Chicken Teriyaki Bowl #7

I just finished reading Sin in the Second City with the subtitle “madams, ministers, playboys and the battle for America’s soul”.  It’s a nonfiction book which recounts the history of Chicago’s Everleigh Club and along the way readers are titillated with gossip and fascinating snippets of information.  For example, the Everleigh Club was so famous that the phrase “I’m going to get Everleigh’d” eventually changed into “I’m going to get leigh’d” and then, of course, “laid”. 

The history of the club and its two famous sister/madams makes good reading, but what interested me the most is how the sisters saw brothel-keeping as a real business.  They staged their public rooms with an eye to opulence and indulgence.  Girls were all adults and vetted very carefully by the sisters.  Drugs, weapons and scamming clients was not allowed.  Prostitutes were taught to read poetry and hold high-class conversation.  They dressed in clothes that a high society belle would not scorn.  A real doctor came regularly to check them.  The Everleigh Club was so desireable for prostitutes that a waiting list of potential employees was always long.

The club paid “taxes” to various police officials, city government workers and underworld bosses for protection and became famous all over the US and in Europe.

It’s a quick read and engrossing - Border’s had it on the “buy one get one half off” table.