, and people were

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Speaker 1: very uncomfortable with that. So if we think about the

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Speaker 1: area of Storyville, and let's put this in a little

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Speaker 1: bit of context, it was set within i Reville basin St.

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Speaker 1: Louis and Robertson Streets, and like Katie had mentioned, this

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Speaker 1: was about eighteen twenties square blocks and it was situated

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Speaker 1: between the French Quarter and the American section, which was

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Speaker 1: the business district. And before the end of the rail

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Speaker 1: line it actually passed through part of story Ville. And

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Speaker 1: so the women would make themselves very well known by

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Speaker 1: um displaying their their wares from windows and balconies, and

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Speaker 1: to Sydney story chagrin. Uh. Instead of keeping prostitution in

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Speaker 1: a centralized place that was sort of hush hush, it

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Speaker 1: actually gained a loud and bodied reputation that attracted national attention.

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Speaker 1: And before Storyville actually became the big thing, the big

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Speaker 1: part of this district, there was already a motley assortment

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Speaker 1: of people in business there, and one of the most

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Speaker 1: famous was George WoT whose lumber company was pretty pretty

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Speaker 1: profitable and doing pretty well, and he had a wife

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Speaker 1: and eight children, and he actually followed a lawsuit against

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Speaker 1: the city to keep Storyville out of his neighborhood. And

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Speaker 1: this one all the way up to the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court, which ultimately deferred to the City of New Orleans.

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Speaker 1: But an amendment that moved to include St. Louis Street

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Speaker 1: as part of the boundaries also established a four block

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Speaker 1: uptown district. And this, like Kitty was explaining to me earlier,

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Speaker 1: didn't really take off like Storyville proper did. Basically, Storyville

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Speaker 1: was white, and they were a couple of brothels that

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Speaker 1: were racially mixed, but this little four block area was

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Speaker 1: known as Black Storyville, and that was the blocks between

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Speaker 1: Predido and Gravier and Locust and Franklin, and there was

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Speaker 1: quite a bit of crime there lots of fights, lots

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Speaker 1: of murders, lots of drug addiction, and it wasn't quite

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Speaker 1: the classy, extravagant bordello's of white Dooryville. Instead, they had cribs,

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Speaker 1: which were rooms you rented by the hour, honky tonks,

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Speaker 1: dance halls, most infamously Funky Butt Hall, where Buddy Bolden

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Speaker 1: Jazz Royalty UM, a schizophrenic cornetist, used to play, and

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Speaker 1: that is where Louis Armstrong grew up. Interesting bit of trivia.

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Speaker 1: Well there you go. And as far as Storyville, like

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Speaker 1: Katy was suggesting, the boardellas that were, there were quite

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Speaker 1: the things to see. One of the most famous would

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Speaker 1: have been Lulu White's Mahogany Hall, which costs nearly forty

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Speaker 1: dollars to build, and if you'll allow a little bit

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Speaker 1: of give and take care, that would a quate to

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Speaker 1: about one million, twenty one thousand, ninety nine dollars to

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Speaker 1: build today, so you can imagine quite the establishment. And

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Speaker 1: this would have included four stories with um a marble staircase,

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Speaker 1: fifteen bedrooms and water closets. It's not full on bathrooms,

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Speaker 1: mind you. And then um, one of the more interesting

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Speaker 1: sites would have been her room with Florida's ceiling mirrors.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what that would use though, And I

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Speaker 1: did enjoy when I was doing research for this reading

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Speaker 1: about some of the different madam's who were all very

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Speaker 1: colorful in their way. And there was actually a publication

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Speaker 1: put out called the Blue Book that listed the different

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Speaker 1: houses and the different proprietors and maybe some of the

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Speaker 1: girls that you would see. And this is an excerpt

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Speaker 1: about Countess Willie Piazza, who is one of the more

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Speaker 1: famous madam's, said, it is the one place in the

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Speaker 1: Tenderloin district you can't very well afford to pass up.

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Speaker 1: The Countess Piazza has made it a study to try

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Speaker 1: and make everyone jovial who visits her house. If you

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Speaker 1: have the blues, the Countess and her girls can cure them.

