Storyville

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Storyville

• By Luz Peña

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Story Behind Storyville

• The district got its name from Alderman Sidney
  Story, who in 1898 decreed that prostitution
  should be legalized in the area. This was less a
  gesture of moral liberalism than one of pragmatic
  resignation. The decree was symptomatic of
  respectable society trying to find ways to
  control and confine a profession and its
  associated paraphernalia of gambling, drinking
  and crime, although at this time much of New
  Orleans' wealth originated in this area of town.
• Prostitutes concentrated in the blocks between
  Bourbon and Rampart Streets, particularly along
  Bienville, Burgundy, Conti, Dauphine, and St.
  Louis Streets.

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Storyville Back Then
4
The Photographer
Bellocqs Home
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Ernest J. Bellocq 1873-1949

• worked in New Orleans
• born in a white Creole family in the French
  Quarter
• made his living mostly by making photographic
  records of ships, machinery, and New Orleans
  Mardi Gras floats
• Bellocq is best remembered for his photos of the
  prostitutes of Storyville, (New Orleans'
  legalized red light district).
• Although the pictures were of prostitutes they
  show beautiful and graceful women.
• In the early 1900s, Ernest J. Bellocq carried his
  8 x 10-inch view camera across Basin Street to
  photograph the women of New Orleans.

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Samples of Bellocqs Work
These were photographs of prostitutes who worked
in the legalized brothels of Storyville around
1912 Some younger, older, heavier, thinner,
clothed, unclothed, seductive, distant, joyous,
troubled, and relaxed. Eighty-nine glass plate
negatives were allegedly found in Bellocq's desk
drawer after his death. In 1971 a selection of
the photographs were published in a book entitled
Storyville Portraits. They look very comfortable
with themselves and their profession.
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Testimonies From Storyville Prostitutes

• I try to pose as I think he would likeshy
  at first, then bolder. Im not so foolishthat I
  dont know this photograph we makewill bear the
  stamp of his name, not mine. Storyville Diary,
  Bellocq, April 1911

Please do not thinkI am the wayward girlyou
describe. I alonehave made this choice.Save
what I pay for board,what I earn is mine. Nowmy
labor is my own. Letters from Storyville,
January 1911
Ive learned the camera wellthe dangerof it,
the half-truths it can tell, but alsothe way it
fastens us to our pasts,makes grand the
unadorned moment. Letters from Storyville,
December 1911
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The Madams
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Madame Hattie Hamilton

• Hattie Hamilton was the first of the big-time
  Basin Street madams. Her enterprising paramour
  David Jackson guided her from bankruptcy to a
  fortune, but the state concubinage laws kept him
  from sharing in her estate. She was a famous
  madam who shot one of her clients (Mr. David
  Jackson, a Louisiana senator) and did not get
  charged for it.

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Madame Lulu

• Infamous octoroon madam Lulu owned White's
  Mahogany Hall where sex circuses were regularly
  staged. Her establishment is the most elaborately
  furnished house in the city of New Orleans, and
  one of the most elegant places. She has made a
  feature of boarding none but the fairest of girls
  those gifted with nature's best charms, and
  would, under no circumstances, have any but that
  class in her house. As an entertainer Miss Lulu
  is well read and one that can interest anybody
  and make a visit to her place a continued round
  of pleasure.

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Madame Josie Arlington

• Josie Arlington was the proprietor of the most
  elaborate bordello in the famous Storyville.
  Known at various times as Josie Alton, Josie
  Lobrano, and Lobrano d'Arlington, this short,
  hot-tempered little brunet decided to improve her
  manners in 1895, when she opened an establishment
  on Customhouse Street filled with "gracious,
  amiable foreign girls who would beat home only to
  gentlemen of taste and refinement." When
  Storyville opened as a segregated district of
  legal prostitution in 1898, Josie moved into the
  area. A fire in 1905 did extensive damage, and
  Josie and her "nieces" moved temporarily down
  Basin Street to rooms above Tom Anderson's saloon
  (where tours in New Orleans always began).

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Advertising
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Ad. For the French Ball
Political Cartoon
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Newspaper Clipings
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Promotion Through Books
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Blue Book was a forty page publication of
personal promotional pages from each of the
madams. The earliest such guide appeared about
1896, though they were produced in their present
format from 1909 to 1915 by Billy Struve on the
second floor of Lulu White's saloon at the corner
of Basin Street and Bienville. Struve was knee
deep in the business. The guides were sold
throughout the district, but primarily at the
corner of Basin and Canal. They include lists of
burlesque houses, names of landladies, and names
of prominent women in the trade. The prostitutes
are often identified by race, most commonly
white, black, and octoroon.
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Sample Blue Book Sections
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• Discovery of Jazz

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• Jazz was born in the brothels of New
  Orleans famous Red Light District, Storyville.
  Most jazz musicians in the district were employed
  in dance bands in clubs and restaurants such as
  Pete Lala's, the 101 Ranch, the Fewclothes
  Cabaret, the Tuxedo Dance Hall, and the Big 25.
  It was the first original art form developed in
  the United States, which went on to spread across
  the continent and around the globe during the
  20th century. Jazz expanded as musicians left New
  Orleans for places such as Chicago, New York and
  Kansas City. The first ever recording by a jazz
  artist in 1917 brought the music to a wider,
  multiracial audience and expanded its popularity.

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Jazz in Storyville
Jazz club, circa 1915
Jazz neighborhoods
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Storyville Today
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Works Cited

• http//www.angelpig.com/storyville/ebellocq.html
• http//www.carnaval.com/no/
• http//www.tripsmarter.com/neworleans/archives/sto
  ryville.htm
• http//www.wondersmith.com/heroes/models.htm
• http//www.historicfilms.com/library_pages/storyvi
  llejazz.html
• http//www.nps.gov/jazz/historyculture/jazz-map.ht
  m
• http//themoldydoily.typepad.com/photos/uncategori
  zed/2008/01/10/storyville_women.jpg