Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

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One thing about New Orleans: it’s got a long history of lascivious living. What, the song countdown has had two songs about brothels or prostitutes (“House of the Rising Sun” and “Lady Marmalade,” respectively), and there’s the Doobie Brothers’ “Toulouse Street” (which didn’t make this countdown). Why is that? Let’s talk about Storyville. Doesn’t that sound like a pleasant name? Well, in doing this countdown I’ve found a lot of stories, and history, about the city. One of the things I found is that New Orleans was home to the first government-approved and regulated “red light district.” Las Vegas had nothing on New Orleans when it came to being “sin city”…in fact, New Orleans was the first city in America slapped with that unflattering label! In the late 19th century New Orleans councilman Sidney Story (pictured from the video screen grab) decided that he’d had all he could take of the “street walkers” tarnishing the reputation of the city. He drafted legislation that would remove all houses of ill-repute from the “tourist” area around the city and relocate them to a single place. Hopefully, Story thought, “out of sight, out of mind.” You know, they call prostitution “the world’s oldest profession” for a reason. Out of sight? Maybe. Out of mind? Are you nuts? Anyway, the law was passed, and a section of New Orleans, “off the main drag” as we would say today, was cordoned off as the only place where “disorderly houses” could operate. Now, Story thought he was doing something moral and upright. Imagine his humiliation when the prostitution area of town became known as “Storyville.” In fact, he was so distraught that his name was linked with the brothel section of town that he left town! (He moved to that bastion of morals, Chicago, where he died in 1937.) Then there was advertising. No kidding! There were a number of competing directories published (the most famous being the Blue Book) that listed the addresses of the brothels; AND, in many cases, had photographs and biographies (real or imagined, such as much of what one of the most famous madams, Lulu White, said about herself and her girls) of the ladies who were available. The title page of the Blue Book had, in French, Honi soit qui mal y pense (“Shamed be anyone who thinks evil of it”), which should tell you that these weren’t exactly cloistered nuns putting this thing out. Not only were these published and sold for money, they carried advertisements. Many of the ads were for cigars, liquor, and pharmacies offering snake oil, I mean curative treatments for various diseases (some books explicitly mentioned syphilis, while others were more tactful). The directories were listed alphabetically and by race. A couple of the books even had a separate area for the Creole and Jewish workers. Storyville was shut down by the government in 1917 because the Navy base was expecting a large influx of military personnel with the U.S. involvement in World War I, and they didn’t want training time wasted on sick call visits (and penicillin wouldn’t be discovered for another decade). The buildings, many of which were rather opulent mansions, were destroyed at the beginning of World War II to make room for the Iberville housing projects. The New Orleans historical sites agree that only three buildings are still standing from the “glory days” of America’s first legal “sin city.” Here’s a short video about the history of Storyville: