Legend and Lore of Brothels, Bordellos and Bawdy Houses

[Billy A. Anderson]

On the Entertainment thread where I discussed finally seeing A House Is Not A Home, about Polly Adler, "American's Most Famous Madam," I got to wondering
whether that superlative was for Miss Adler was really correct.

I suppose she might have been the Most Famous American Madam for a certain span of years, but how about for the entire history of the USA?

I did a net search, on Famous American Madams, and Polly was on the list, as having operated 9 houses in New York City.

But, she didn't seem to be a standout on the list of so many madams.

And, one Madam I did not see on the list was Miss Hazel Weiss of Sunset Lodge, said to be internationally famous, and "probably the most famous brothel east of the Mississippi."

While that superlative does have some qualifications, and I'm questioning its validity, it also made me wonder about which houses West of the Mississippi were the most famous of that area?

And, is is possible that Sunset Lodge was one of, rather than THE most famous house East of the Mississippi?

Sunset Lodge and the other once great bawdy houses have faded from the American scene for so long, that they are largely a subject of folklore handed down from the long gone generations of those who worked in and patronized such places.

The story of Miss Hazel and her house is told  again and again, with the same tiresome legends repeated ad nauseum.

Here's a link to a writer who has tried to find out what the actual facts surrounding Miss Hazel and her house were, versus, or in addition to what may be true among  the legend and lore.

www.coastalobserver.com/articles/2016/052616/5.html

Well, I clicked on the link, and got "Page Not Found," although in the past, I did get to the page when I clicked on it.

It's August 11, 2019, that I did this edit, and I started this page on July 30, 2018, and the link was still working then.  

[Billy A. Anderson]

Now, to try to find if there is a utube video of Rowan and Martin of Laugh In, awarding the Fickle Finger of Fate award to Sheriff Woodrow Carter, for closing 
Sunset Lodge.

The closing was reported in the Myrtle Beach Sun-News of December 18, 1969, on Page 2-A. column 2.

The newspaper article quotes the Sheriff as saing, "it went out of operation Friday in the afternoon."

So, what Friday in December of 1969 would that have been.

I did find a link to a webpage with a list of Fickle Finger of Fate Awards, so I'm hoping to find the one to Sheriff Carter, and also a utube video of R & M giving the award.

This link lists awards by season and episode numbers, and right now I don't know which season to look for, and what dates the episode numbers were.

But, it is a start.

Anyone else interested who can find out all this before I can, please do so, since I've got plenty more to do here on ZAQB.


www.tv.com/shows/rowan-and-martins-laugh-in/trivia/season-all/4

[Billy A. Anderson]

Here is a good link on Polly Adler:

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-house-that-polly-adler-built-65080310/

This article says Polly was "arguably" American's Most Famous Madam, and that she did make it her goal to attain that status.

Interestingly, her career did overlap with that of Miss Hazel Weiss of Sunset Lodge, with Polly retiring in 1943 when Miss Hazel was
nearing the first decade of operating Sunset Lodge.

Although another source I read claims Polly got her college degree after retiring, this source says she finished her high schoool studies
and graduated from high school, after retiting, and I dodn't notice any mention of her pursuing higher education with a college degree.

That's why I, and anyone else recounting follkore needs to keep links to the sources they quote from.

[Dr. Kobb]

Well, good luck on your search for that Laugh-In bit.  I was still very little when that show was on, but I remember even now the indelible impression the body-painted go-go dancers left on a young Kobb. 

As far as historic cathouses, apparently P'cola had it's share back in the day.  Between being a port town and always having a big Navy presence.  There's even a tour that takes you through the still standing structures downtown.  I've just never gotten around to it. 

[Billy A. Anderson]

BONNASTOLE on that, Dr. Kobb. I suppose every community which had the long gone Great American Bawdy Houses attaches some kind of superlative to those places.

While I read Xavier Hollander's the Happy Hooker, it still can't hold a candle to Pauline Tabor's Memoirs of the Madam of Clay street. And, that is literal. Pauline said her house had a hard rubber "dick" for those who requested "rear end jobs," but one "old goat," who frequented her house, could only be satisfied with lubed up candles.

The Legend and Lore of the Bawdy Houses is on record, but the Legend and Lore of Ed D Louie and HIM, is far from complete, and needs more attention, while stuyding the bawdy houses can be on the back burner.

