Upstairs Girl, Prostitution in the american west

[tntyrant]

I just finished this book and it's very informative about the oldest profession as it was practiced in the wild west, and a few biographies of some of the ladies. Something I didn't know, saloon and dance hall girls were usually not prostitutes and a few of the madams of "boarding houses" or parlor houses actually made fortunes. There are stories I'd never heard before but would make for good fanfic, (especially the one about the two madams in Deadwood that had a gun fight over a man and one actually shot the man by accident, didn't kill him though. And several of the infamous ladies were in Abilene and Deadwood.). There were several terms for prostitutes and brothels. Here are a few that I have and haven't ever heard.....

Prostitute and establishment they would work at
alley cat
bawd bawdy house
belladonna
billbboard girl
boarder boarding house
calico
cat cat house
common woman
cottage girl cottage--worked for herself and rented or owned her "house"
crib girl crib/crib house--very low end prostitute
cyprian
daughter of joy house of joy
daughter of sin
daughter of Venus
demi-monde
disorderly girl/woman disorderly house
soiled dove or dove
erring sister
fair bell
fair sister
fallen angel
fallen frail
fallen woman
fancy woman
fille de joie
frail sister girl
harlot
harpy
harridan
haute couture
hog hog ranch
hooker
lady of the evening
lady of the half world
lady of the night
laundress
lewd woman lewd house
Magdalene house of Magdalene
nymph
nun nunnery
painted lady
prairie flower
prairie nymph
public girl public house
queen house of queens
row girl row house
shady lady
sister
sister of misery
sporting woman sporting house sporting section(red light district)
street nymph
streetwalker
two-bit whore two-bit house (could buy a woman for a quarter)
upstairs girl upstairs house
whore
wayward sister
woman of easy virture
woman of ill repute house of ill repute
woman of questionable virture

other names for bordellos
bagnio
bang house
bordello
brothel
chicken ranch
den
dives
half acre/hell's half acre (actual name of two red light districts, Ft Worth and San Antonio. Also the name of a brothel.)
hotel de refreshment
house of inmates
parlor house (very up scale house of prostitution, pretty girls, fine food and beverages, and romance was "played at")
seminary
shack
shanty
shebangs
social club
wine room

There are more terms listed but it'd take more space, so if there is a specific one you'd llike just email me.

TN Dee

[Miss Raye]

excellent book, Dee

[Shannon]

Thanks for sharing, I'll definitely need to find this book for a story I'm working on where Lou wasn't able to escape from Wicks.

[Miss Raye]

found good prices on Amazon and i got free shipping since i ordered the new one and another book to make 25.00

[Ellie]

Dee, does the book have anything about slang names for the men who went to prostitutes? I see there's lots of names for the girls, but what about their customers? I could use it for a piece of dialogue I'm writing

thanks- e

[tntyrant]

I don't recall a specific name being used. I looked at the book real quick tonight and didn't see one. From what I read if it was a parlor house he would have been considered a caller, other then that the book only calls them men, soliders and such. The book centered more on the woman's side of the story so to speak. Also, at that time the fault was always placed on the woman and not the man. Women who were prostitutes were shunned by "good society" while the men that visited them were very seldom held responsible for "visiting" them.

Even Native Americans had the same point of view to an extent. One case in point made in Upstairs Girls is that Custer took a Cheyenne woman that had been captured during Washita and "kept" her during the winter and spring of '68-'69. Upstairs Girls says that Custer denied this and that the child the woman had was not his. The woman Monahseetah when she returned to her village with the child was not allowed to marry a Cheyenne man because she had been with Custer and had born him a child and therefore considered spoiled. The child was said to follow his mother every where and was named Yellow Bird because he was blond.

Though in UpStairs Girls says that Custer denied taking the woman in another book, Custer's Fall:The Native American Side of the Story says it was true and that Monahseetah and Yellow Bird were at Little Big Horn. The book was written after the author interviewed Native American's that had fought at Little Big Horn, on both sides. Mahwissa was the aunt of Monahseetah, the young woman Custer had taken. Mahwissa claimed Custer after the battle was a relative and wouldn't let the warriors desecrate Custer's body.

That is more info then you asked for but I had meant to add it after I read the story and forgot to.

TN Dee

[catsimmie]

Currently on the History Channel the episode is called "Brothel Tech" and it talks more about brothels and things like that. Check your local listings for days and time.

Thanks to Lisa for telling me about it