Status
Available
Publication
Random House Trade Paperbacks (2008), Edition: Reprint, 400 pages
Description
History. Nonfiction. HTML: Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history---and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago's notorious Levee district at the dawn of the twentieth century, the club's proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh "butterflies" awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot's earnings and kept a "whipper" on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and were even tutored in the literature of Balzac. Not everyone appreciated the sisters' attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters' most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of "white slavery"---the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America's sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House. With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, "Hinky Dink" Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott's colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous club, and the perennial clash between our nation's hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of Americaâ??s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity.… (more)
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LibraryThing member TrishNYC
Minna and Ada Everleigh operated one of the most successful and well known brothels in Chicago from 1900-1911. Their success stemmed from their insistence on treating the women who worked for them as ladies complete with couture gowns, large salaries, sumptuous meals and an exclusive clientele. In
According to the author, the vice district of Chicago's south side was prior to the sisters arrival a place that offered little dignity for the women who exchanged their wares for monetary compensation. Most of the houses of ill repute treated the women who worked within with little regard and did not screen their clients, letting anyone who could pay gain entrance. The women were subjected to whippings for any perceived bad behavior and many a customer lost their belongings after they had been drugged by a woman who was supposed to be entertaining them. It was a lawless atmosphere rife with enormous danger.
Into this chaos stepped the Everleigh sisters who sought to reform vice and make it more respectable. The sisters acquired a property from its former madam, dismissed all the women currently working there and began to change the face of prostitution in Chicago. They made it clear from the start that theirs would not be a club into which any drunk sailor would stumble and be entertained. The Everleigh Club they insisted would be one that required an introduction by influential and well trusted friends in order to gain admittance. They applied the well oiled economic principle that by making something exclusive, you attract more business because everyone wants to see what the fuss is all about. Apparently, to have made it into the Everleigh club left you with a sense that you were special. The sisters spared no expense in building their dream brothel, from the beautiful women to the grand piano to the dinner hall that flowed with mounds of food, mirrored ceilings, thirty expensively furnished boudoirs, etc, etc, etc. Indeed, the sisters changed the face of the flesh trade.
As expected the sisters made some enemies of the old madams who had ruled the vice district before their arrival. Notable amongst their enemies was Vic Shaw who had an iron grip before their arrival. She was incensed at these upstarts who muscled in on her territory and she never ceased planning ways to bring about their downfall. But the Everleigh sisters enemies were not limited to the other madams. They also had to contend with the religious reformers who sought to close down all the brothels for what they saw as their role in the spread of sin. Prominent amongst the reformers was Rev. Ernest Bell who maintained a nightly vigil outside the Everleigh club calling on all who could hear to repent of the sins of the flesh.
The sisters thrived for eleven very prosperous years but would eventually fall victim to the wind of change that would sweep the city. The reformers and dedicated law men would eventually pressure the mayor to institute a crack down on the vice district. The sisters would not escape this time as they had done on previous occasions. This time they were forced to close down and begin their lives no longer as madams but as private citizens far from the trade that had made them famous.
I listened to this as an audiobook and I personally found it to be extremely entertaining. The characters were explored in depth and you couldn't wait to see what was coming next. With a cast that included characters with names like "Hinky Dink" Kenna, "Bathhouse" John and cursory mentions of the young gangster Al Capone, I knew I was in for an interesting ride. The narrator Joyce Bean is a good and engaging reader who draws one into the story quite easily. But as enjoyable as one may find the book, one must somewhat doubt the accuracy of the tale. On many occasions the author makes assertions to or alludes to conversations that unless she was standing right there when they happened it would have been impossible for her to have known that one of the speakers furrowed their brow, or pursed her lips or wondered about so and so. The author did this frequently enough for one to doubt or discount some of the things she claimed occurred. If one is writing non fiction then the matter should be treated as such and flowering the prose with one's imagination should be avoided. Unless the author is able to provide factual proof for many of these assertions, one is left to conclude that she took certain aspects of the characters' lives and dramatized and directed it to suit her story. This is too bad as the story of vice in Chicago in the 1900s and beyond was interesting enough without any need for flights of fancy. But all in all, it was a most entertaining read.
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order to be an Everleigh butterfly as they were nicknamed, you had to be extensively interviewed and provide proof that you were of the age of consent. If you passed the rigorous screening process, you were then schooled on the art of being a lady, proper etiquette and on the ways to please a man . The Everleigh club would play host to many famous dignitaries including John Barrymore, Jack Johnson, Theodore Dreiser, Marshall Field Jr. and Prince Heinrich of Prussia. What was it about this brothel that made it stand above all the others in the district? According to the author, the vice district of Chicago's south side was prior to the sisters arrival a place that offered little dignity for the women who exchanged their wares for monetary compensation. Most of the houses of ill repute treated the women who worked within with little regard and did not screen their clients, letting anyone who could pay gain entrance. The women were subjected to whippings for any perceived bad behavior and many a customer lost their belongings after they had been drugged by a woman who was supposed to be entertaining them. It was a lawless atmosphere rife with enormous danger.