With the strategy I've got mapped out, I expect good results in finding out more about this much neglected part of America's (in this case based on undeniable fact) Urban Legends.

[Billy A. Anderson]

I did some reading on Net sites selling Pauline's Memoirs of the Madam on Clay Street and was surprised to find out it had been printed FIVE TIMES ! ! !

And, it did have a paperback edition.

I didn't see any dirt cheap few cents a copy offers, either.

Pauline had suffered from a disease that had made her infertile, so she didn't have to worry about pregnancy and turned a few tricks independently before deciding that hiring other ladies to work for her as a madam would be more profitable.

However, she did say that after becoming a madam she did, on occasion turn some tricks herself.

I can well understand how people become bored at the endless repitition of the same tired old legends of Miss Hazel Weiss and Sunset Lodge (too bad she didn't write her memoirs), but bawdy minded persons of all sexual persuasions and orientations would probably find Pauline's explicit descriptions of what went on in her house entertaining.

[Billy A. Anderson]

After giving the microfilm machine at the local branch of the county library a workout yesterday afternoon, I have for the present, suspended any efforts at finding the original report on the closing of Sunset Lodge and Rowan and Martin's Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award which prompted the following letter to the editor of the Myrtle Beach Sun-News  of April 16, 1970.

Dear Sir:

It seems a problem to get enough news to print in The Sun News.  It was not newsworthy the article which gave the Fickle Finger of Fate award to the people who closed Sunset Lodge.

The Person who wouldn't sign a name to the letter was probably married but a (sneak?) who finds pleasure in sinful behavior.

Open white slavery is downgrading a states (????) the law officer should do their best to stop this kind of thing.  

Sincerely,
Mrs. B.A. H---
Surfside Beach

[Billy A. Anderson]

Haven't updated this one in quite some time. Since my last update, my turn on the library's waiting list for "Keeper of the House," the novel based on S***** L****, arrived from the county library, and I looked it over.

It was stated in the preface that it was based on that reputedly internationally famous bawdy house, and while the author claimed that Miss Hazel's house operated into the mid 1970s, it actually closed in December of 1969. No big deal to me.

Also, in the prefacing pages was a reference to a Blue Book of bawdy houses.

That is something to do a net search on.

I'm sure no public library (or at least none that I know of), would have that Blue Book in its holdings, and I didn't even make a note on the exact name of the Blue Book, but I would like to see it, and just what it had to say about Miss Hazel's house.

In the novel, the house was given a name with hazel in it, can't remember exactly what it was.

Parker Anderson has just published a new book co-authored with Darlene Wilson, titled Haunted Prescott, and one chapter deals with the Red Light District of that city,the houses being closed during WW 1, on order of the US Military. Parker is not exactly specific in all of the details, but
that is the direct of the experience that Pauline Tabor reported in her Memoirs of the Madam on Clay Street.

During WW 2, local authorities closed her house, but the soldiers were catching so much VD, that the US military asked her to reopen it, since like any good madam, she had her girls regularly checked for VD.

Red lights at some bawdy houses, pink neon at Miss Hazel's house. I would suppose that in addition to having her reception building shrouded in pink neon, that Miss Hazel would have had a sign identifying it as S***** L****, but none of the photos that I have seen of the place show such a sign.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Well, this thread has really bombed, and been a big disappointment to me.

A man from Columbia, South Carolina has written a book about Sunet Lodge, but it was published in Australia and does not ship to the USA.

www.amazon.com.au/Sunset-Lodge-Georgetown-Story-Madam/dp/1467143669

It is available on Kindall.

Anybody here a member of Kindall?

Is membership on a yearly basis?

I can't think right now of any other books I might want to read on Kindall, but if any books that would aid in the Ed D Louie and HIM project were on Kindall, that might be an incentive for me to join Kindall.

If anyone can tell me about their experiences with Kindall, please do so.

[Deeky]

Oh my god. Billy.

www.amazon.com/dp/1467143669/

[Billy A. Anderson]

Deeky, I am wondering now, if Kindle is a pay-for-view thing, where you have to first pay for a membership, and then pay each time you read a book it has listed?

If that is the case, I certainly would not have the money to do that.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Well, Deeky, when I clicked the kindle app URL on my first visit to the Amazon web page, I got NO results at all, but this time, I see that the app is free and will be sent to me by email, so I typed in my email address and clicked for them to send the app to me, which I will install.

