The Most famous brothel
in american history
Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history—and a catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago's notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last 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. "How is my boy?" Madam Minna always asked, and it wasn't long before her boy was quite well, indeed. Courtesans named Doll, Diamond Bertha, 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 even tutored in the philosophy of Balzac.
|
 |
 |
|
|
On Sin in the Second City
|
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 whipped 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. It was a furor that shaped America's sexual culture, and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
in the center of the inferno
"The most disreputable superlative," Herbert Asbury said of the Levee, "would fail to do it justice."
|
|
 |
Propriety to Modernity
With a real-life cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, Edgar Lee Masters, John D. Rockefeller Jr., William Howard Taft, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is a colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our 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 America's journey from Victorian era propriety to 20th century modernity.
|