Into this chaos stepped the Everleigh sisters who sought to reform vice and make it more respectable. The sisters acquired a property from its former madam, dismissed all the women currently working there and began to change the face of prostitution in Chicago. They made it clear from the start that theirs would not be a club into which any drunk sailor would stumble and be entertained. The Everleigh Club they insisted would be one that required an introduction by influential and well trusted friends in order to gain admittance. They applied the well oiled economic principle that by making something exclusive, you attract more business because everyone wants to see what the fuss is all about. Apparently, to have made it into the Everleigh club left you with a sense that you were special. The sisters spared no expense in building their dream brothel, from the beautiful women to the grand piano to the dinner hall that flowed with mounds of food, mirrored ceilings, thirty expensively furnished boudoirs, etc, etc, etc. Indeed, the sisters changed the face of the flesh trade.
As expected the sisters made some enemies of the old madams who had ruled the vice district before their arrival. Notable amongst their enemies was Vic Shaw who had an iron grip before their arrival. She was incensed at these upstarts who muscled in on her territory and she never ceased planning ways to bring about their downfall. But the Everleigh sisters enemies were not limited to the other madams. They also had to contend with the religious reformers who sought to close down all the brothels for what they saw as their role in the spread of sin. Prominent amongst the reformers was Rev. Ernest Bell who maintained a nightly vigil outside the Everleigh club calling on all who could hear to repent of the sins of the flesh.
The sisters thrived for eleven very prosperous years but would eventually fall victim to the wind of change that would sweep the city. The reformers and dedicated law men would eventually pressure the mayor to institute a crack down on the vice district. The sisters would not escape this time as they had done on previous occasions. This time they were forced to close down and begin their lives no longer as madams but as private citizens far from the trade that had made them famous.
I listened to this as an audiobook and I personally found it to be extremely entertaining. The characters were explored in depth and you couldn't wait to see what was coming next. With a cast that included characters with names like "Hinky Dink" Kenna, "Bathhouse" John and cursory mentions of the young gangster Al Capone, I knew I was in for an interesting ride. The narrator Joyce Bean is a good and engaging reader who draws one into the story quite easily. But as enjoyable as one may find the book, one must somewhat doubt the accuracy of the tale. On many occasions the author makes assertions to or alludes to conversations that unless she was standing right there when they happened it would have been impossible for her to have known that one of the speakers furrowed their brow, or pursed her lips or wondered about so and so. The author did this frequently enough for one to doubt or discount some of the things she claimed occurred. If one is writing non fiction then the matter should be treated as such and flowering the prose with one's imagination should be avoided. Unless the author is able to provide factual proof for many of these assertions, one is left to conclude that she took certain aspects of the characters' lives and dramatized and directed it to suit her story. This is too bad as the story of vice in Chicago in the 1900s and beyond was interesting enough without any need for flights of fancy. But all in all, it was a most entertaining read.
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LibraryThing member lostcheerio
There are two fine lines that Abbott had to navigate when writing Sin in the Second City, a historical account of the Everleigh Club, the fanciest and most infamous brothel in Chicago at the turn of the century.
The first line is between two moral positions.
Abbott has two heroines here: Minna and
If the Everleighs are the heroes, then the villains must be the reformers, the demonstrators and politicians who were trying to eliminate the vice district and "save" the girls who had "fallen" there as prostitutes. Among the characters on this team are pastors and evangelists, pious ladies, and also city officials trying to look good and crack down on crime. The problem with villainizing this side of the fight is that they actually did have a point. The danger with making a madam your hero is that there actually was a lot of horrifying stuff going on in these houses, stuff you don't want to cheer for, and can't fall in love with.
So, as a writer, do you position yourself with the madams, and giggle and titter your way through the book, pretending it's all so naughty and wry, and those stuffy old reformers are just party poopers? Or do you position yourself with the reformers, and spend the book pushing out that really new and interesting concept that prostitution is bad? Maybe there's a third solution, to just report what happened, be historically accurate, and educate us all so we can make... oh, wait, I just fell asleep while suggesting that as an option. So, none of those are books that I would want to read.
Fortunately, Abbott is smart. Very smart. And her smart book can present all these possibilities simultaneously. This is not an expose of the horrors of segregated vice in turn of the century Chicago. Nor is this a blushing homage to all those fabulous madams and the sexual excesses of the times. No one is exempt from criticism here. Abbott tells the stories of those vainglorious preachers and the hypocritical politicians, but also shines an unforgiving fluorescent light into the depths of vice: the strip-and-whip fights where girls lashed each other bloody for an audience, the girl's palm rotting from syphilis while still performing its handjob, the lies, the greed, the corruption, and all of it.
No one is exempt, that is, except the Everleighs themselves. In understanding this, I began to understand where the moral compass of the book truly points. I believe that Abbott would say that the sins of the vice district were black enough -- the sins of the white slavers and the opium dealers and the lower madams operating their 50 cent dives. The Everleighs, however, weren't doing anything very wrong, and in shutting down their clean, sophisticated, elegant club, where the men were treated fairly and the girls lined up to get a job, where the health and well being of the harlots was a priority and the customers were treated like customers, not sinners, the authorities threw the baby out with the bathwater. That is, I think, the way the book gets out of its predicament.
This moral subtlety allows the book to transcend that "choice" between the whores and the reformers, and allows the story of the characters to flourish without the weight of a judgment or the tension of the absence of judgment.