But, while it seems like there's not a Kindle membership fee, it looks like I'll have to pay $12.00 + to read the book as Kindle pesents it.

When I used to do my courhouse work in Georgetown, I never looked up Sunset Lodge in the land deeds.

It could have been listed under the name Hazel Weiss instead.

And, that Amazon listing said that the newspapers did report on Miss Hazel's donations to local charity, wheras the usual legend and lore that is really very scant and is endlessly repeated over and over again, says the local press ignored her.

I'm sure they didn't ignore her when she asked the Sheriff to order her to close the house in December of 1969,which avoided her being arrested like happened to Polly Adler and Pauline Tabor.

I can't remember if I told about finding a 1973 ad for a showing of the Sylvester Stallone X - rated softcore film, The Party at Kitty and Studd's Place, at the Strand theater on Front Street in Georgetown, or not, when I checked the local Georgetown newspapers or not.

I should have checkded the December 1969 closing of Sunset Lodge to see what kind of press coverage that event got.

I dread paying $12.00+ and having to learn how to use a Kindle reader, but if this book finally has something more than those brief endlessly repeated bits of legend and lore about Miss Hazel and her house, it will be great..

[Billy A. Anderson]

Well, here is what I got in my email for the free Kindle is it called a reader?

I'm going to have to do a net search and find out more about just what Kindle is.

Dear Kindle Reader,

Thank you for your interest in the free Kindle App. In order to download the Kindle app, please open this email on your phone or tablet, and then click the link below to go to your app store for download. You can also click this link on your PC or Mac to download the free Kindle desktop app.

Download the free Kindle reading app

With your free Kindle App, you will get access to a great selection of over 3 million Kindle Books, lowest prices, and thousands of free eBooks .

Happy reading,

Kindle Books Team

I clicked on the link in the email, and what do you think I got?

A page with a schematic frowning human face on a right upper corner dog eared paper, and the following message:

"This www.amazon.com page can't be found.

No webpage was found for the web address:

www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/landing page

HTTP ERROR 404"

In the lower right of the page was a "Reload" button with white lettering on a blue background.

And, I got nothing when I clicked on that button.

[Billy A. Anderson]

I'm still planning to buy a copy of "Sunset Lodge In Georgetown," which is presumably now on sale in the USA.

I probably should check Amazon, to see if US sales have started yet.

On the other hand, the author might well tour the local bookstores, autographing copies, but I really don't go in for those types of things.

My guess is that the local public library would not invite him to lecture on his book, due to the outre subject matter, but you never know, and I could be wrong.

Keeping the memory of Sunset Lodge alive, seems to be the, is province? the right word? of High Society people, of the type that Miss Hazel catered to.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Well, the book, Sunset Lodge in Georgetown, is finally on sale in the USA and I've gotten my copy. The author is a very prudish man, who is an Elder in a Presbyterian Church,and is bothered by what his Brothers and Sisters in Christ might think about his interest in writing such a book.

There is even statement from the pastor of his church, which says, "This book is not as bad as I feared."

Can you believe that ??? !!!

It does give the correct spelling of Miss Hazel's surname, Weisse, rather than Weiss, and gives the correct(I hope) date of her death, so i can look up her newspaper obituaries.

It also gives census listings, were Sunset Lodge is described as a "boarding house" where three women including Miss Hazel lived.

Miss Hazel did report her income to the IRS. The girls got 1/2 of the johns' payments. When she opened in 1936, the fee was $3. That's only one dollar more than the scorned "two dollar whore houses." When she closed in 1969, the fee was $20.00 Oscar Levant, in his memoirs tells of going to a house where the fee was I forget, what? straight, and a bit higher for French.

No such details, so far at least, and considering the prudishness of the author there probably won't be any elaboration.

The author says a few men admitted to him they had patonized Sunset Lodge, and a few of them even went into great details about their visits there, which caused him great embarrassment, and he refuses to include in the book.

He tried to get an interview with a still living woman who worked for Miss Hazel,but she refused his request.

There are very few photos. One of the staircase in the reception building, which had one bathroom and four bedrooms. Miss Hazel had an intercom system in all of the bedrooms, in that building, and also in the cabins, so she could hear if any violent disturbances on the part of the Johns took place.

This is not going to be anything like Pauline tabor's memoirs.