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Speaker 1: She has, without doubt, the most handsome and intelligent actor

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Speaker 1: rooms in the United States. You should see them. They're

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Speaker 1: all cultivated entertainers. If there's anything new in the singing

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Speaker 1: and dancing line that you'd like to see, well in Storyville,

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Speaker 1: Countess Piazzas is the play us to visit, especially when

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Speaker 1: one is hopping out with friends. The women, in particular

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Speaker 1: the Countess wishes it to be known that while her

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Speaker 1: Maison Maison jois is peerless in every respect, she only

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Speaker 1: serves the amber fluid. Just ask for Willie Piazza. And

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Speaker 1: if you're wondering what an octoroon is, Miriam Webster defined

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Speaker 1: it as a person of one eighth black ancestry. And

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Speaker 1: some of the blue books went so far as to

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Speaker 1: designate what kind of prostitutes you would find at the

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Speaker 1: different bordellos. So a debut was white, see for colored,

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Speaker 1: oct for oct roon, and there was also designations for

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Speaker 1: French and Jewish prostitutes. And going back to miss Piazza,

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Speaker 1: she was considered to be very cultured and also a

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Speaker 1: leader of fashion in New Orleans. The country club ladies

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Speaker 1: would follow her around to see what she was wearing.

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Speaker 1: She spoke several different languages, had a fantastic library, and

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Speaker 1: she and Madame Lulu were the only black owners of

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Speaker 1: brothels in Storyville. And it wasn't unusual for residents of

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Speaker 1: New Orleans to look toward the demi monde as they

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Speaker 1: were called for the latest in fashion and prostitutes, with

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Speaker 1: large leaguers shopping on Sundays, on which days many of

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Speaker 1: the city's residents and students were worn to stay away

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Speaker 1: from Canal Street, but they certainly turned some heads because

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Speaker 1: they were forward thinkers in terms of uh their dresses

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Speaker 1: and their makeup and accessories, and there were even some

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Speaker 1: lipstick shades named after them. My other favorite madam I

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Speaker 1: read about was Helma Bert, who was also known for

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Speaker 1: being a lady of fashion and jazz musician Jelly Roll

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Speaker 1: Morton actually got his start in her mansion, and this

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Speaker 1: is a direct quote from him talking to a historian. Well,

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Speaker 1: I never made never know night, as I remember, under

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Speaker 1: a hundred dollars, and it was a very bad night.

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Speaker 1: When we made under a hundred dollars. Was very often

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Speaker 1: men would come into the houses and hand you a

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Speaker 1: twenty or hand you forty or fifty dollar note. It

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Speaker 1: was just like a match. Wine flowed much more than

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Speaker 1: water did during those periods. Many of those houses there's

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Speaker 1: more wine sold than beer. So these establishments were known

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Speaker 1: for catering to jen entlemen in general. And there is

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Speaker 1: a bit of a misconception going around that jazz started

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Speaker 1: in Storyville, when really jazz was more in Black Storyville,

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Speaker 1: like I'd said, where Louis Armstrong grew up, even if

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Speaker 1: some of the musicians did get their start over in

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Speaker 1: white Storyville. But for all the financial success of Storyville,

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Speaker 1: it was it was built in some inherent contradictions. For instance, UH,

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Speaker 1: black women and actor and specifically were employed there, but

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Speaker 1: black men were not allowed to be patrons, and in

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Speaker 1: fact they were banned, even though there were some black

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Speaker 1: and white madam's who ran these four delos, and Sydney's

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Speaker 1: story had gotten his idea for the legalization or jelly say,

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Speaker 1: the non illegalization of Storyville in this particular district from

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Speaker 1: uh legalized prostitution quarters that existed in other parts of

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Speaker 1: the world. But I don't think that anyone in New

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Speaker 1: Orleans anticipated the kind of national attention that would come

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Speaker 1: to Storyville and the kind of huge would reputation and

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Speaker 1: colorful reputation that would overcome the entire city. And so

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Speaker 1: we have issues of blacks and whites clashing in the South,

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Speaker 1: which is still very racially divided, and modern theorists who

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Speaker 1: look back with a critical eye at Storyville talk about

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Speaker 1: how in a sense that the type of ways in

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Speaker 1: which a black woman could offer up her body for

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Speaker 1: sale and reap the benefits were almost somehow redemptive if

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Speaker 1: you if you look at the idea that slavery benefited

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Speaker 1: her in no way. She was sold for money and

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Speaker 1: she worked for a white man, And they're saying that

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Speaker 1: Storyville sort of turned this premise on its head. She

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Speaker 1: could use her body as she pleased and read the benefits.

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Speaker 1: But still this is a very controversial point of view.