The second line that Abbott dances down is a literary one. She is, of course, telling the true story of actual people, and the research that went into this book is amazing. One look at the bibliography and your jaw will drop. However, there are things that cannot be known from research. The biographer's job is to tell the story in an engaging way that will live on the page, without embellishing the facts too much, to navigate between too strict a focus on reality and too fanciful an elaboration. Abbott accomplishes this brilliantly. Everything in quotation marks, in the book, was actually said by the real Everleighs, or other characters, and recorded in court documents, journals, or letters. But Abbott's story goes beyond the bare facts and delivers a prose that reads like fiction. None of the "we can't possibly know" or "it's unclear" but loads of vibrant descriptions, delightful details, and a narrative sense that really brings the landscape of the levee to life.
Sin in the Second City exploded my expectations. You know I loves me some violated dichotomies, yo. By defying the obvious choices, and creating her own rules, Abbott pays the Everleigh sisters great honor by putting them in the context they deserve.
The first line is between two moral positions.
Abbott has two heroines here: Minna and
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Ada Everleigh, the jewel-encrusted madams who elevated their little corner of the vice district beyond the dirty dance hall and onto a level of elegance and sophistication that attracted millionaire visitors and international attention. Minna and Ada are characters that the author clearly loves. As we follow their story from a mysterious lowly past to their glorious position as quiet, powerful queens of vice in a vicious city, we are invited to fall in love with them as well. There are pimps and madams that we can scorn, lesser characters who live down the street from the Everleighs, who run shitty dives and beat their girls, drug their customers and stick to their own floors. But the Everleighs are a different breed: smart, ethical, pure.If the Everleighs are the heroes, then the villains must be the reformers, the demonstrators and politicians who were trying to eliminate the vice district and "save" the girls who had "fallen" there as prostitutes. Among the characters on this team are pastors and evangelists, pious ladies, and also city officials trying to look good and crack down on crime. The problem with villainizing this side of the fight is that they actually did have a point. The danger with making a madam your hero is that there actually was a lot of horrifying stuff going on in these houses, stuff you don't want to cheer for, and can't fall in love with.
So, as a writer, do you position yourself with the madams, and giggle and titter your way through the book, pretending it's all so naughty and wry, and those stuffy old reformers are just party poopers? Or do you position yourself with the reformers, and spend the book pushing out that really new and interesting concept that prostitution is bad? Maybe there's a third solution, to just report what happened, be historically accurate, and educate us all so we can make... oh, wait, I just fell asleep while suggesting that as an option. So, none of those are books that I would want to read.
Fortunately, Abbott is smart. Very smart. And her smart book can present all these possibilities simultaneously. This is not an expose of the horrors of segregated vice in turn of the century Chicago. Nor is this a blushing homage to all those fabulous madams and the sexual excesses of the times. No one is exempt from criticism here. Abbott tells the stories of those vainglorious preachers and the hypocritical politicians, but also shines an unforgiving fluorescent light into the depths of vice: the strip-and-whip fights where girls lashed each other bloody for an audience, the girl's palm rotting from syphilis while still performing its handjob, the lies, the greed, the corruption, and all of it.
No one is exempt, that is, except the Everleighs themselves. In understanding this, I began to understand where the moral compass of the book truly points. I believe that Abbott would say that the sins of the vice district were black enough -- the sins of the white slavers and the opium dealers and the lower madams operating their 50 cent dives. The Everleighs, however, weren't doing anything very wrong, and in shutting down their clean, sophisticated, elegant club, where the men were treated fairly and the girls lined up to get a job, where the health and well being of the harlots was a priority and the customers were treated like customers, not sinners, the authorities threw the baby out with the bathwater. That is, I think, the way the book gets out of its predicament.
This moral subtlety allows the book to transcend that "choice" between the whores and the reformers, and allows the story of the characters to flourish without the weight of a judgment or the tension of the absence of judgment.
The second line that Abbott dances down is a literary one. She is, of course, telling the true story of actual people, and the research that went into this book is amazing. One look at the bibliography and your jaw will drop. However, there are things that cannot be known from research. The biographer's job is to tell the story in an engaging way that will live on the page, without embellishing the facts too much, to navigate between too strict a focus on reality and too fanciful an elaboration. Abbott accomplishes this brilliantly. Everything in quotation marks, in the book, was actually said by the real Everleighs, or other characters, and recorded in court documents, journals, or letters. But Abbott's story goes beyond the bare facts and delivers a prose that reads like fiction. None of the "we can't possibly know" or "it's unclear" but loads of vibrant descriptions, delightful details, and a narrative sense that really brings the landscape of the levee to life.
Sin in the Second City exploded my expectations. You know I loves me some violated dichotomies, yo. By defying the obvious choices, and creating her own rules, Abbott pays the Everleigh sisters great honor by putting them in the context they deserve.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Carlie
I have an affinity towards the later years of the 1800s and the early 1900s. This was a remarkable time in history when everything seemed to be shifting - rights of citizens, morality, technology. What a fascinating time it would have been to be alive. Beyond my taste for this time period, I was
Abbott has done a great deal of research and uses ample direct quotes taken from primary and secondary documents, resulting in a smooth piece of nonfiction that often reads like a novel. Although she may take liberties with the thoughts and motivations of those involved, I would argue that she likely hits close to the mark. As the story of Chicago's underworld mechanics unfolds, so does an intriguing and animated cast of characters.
The main focus of the story is on the Everleigh sisters, chronicling the circumstances of their entrance into Chicago's brothel industry and their mysteriously mutable history before they arrived. The Everleighs owned the most prestigious and opulent brothel in Chicago, unsurpassed and envied by all others, and they masterfully navigated amongst social circles of criminals, prostitutes, brothel owners, politicians, businessmen and ministers.
