The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West [Paperback]

Chris Enss (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Place your bets, place your bets . . .

 

From the muddy cowtowns of Montana to the posh parlors of Deadwood and Tombstone, past a succession of swinging batwing doors to the smoke-filled rooms in the back, some of the most colorful ladies in the Wild West also happened to be some of the shrewdest gamblers.

 

With her inimitable instinct for a good story, Chris Enss points her pen toward fifteen of the most fascinating characters to ever flip a hole card or lace a corset. “Poker” Alice Ivers, for instance, checked and raised her way through some of the roughest mining towns in the West, while Lottie Deno, the prettiest faro dealer to ever turn a card, “bucked the tiger” all the way from Texas to Alaska. And who could ever bet against Eleanora Dumont, a twenty-one dealer known far and wide as “Madam Moustache”?

About the Author

Chris Enss is an award-winning screen writer who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies, and is the co-author (with JoAnn Chartier) of Love Untamed: True Romances Stories of the Old West, Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon: Women Patriots and Soldiers of the Old West and The Cowboy and the Senorita and Happy Trails (with Howard Kazanjian). Her most recent books include Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and How the West was Worn. Her research and writing and reveals the funny, touching, exciting, and tragic stories of historical and contemporary times.

Enss has done everything from stand-up comedy to working as a stunt person at the Old Tucson Movie Studio. She learned the basics of writing for film and television at the University of Arizona, and she is currently working with Return of the Jed" producer Howard Kazanjian on the movie version of The Cowboy and the Senorita, their biography of western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: TwoDot; 1st edition (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762743719
• ISBN-13: 978-0762743711
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Old West Lives Again!, November 29, 2007

By 

Dale W "Tucson TV Guy" (Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West (Paperback)

I've just finished "The Lady Was a Gambler" and it is a great read! Non-fiction can easily become boring, but this book takes you in right from the start and holds you all the way through. Each chapter is the story of a different lady gambler of the frontier days, and each story is equally captivating. Ms. Enss paints pictures with her words that take you back in time to the degree that you can actually hear the honky-tonk piano playing in the corner and smell the perfume over the cigar smoke. The period artwork and photos add to the adventure. It's a world that's seldom talked or written about, and she leaves the reader wanting even more. If you like the old west, or western stories, this book should be in your library.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read, June 10, 2010

By 

Marie (Greensboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West (Paperback)

This book is full of interesting stories about the gambling women of the Old West. The photos were very telling and well selected. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in women's history or the Old West in general.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating history of 15 women gamblers of the American Wild West., February 4, 2010

By 

Cathy G. Cole (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West (Paperback)

First Line: An attractive, statuesque woman with golden blonde curls piled high on top of her head sat behind a large table in the back of the Pacific Club Gambling Parlor in San Francisco, California.

There's something about the ching of spurs, the slap of the bat-wing doors of a saloon, and the alluring smile of a beautiful faro dealer. They are some of the most common sounds and sights that come to mind when people think of the Wild West. Author Chris Enss provides names and histories to fifteen of these pretty gambling faces, and it's a pleasure to get to know them all.

Alice Ivers ("Poker Alice") was in the gambling profession for more than sixty years. She died broke at the age of seventy-nine. "I gambled away fortunes," she once told a friend, "but I had a ball doing it." She also never sat down at the table without her gun.

The right face, the right name, and the right personality meant added business for gambling houses, and the very best of these ladies could rake in thousands of dollars. (Just ask Doc Holliday who once lost $30,000 to Lottie Deno.)

Speaking of Lottie Deno, many historians claim that the character of Laura Denbo in the movie Gunfight at the OK Corral and the character of Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke are based on her.

Although there are many instances in these ladies' lives that provoke laughter, it wasn't all fun and games. When large sums of money, alcohol, quick-tempered men and pretty women are all in one place, abuse, death and tragedy are frequent visitors.

Enss provides just enough biography, history and photography to make readers want to do their own research and learn more. I've walked down Allen Street. I've walked past the OK Corral, and I've seen the gallows at the Courthouse in Tombstone, Arizona. I've heard the rustle of skirts, the ching of spurs, the shouts of laughter, and the slap of those bat-wing doors when I strolled past Big Nose Kate's Saloon. But it's only now that books like Chris Enss' The Lady Was a Gambler are being written that I'm getting a real feel for the people who lived in these legendary towns.

If you like to read books about the history of the Old West and about women's history, you'll want to read The Lady Was a Gambler. The only real problem I had with this book was that I would've enjoyed an extra 200 pages!