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Speaker 1: And by the same token, uh, white women were also

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Speaker 1: becoming as just Adams rights and wounds of returning commodified

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Speaker 1: or potentially commodifiable things. So some people would call this

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Speaker 1: type of prostitution white slavery. But at least some people

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Speaker 1: would say, some of the critics I was reading, they

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Speaker 1: got a cut of the money with some of us.

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Speaker 1: And Storyville was very lucrative to Lane, and the Archdiocese

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Speaker 1: of New Orleans actually made quite a bit of money

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Speaker 1: off Storyville, and according to one estimate, UM, Storyville was

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Speaker 1: making one million dollars a month. Did you run the

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Speaker 1: inflation calculator on I did not. You can only imagine

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Speaker 1: if forty dollars was almost one million dollars today, one

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Speaker 1: million back then would have been I can't even do

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Speaker 1: it email um. All joking aside, though eventually along with

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Speaker 1: the start of World War One, the national government turned

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Speaker 1: his attention towards story Ville decided that Storyville was to

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Speaker 1: be no more, and New Orleans Mayor Martin Barriman is

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Speaker 1: supposedly famous. First thing you can make it it being

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Speaker 1: prostitution illegal, but you can't make it unpopular. In February

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Speaker 1: of nineteen seventeen, the City of New Orleans passed a

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Speaker 1: new ordinance, and this one said that part of Storyville

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Speaker 1: could only be for white prostitutes. And then we're creating

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Speaker 1: a totally new part for black prostitutes, which meant that

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Speaker 1: the houses we talked about before with the Octoroon women

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Speaker 1: and the black houses would have to move. So my

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Speaker 1: favorite Countess Willie Piazza looked for an injunction against the

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Speaker 1: City of New Orleans, and the city wouldn't grant it.

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Speaker 1: The court wouldn't grant it. They appealed to the Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court of Louisiana and they wouldn't grant it either, So

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Speaker 1: her appeal was denied, and it seemed like it was

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Speaker 1: going to happen, and then the Secretary of War got involved,

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Speaker 1: and so Woodrow Wilson put his hand down and explained

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Speaker 1: that any type of establishment or activity which could potentially

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Speaker 1: cause harm to a young soldier or sailor couldn't exist.

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Speaker 1: We were entering World War One. We needed all of

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Speaker 1: the able bodied men that we could spare to go

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Speaker 1: over and fight, and um allowing prostitution to thrive in

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Speaker 1: the South was not going to work any longer. And

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Speaker 1: Orleans had a reputeation of being kind of the Babylon

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Speaker 1: of the South, some people called it at the time,

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Speaker 1: so it was a bit like Sodom, and people had

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Speaker 1: about had it up to there. And that signaled the

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Speaker 1: end of Storyville, which happened at midnight on November twelfth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. In the nineteen thirties, and an effort to

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Speaker 1: erase its memories of the past, New Orleans raised Storyville

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Speaker 1: and put the Iberville Federal Housing Projects in their place,

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Speaker 1: and I think only three of those buildings remain from

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Speaker 1: Storyville today. The Mahogany House wasn't able to be saved.

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Speaker 1: And if you're curious, you can actually pull up Google Maps.

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Speaker 1: And I entered story of all just for you know,

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Speaker 1: kids and Googles to see if it would put me

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Speaker 1: in some sort of reasonable district of where it once stood,

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Speaker 1: and as far as I could tell it, it did.

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Speaker 1: So I don't know any New Orleans locals, but um,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that if you ask people, they would still

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Speaker 1: be able to point you in the right direction of

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Speaker 1: where it once stood and if you have the general boundaries.

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Speaker 1: Even though the street names were also altered to help

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Speaker 1: erase the boundaries of once constituted the Prostitution District, I

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Speaker 1: think it's a memory that New Orleans will will have

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Speaker 1: for a long time to come. There's a book I

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Speaker 1: keep trying to locate over the past couple of days

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Speaker 1: by al Rose, which I think is the most famous

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Speaker 1: Storyville tail. But I'd take a look at it if

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Speaker 1: I could find it. I think it's issued by the

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Speaker 1: University of Alabama Press, so it's a little bit hard

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Speaker 1: to get your hands on. And the title of the

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Speaker 1: book is Storyville, New Orleans. So if you want to

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Speaker 1: learn more about reconstruction, South New Orleans and jazz, please

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Speaker 1: take a look at the website www dot how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Let us

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00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:43,480
Speaker 1: know what you think. Send an email to podcast at

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

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Speaker 1: out the stuff you missed in History Class blog on

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Speaker 1: the How Stuff Works dot com Home