The Everleighs walked the line between propriety and bawdiness, but so did the whole city. Politicians, businessmen, citizens, and preachers vied to steer the community in the direction of their desires. At one time, brothels could operate relatively openly by paying the right people and staying on their side of the proverbial tracks. As ministers gained more influence and society began to look more negatively on prostitution, brothel owners began to feel a minor pinch. Reports of a white slave trade in young women brought further negative attention upon the trade, resulting in government level action to close down these businesses. I like to imagine what a different place Chicago was one hundred years ago - boundaries unestablished, morals questioned, life wilder.
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drawn to this book because of its subject matter, appealing both to my prurient and my historical interests.Abbott has done a great deal of research and uses ample direct quotes taken from primary and secondary documents, resulting in a smooth piece of nonfiction that often reads like a novel. Although she may take liberties with the thoughts and motivations of those involved, I would argue that she likely hits close to the mark. As the story of Chicago's underworld mechanics unfolds, so does an intriguing and animated cast of characters.
The main focus of the story is on the Everleigh sisters, chronicling the circumstances of their entrance into Chicago's brothel industry and their mysteriously mutable history before they arrived. The Everleighs owned the most prestigious and opulent brothel in Chicago, unsurpassed and envied by all others, and they masterfully navigated amongst social circles of criminals, prostitutes, brothel owners, politicians, businessmen and ministers.
The Everleighs walked the line between propriety and bawdiness, but so did the whole city. Politicians, businessmen, citizens, and preachers vied to steer the community in the direction of their desires. At one time, brothels could operate relatively openly by paying the right people and staying on their side of the proverbial tracks. As ministers gained more influence and society began to look more negatively on prostitution, brothel owners began to feel a minor pinch. Reports of a white slave trade in young women brought further negative attention upon the trade, resulting in government level action to close down these businesses. I like to imagine what a different place Chicago was one hundred years ago - boundaries unestablished, morals questioned, life wilder.
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LibraryThing member jordan.lusink
Before opening their world-famous Club, the Everleigh sisters, too, were girls who disappeared, and they reconstructed their histories at a time when America was updating its own. To that end, this book is also about identity, both personal and collective, and the struggle inherent in deciding how
I have always had something of a fascination with prostitution. I don't think I'm the only one, and I hope for Karen Abbott's sake that I'm right. Focused on Chicago shortly after the turn of the century, but more specifically on the Everleigh sisters and their Club, this book was fascinating. Operating in a time and place where the field was especially tainted, the Everleigh sisters did their best to remain classy and dignified, in a profession that doesn't easily lend itself to that.
There was a great deal of persecution of the prostitution that was taking place at that time, and rightly so. Even though it had been at least ignored previously, there were some very legitimate concerns that surfaced with regard to he profession. There were many young girls who were being taken advantage of, being used and abused and sold to the highest bidder. The Everleigh sisters said from the beginning, they were going to have only girls who wanted to be there, they were going to interview all of their clients ahead of time, they were going to be in control and protective of their girls. They had waiting lists of girls waiting to get into their brothel.
Written in a thoughtful, almost novel-like format, Abbott is organized, and unbiased in this retelling. She doesn't approach prostitution with automatic derision. She covers both sides: the madams and pimps, and the side of the religious and legal opposition.
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much of the old should accompany us as we rush, headlong, into the new. (xii)I have always had something of a fascination with prostitution. I don't think I'm the only one, and I hope for Karen Abbott's sake that I'm right. Focused on Chicago shortly after the turn of the century, but more specifically on the Everleigh sisters and their Club, this book was fascinating. Operating in a time and place where the field was especially tainted, the Everleigh sisters did their best to remain classy and dignified, in a profession that doesn't easily lend itself to that.
There was a great deal of persecution of the prostitution that was taking place at that time, and rightly so. Even though it had been at least ignored previously, there were some very legitimate concerns that surfaced with regard to he profession. There were many young girls who were being taken advantage of, being used and abused and sold to the highest bidder. The Everleigh sisters said from the beginning, they were going to have only girls who wanted to be there, they were going to interview all of their clients ahead of time, they were going to be in control and protective of their girls. They had waiting lists of girls waiting to get into their brothel.
Written in a thoughtful, almost novel-like format, Abbott is organized, and unbiased in this retelling. She doesn't approach prostitution with automatic derision. She covers both sides: the madams and pimps, and the side of the religious and legal opposition.
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LibraryThing member setnahkt
Ladies of ill repute are one of my favorite topics, and Chicago is my home town, so this is a natural. The story centers on the Everleigh sisters and their famous/notorious Everleigh Club in the Chicago Levee District at the turn of the 20th century. Alas, it’s kind of hard to tell how much is
The Everleigh Sisters ran the most expensive brothel in Chicago – possibly in the world. The entrance fee was $50, at a time when a workingman’s salary was around $50 a week. That didn’t get you anything but in the door (and the bouncers kept out anybody that didn’t look reputable, even if they could come up with the cash). Other houses in the Levee presented you with a row of bored ladies lined up in lingerie – at the Everleigh Club, all the girls were dressed in evening gowns and the parlor was supposed to be a place for conversation (in several languages), music, and discrete negotiation. The upstairs rooms all had themes – the Japanese Throne Room, the Blue Bedroom, etc. The girls got regular medical exams for one of the best doctors in Chicago; any girl could leave at any time, no questions asked; no drug use or drinking (by the girls) was allowed; and there was a waiting list pages long.
The very elegance of the Everleigh Club may have contributed to its downfall. The vice crusaders could apparently put up with hovels and cribs but not with something this deluxe. Author Abbott’s sympathies are clearly with the Everleighs; and most likely rightly so. The tack taken by reformers was racist and sexist, even for the times – the prostitution business was controlled by “Russian Jews” or “garlic-scented Italians” or Frenchmen, who turned good, clean American girls into white slaves. It was also claimed that Chicago was even more sinful than Salt Lake City, presumably based on religious prejudice as I expect Salt Lake City was probably the most vice-free city in North America in 1905. The inability of reformers to find a girl who would testify that she was a white slave didn’t hinder them at all; tracts and books claimed 60,000 girls a year entrapped by procurers. (The statistically inclined might want to calculate the population of girls of the appropriate age in, say, 1905 and figure out what percentage would need to be abducted to keep up with demand; this reminds me a little of the claim of a few years back that millions of children a year were being abducted to serve as human sacrifices in Satanist rites. I imagine the strategy was the same – arguing with the numbers made you a pimp or Satanist). Illustrations scattered through the book depict the downfall of a Gibson-girlish country maiden in the big city – first a casual meeting with a handsome stranger in an ice-cream parlor; then a dance hall (“the brilliantly lit entrance to Hell itself”); then the grave (some things may have been left out in between).
Unfortunately confirmable facts about what went on in the Everleigh Club are scare and Abbott is reduced to various dramatic but unverifiable stories. Writers and poets like Edgar Lee Masters and Theodore Dreiser were reportedly frequent visitors; how did they afford the entrance fee? Did the sisters give them a discount? A millionaire reportedly married one of the girls – a Chinese girl, at that – one would think that would be verifiable. Prince Frederick of Prussia is supposed to have visited, and was treated to a simulated Bacchante orgy in which the girls dressed in skins, tore into a pile of raw steaks supposed to simulate a bloody corpse, then leapt into the laps of the visiting German dignitaries (the same event is supposed to have originated the custom of drinking champagne from a ladies shoe. It might also explain a lot of German foreign policy toward the US, I suppose).
Another annoyance is despite Abbott’s obvious sympathy, the girls are almost always described as “whores” or “harlots”; maybe “courtesans” would have made the book to long?
The Everleigh’s downfall came when they published a brochure. It didn’t show any girls, or even describe what went on in the Club – just photographs of the ornately furnished interior. It was finally too much for the reformers, who demanded action from Chicago politicians or else. With considerable reluctance, the Chicago police shut down the entire Levee. The sisters move to New York, where they started a book club and poetry circle with their presumably clueless neighbors. (The Everleigh Club had been rather famous for having an expensive and extensive library. I can almost imagine myself traveling back in time. Standing nervously in the parlor, I’m approached by a kohl-eyed, saffron-gowned beauty whose musky perfume intoxicates me and whose already impressive décolletage is rendered even more dramatic by her custom corset and sheer blouse. “I’ve been watching you” she says. “You’re the shy, intelligent type – I like that in a man. If you’d like to come upstairs with me, we can do things that you never even imagined”. Rendered speechless and distracted by the caress of a satin-gloved hand, I’m in tow toward the stairs when suddenly I glimpse something just barely visible through my fogged-up spectacles. “Just a moment, Miss; are those books over there?” Ah, well. Feeding the intellect has its rewards, too. I wonder if I’d get my $50 refunded?)
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fact and how much is anecdotal. Ada and Minna Everleigh were extremely secretive about their own lives, and were always loyal to their customers, so author Karen Abbott depends a lot on hearsay.The Everleigh Sisters ran the most expensive brothel in Chicago – possibly in the world. The entrance fee was $50, at a time when a workingman’s salary was around $50 a week. That didn’t get you anything but in the door (and the bouncers kept out anybody that didn’t look reputable, even if they could come up with the cash). Other houses in the Levee presented you with a row of bored ladies lined up in lingerie – at the Everleigh Club, all the girls were dressed in evening gowns and the parlor was supposed to be a place for conversation (in several languages), music, and discrete negotiation. The upstairs rooms all had themes – the Japanese Throne Room, the Blue Bedroom, etc. The girls got regular medical exams for one of the best doctors in Chicago; any girl could leave at any time, no questions asked; no drug use or drinking (by the girls) was allowed; and there was a waiting list pages long.
The very elegance of the Everleigh Club may have contributed to its downfall. The vice crusaders could apparently put up with hovels and cribs but not with something this deluxe. Author Abbott’s sympathies are clearly with the Everleighs; and most likely rightly so. The tack taken by reformers was racist and sexist, even for the times – the prostitution business was controlled by “Russian Jews” or “garlic-scented Italians” or Frenchmen, who turned good, clean American girls into white slaves. It was also claimed that Chicago was even more sinful than Salt Lake City, presumably based on religious prejudice as I expect Salt Lake City was probably the most vice-free city in North America in 1905. The inability of reformers to find a girl who would testify that she was a white slave didn’t hinder them at all; tracts and books claimed 60,000 girls a year entrapped by procurers. (The statistically inclined might want to calculate the population of girls of the appropriate age in, say, 1905 and figure out what percentage would need to be abducted to keep up with demand; this reminds me a little of the claim of a few years back that millions of children a year were being abducted to serve as human sacrifices in Satanist rites. I imagine the strategy was the same – arguing with the numbers made you a pimp or Satanist). Illustrations scattered through the book depict the downfall of a Gibson-girlish country maiden in the big city – first a casual meeting with a handsome stranger in an ice-cream parlor; then a dance hall (“the brilliantly lit entrance to Hell itself”); then the grave (some things may have been left out in between).
Unfortunately confirmable facts about what went on in the Everleigh Club are scare and Abbott is reduced to various dramatic but unverifiable stories. Writers and poets like Edgar Lee Masters and Theodore Dreiser were reportedly frequent visitors; how did they afford the entrance fee? Did the sisters give them a discount? A millionaire reportedly married one of the girls – a Chinese girl, at that – one would think that would be verifiable. Prince Frederick of Prussia is supposed to have visited, and was treated to a simulated Bacchante orgy in which the girls dressed in skins, tore into a pile of raw steaks supposed to simulate a bloody corpse, then leapt into the laps of the visiting German dignitaries (the same event is supposed to have originated the custom of drinking champagne from a ladies shoe. It might also explain a lot of German foreign policy toward the US, I suppose).
Another annoyance is despite Abbott’s obvious sympathy, the girls are almost always described as “whores” or “harlots”; maybe “courtesans” would have made the book to long?
The Everleigh’s downfall came when they published a brochure. It didn’t show any girls, or even describe what went on in the Club – just photographs of the ornately furnished interior. It was finally too much for the reformers, who demanded action from Chicago politicians or else. With considerable reluctance, the Chicago police shut down the entire Levee. The sisters move to New York, where they started a book club and poetry circle with their presumably clueless neighbors. (The Everleigh Club had been rather famous for having an expensive and extensive library. I can almost imagine myself traveling back in time. Standing nervously in the parlor, I’m approached by a kohl-eyed, saffron-gowned beauty whose musky perfume intoxicates me and whose already impressive décolletage is rendered even more dramatic by her custom corset and sheer blouse. “I’ve been watching you” she says. “You’re the shy, intelligent type – I like that in a man. If you’d like to come upstairs with me, we can do things that you never even imagined”. Rendered speechless and distracted by the caress of a satin-gloved hand, I’m in tow toward the stairs when suddenly I glimpse something just barely visible through my fogged-up spectacles. “Just a moment, Miss; are those books over there?” Ah, well. Feeding the intellect has its rewards, too. I wonder if I’d get my $50 refunded?)
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LibraryThing member sublunarie
What do you do when you’re drawn to a book like this because it literally lists a bunch of things you are super interested in historically AND it all takes place in your favorite city in the world? You read it.
What do you do when it’s just the biggest disappointment you probably have ever had
This book sets itself up to be about Minna & Ada Everleigh, the proprietors of the Everleigh Club in Chicago in the early 1900s. Infamous for being one of the nicest, most expensive, and most extravagant brothels of it’s time, the subject matter seems like it should be teeming with intrigue. Somehow, Abbott has digested all of her research and sort of vomited it out onto 300-odd pages of what I found to be nearly unreadable drivel.
There is no story here. Abbott writes chronologically, but she introduces dozens of characters and we never really see anyone’s story from start to finish. The entire book reads like tiny anecdotes about brothel owners and patrons, politicians, and men of god who were sort of all in the Levee district at about the same time. Their stories are connected in a way, but not enough to be weaved together into a larger coherent story.
Perhaps the biggest problem I had with Abbott’s work is her characterizations. She “directly quotes” things people said to each other, privately, in 1900…?? She also often describes things like “she tilted her head questioningly” or the look on someone’s face as if either 1) she herself was present or 2) this is all bunch of bullshit/fiction. This is playing hard and fast with the idea of “history” and as a historian it made me INCREDIBLY uncomfortable.
Minna and Ada and their club is the most interesting thing you’ll find in this book, unfortunately their “story” only makes up about 15% of the pages.
What do you do when it’s just the biggest disappointment you probably have ever had
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in non-fiction? I can’t figure that out yet.This book sets itself up to be about Minna & Ada Everleigh, the proprietors of the Everleigh Club in Chicago in the early 1900s. Infamous for being one of the nicest, most expensive, and most extravagant brothels of it’s time, the subject matter seems like it should be teeming with intrigue. Somehow, Abbott has digested all of her research and sort of vomited it out onto 300-odd pages of what I found to be nearly unreadable drivel.
There is no story here. Abbott writes chronologically, but she introduces dozens of characters and we never really see anyone’s story from start to finish. The entire book reads like tiny anecdotes about brothel owners and patrons, politicians, and men of god who were sort of all in the Levee district at about the same time. Their stories are connected in a way, but not enough to be weaved together into a larger coherent story.
Perhaps the biggest problem I had with Abbott’s work is her characterizations. She “directly quotes” things people said to each other, privately, in 1900…?? She also often describes things like “she tilted her head questioningly” or the look on someone’s face as if either 1) she herself was present or 2) this is all bunch of bullshit/fiction. This is playing hard and fast with the idea of “history” and as a historian it made me INCREDIBLY uncomfortable.
Minna and Ada and their club is the most interesting thing you’ll find in this book, unfortunately their “story” only makes up about 15% of the pages.
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LibraryThing member SlySionnach
I'm really liking the way Karen Abbott writes history. It's not dry, it's not boring, and so far she's picked two topics I've been extremely interested in. She's on my "to watch" list for anything she publishes.
Sin in the Second City is the tale of the Everleigh sisters and their famous Chicago
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a slice of history about Chicago. Even if its not the most "prestigious" history.
Sin in the Second City is the tale of the Everleigh sisters and their famous Chicago
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brothel, the Everleigh Club. It follows through the EC's beginnings, its troubles (either from robberies, murders, or reformers) and its eventual end. Interwoven with the story of EC is the story of the Levee district and its important players like Hinky Dink McKenna and Bathhouse John, who helped rule Chicago's underground.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a slice of history about Chicago. Even if its not the most "prestigious" history.
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LibraryThing member Hallie27
Amazing. I highly reccommend this book. Informative and entertaining.
LibraryThing member Whisper1
This isn't a great book, but it did hold my interest. The tale of Chicago's brothels and the Everleigh sisters is a fascinating story and one I had not known until joining LT and noting this book was one mentioned by others. It is well written and researched. My only disappointment is that it
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seemed to fade in the end and it seemed to bog down with petty details. Other than that, though, it is worth reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaLynne
This is an interesting look at the way crime and politics work hand in hand. It is the story of the Everleigh Club (the old-time chorus of "I'm getting Everleighed tonight" has been shortened to the phrase we're more familiar with), the women behind it, its patrons, its competitors and the
It's important to know going in that brothels were not exactly illegal at the point in history covered by this book. Prostitution and gambling were confined to "vice districts" - parts of the city set aside for just that purpose, like the famous Red Light District in Amsterdam. Prostitutes in these houses were registered with the police department. Madams made regular protection payments to both police and politicians. The period of time the book covers is a transition, where various forces are pushing politicians away from the pragmatic view - that vice will always exist and if we keep it segretated only those looking for it will find it - and a more Puritan view. During this time period, there was a flood of stories about White Slavery in American cities: young women came to the cities for jobs, then were drugged or seduced or shanghaied into service at various houses of ill repute. The Everleigh sisters, by comparison, tried to run a truly classy establishment - their "butterflies" recited poetry, always appeared in evening dress, never in tawdry lingerie, they even provided regular doctors' examinations for their girls. They were icons at the end of an era.
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politicians who allowed it to operate.It's important to know going in that brothels were not exactly illegal at the point in history covered by this book. Prostitution and gambling were confined to "vice districts" - parts of the city set aside for just that purpose, like the famous Red Light District in Amsterdam. Prostitutes in these houses were registered with the police department. Madams made regular protection payments to both police and politicians. The period of time the book covers is a transition, where various forces are pushing politicians away from the pragmatic view - that vice will always exist and if we keep it segretated only those looking for it will find it - and a more Puritan view. During this time period, there was a flood of stories about White Slavery in American cities: young women came to the cities for jobs, then were drugged or seduced or shanghaied into service at various houses of ill repute. The Everleigh sisters, by comparison, tried to run a truly classy establishment - their "butterflies" recited poetry, always appeared in evening dress, never in tawdry lingerie, they even provided regular doctors' examinations for their girls. They were icons at the end of an era.
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LibraryThing member cybrarian_wi
Quite interesting - a bit of crossover with "Devil in the White City" (occurs during the same time period)
LibraryThing member Kasthu
Sin In the Second City, by Karen Abbott is the story of the two Everleigh sisters, Ada and Minna, who came to Chicage in 1899 to begin their own high-class brothel, one of the most notorious in the Levee district of the city. The sisters come to life as they encounter a variety of adversaries: Vic
Abbott brings the past to life, and sometimes I kept forgetting that this isn't fiction. The Everleigh sisters were a complicated pair of women, who actually hated men; they simply learned how to handle them. I absolutely adored this book. As a blurb on the back of the book by Sarah Gruen, author of Water for Elephants says, "Sex, opulence, murder--what's not to love?"
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Shaw, the rival madam who tried, unsuccessfully for a while, to bring the sisters down; the Weiss brothers, wo ran the brothel next door; and most of all the reformers who tried to shut the brothels down. Sin In the Second City takes place in an era when Chicago, and the United States, were changing.Abbott brings the past to life, and sometimes I kept forgetting that this isn't fiction. The Everleigh sisters were a complicated pair of women, who actually hated men; they simply learned how to handle them. I absolutely adored this book. As a blurb on the back of the book by Sarah Gruen, author of Water for Elephants says, "Sex, opulence, murder--what's not to love?"
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LibraryThing member Naberius
While not as good as Devil in the White City, as a Chicago history buff, I found this book an interesting read. Definitely a good story of 2 enterprising women!
LibraryThing member RebeccaReader
At the turn of the 20th century, Minna and Ada Everleigh were determined to take control of their own fate. They began their own at-home business--a brothel--making it the best and the most exclusive such establishment in Chicago. Abbott puts the sisters story in context, giving full details about
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the politicians, businessmen, and reformers that ran in their circle. A fascinating tale about a fascinating time. Show Less
LibraryThing member scouthayduke
This would make the perfect compliment to Devil in the White City. Granted it's about prostitution and that was about murder and the World's Fair, but this one takes place about 10 years after White City and does a similar job of painting Chicago in all of it's dirty, crime-laden, prosperous
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excitement. Show Less
LibraryThing member arianr
This book centers on the world's oldest profession and its heyday in Chicago from about the 1890s through the 1910s. Using a variety of archival sources, Abbott traces the rise and eventual closing of the Everleigh Club (which as Johnathan Yardley says "probably the most famous whorehouse in
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America's history") run by two sisters from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. The cast of characters in this book is certainly colorful, from the madams to the local neighborhood mobsters, to the politicians engaged in graft, and to the zealous moral crusaders of the day. While the recounting of events is most certainly accurate, the story fades towards the end, much like the colorful characters described so vividly in the first half. That's probably the biggest weakness with the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Djupstrom
This should have been a great book, what with the whores, sex, money, and prostitution....right?! I was hoping for a similar read to Devil in the White City, but this book read like a pure textbook. It was dry, dull, and boring for the most part. A bit of a disappointment.
LibraryThing member campingmomma
The first 3rd of this book was something I could not put down with the entertaining, yet historically factual, story of the Everleigh sisters. The second 3rd of this book started to slow down almost to a point of 'alright already- I get it this is more than just a story it's really important to the
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history of Chicago, the white-slave trade, the purity movement, and the corruption of their police and gov't. systems". Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I really missed the story of the sisters. The last 3rd of story started to pick back up as we saw what this meant to all involved. Show Less
LibraryThing member ScottSummers
Sin in the Second City is a fantastic historical narrative about the ban on prostitution in the city of Chicago during the 1900s. The non fiction story revolves around the Everleigh sisters and their desire to bring the brothel business up from the depths of society and make it more socially
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accepted. They ran a high class club in Chicago, catering to many businessmen and politicians. The content is fused directly with politics of the time, especially laws regarding pandering and white slavery. It is a must read for those who long to discover the legality of prostitution during the Progressive Era, and it is more than appropriate for a mature high school class. The best thing about this novel is that everything in it is truly factual, but the narrative flows like a typical story. This fusion of the non fictive and the fictive narrative style give the novel the power to be accessible, interesting, and truly fun to read. The story within is unbelievably interesting and gives new perspectives on laws and lawmakers and their relation to the operation of brothels. Show Less
LibraryThing member madamepince
Not a a bad read, but I found myself wishing I could read the memoir the Everleigh sisters claimed to have written.
LibraryThing member eenerd
This is one of the most readable non-fiction books I've ever read. Karen Abbot is great in that she writes good history that reads like a novel. Pulls you in, holds your attention and keeps you reading because you just gotta know what happens next! Of course, her choice of subject-the rise of
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Chicago's dark underbelly during the first 2 decades of the twentieth century and the very public fight between good and evil that followed. Show Less
LibraryThing member JonathanGorman
Not a bad book, although I wonder how much came from the original historical material and how much was created by the author. Given some of the state of the original source manuscripts (and the admitted propensity for the sisters to make up tales) it leads one to wonder what other interpretations
That being said, it's a solid read about an interesting time and slice of Chicago history. I might even re-read some sections and try to track down some of the original source material.
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could exist.That being said, it's a solid read about an interesting time and slice of Chicago history. I might even re-read some sections and try to track down some of the original source material.
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LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
Once again I seem to be swimming against the tide of opinion on this book. Plainly and simply speaking, I didn't think it was all that great. The subject matter was interesting, and it's fun to be a voyeur sometimes, looking into people's shady lives, but I just didn't think it was that well
Long and short of it -- I liked the subject matter, thought it could have been fleshed out quite a bit more; the writing (imho) was just flat. I've seen comparisons by readers of this author to the work of Erik Larson and (again imho) it doesn't begin to come close. I had to make myself finish this book and that's never good.
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written -- kind of dry in the execution. I love history (it was my undergrad, grad and postgrad field) and I love history when it's written so that the general reader can read, relate to and understand it, but for some reason, her writing style just left me flat. Also -- my bone of contention is that she didn't have credible sources for the real story of Everleigh sisters, but went on to tell the tale anyway. Long and short of it -- I liked the subject matter, thought it could have been fleshed out quite a bit more; the writing (imho) was just flat. I've seen comparisons by readers of this author to the work of Erik Larson and (again imho) it doesn't begin to come close. I had to make myself finish this book and that's never good.
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LibraryThing member aliciamalia
I've seen perhaps a dozen reviews for this book in the past few weeks, and am convinced that not a single reviewer actually read the book. The subject matter has potential (very high end prostitution in Chicago around the turn of the twentieth century), but the execution is awful. Terrible.
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Seriously-wasting-your-time bad. Skip it. Show Less
LibraryThing member knightlight777
This looked like an interesting book from the cover and it kind of was. My interest also stemmed from the fact that I lived on the same street in Chicago in the late 70's. But I was on N. Dearborn St. just out of the Loop, doubtful one would last long in the S. address in this or that day.
At first
At first
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I found the read entertaining and engrossing. As it went on though I thought it got bogged down in the battle of politics between the street machine guys and the religionists and reformers. A little boring for me, but 100 years later we seem to have the same political factions still squaring off, so that is relevant. This era had much to offer as a spectacle in many ways but the living conditions especially for the masses of the poor not so much. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Great Lakes Book Award (Finalist — General Nonfiction — 2008)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007
Physical description
400 p.; 5.21 inches
ISBN
0812975995 / 9780812975994