Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: purity congress, dive keepers, Everleigh Club, Vic Shaw, First Ward (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Freelance journalist Abbott's vibrant first book probes the titillating milieu of the posh, world-famous Everleigh Club brothel that operated from 1900 to 1911 on Chicago's Near South Side. The madams, Ada and Minna Everleigh, were sisters whose shifting identities had them as traveling actors, Edgar Allan Poe's relatives, Kentucky debutantes fleeing violent husbands and daughters of a once-wealthy Virginia lawyer crushed by the Civil War. While lesser whorehouses specialized in deflowering virgins, beatings and bondage, the Everleighs spoiled their whores with couture gowns, gourmet meals and extraordinary salaries. The bordello—which boasted three stringed orchestras and a room of 1,000 mirrors—attracted such patrons as Theodore Dreiser, John Barrymore and Prussian Prince Henry. But the successful cathouse was implicated in the 1905 shooting of department store heir Marshall Field Jr. and inevitably became the target of rivals and reformers alike. Madam Vic Shaw tried to frame the Everleighs for a millionaire playboy's drug overdose, Rev. Ernest Bell preached nightly outside the club and ambitious Chicago state's attorney Clifford Roe built his career on the promise of obliterating white slavery. With colorful characters, this is an entertaining, well-researched slice of Windy City history. Photos. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Jonathan Yardley

Probably the most famous whorehouse in America's history -- OK, it's a dubious distinction at best, but it's a distinction all the same -- was the Everleigh Club of Chicago, which did business in that city's tenderloin, the Levee district, for the first decade of the 20th century. It was run by a couple of sisters from rural Virginia, Minna and Ada Simms, who changed their name to Everly and then to Everleigh, a double entendre (depending on how one pronounces "leigh") that was intentional, Karen Abbott reports in Sin in the Second City. Whatever the name's exact origins and intentions, "Everleigh" quickly became a synonym for high-class retail sex and remained one long after Chicago finally shut the place down in 1911.

Chicago at the turn of the last century was one hell of a tough town, as yet untouched by the famous muckraking novels of Frank Norris (The Pit, 1903) and Upton Sinclair (The Jungle, 1906). It had a population of 1.7 million, a significant percentage of which was engaged in criminal activity in one way or another. By 1907 the Chicago Tribune said that "Chicago has come to be known over the country as a bad town for men of good character and a good town for men of bad character." According to Abbott, "newspapers printed scoreboards that tabulated murders and muggings, as if such crimes were scheduled like baseball games and horse races: a burglary every three hours, a holdup every six hours, and a suicide and murder every day.") In such circumstances it's scarcely surprising that prostitution flourished and that city officials (even those who weren't on the take) winked at it. There was if anything a widespread feeling that law-abiding citizens were best served if prostitution was restricted to more or less officially sanctioned areas rather than permitted to spread unchecked. The Levee was the result, and the Everleighs' double rowhouse on South Dearborn Street became, as soon as it opened, the class of the neighborhood.

Minna and Ada had come to Chicago determined, so at least they always claimed, to operate not a run-of-the-mill cathouse but an elegant bagnio. Thus they "vowed never to deal with pimps, desperate parents selling off children, panders, and white slavers." Their prostitutes were well paid and received regular medical care. Customers were closely vetted and expected to behave themselves. When a couple of anti-vice ministers came to call in 1907, Minna "explained graciously, patiently, that the Everleigh Club was free from disease, that Dr. Maurice Rosenberg examined the girls regularly, that neither she nor Ada would tolerate anything approaching violence, that drugs were forbidden and drunks tossed out, that guests were never robbed nor rolled, and that there was actually a waiting list of girls, spanning the continental United States, eager to join their house."

The décor of the place, judging by the period photographs reproduced in the book, was whorehouse baroque, including "thirty boudoirs, each with a mirrored ceiling and marble inlaid brass bed, a private bathroom with a tub laced in gold detailing, imported oil paintings, and hidden buttons that rang for champagne." Wine was "sold in the parlors for $12 a bottle and in the bedrooms for $15, but beer and hard liquor weren't available at

any price." Considering that this price range would be well above 10 times higher in 2007 dollars, it's obvious that the Everleigh Club was strictly for men with plenty of money, if questionable morals.

The house thrived immediately and stayed prosperous throughout its run, not least because the sisters maintained cozy relationships with influential politicians, in particular two notably corrupt aldermen, Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, whose "bailiwick, the First Ward, one of thirty-five in the city, encompassed the heart of Chicago, including the Loop -- with its City Hall, office buildings, swanky department stores, hotels, restaurants, and theaters -- and stretched south to 29th Street, claiming, too, all the Levee whorehouses, dives, and gambling dens." The two aldermen "took a portion of every dollar generated in the red-light district, through gambling or otherwise, and counted Mayor Carter Harrison II as a personal friend and political sponsor." All of which was fine for a while, but gradually specific events and large social developments combined to put the sisters at risk. The "son of a well-known millionaire" was shot in the house's Japanese Parlor. The wound was not fatal, and news coverage was "shallow and benign," but the incident left no doubt that scandal was an ever-present threat to the operation. Then Marshall Field Jr., of the prominent and hugely influential department-store family, died after being shot in the Levee. Competing madams tried to put the blame on the Everleighs, and even though this failed, it was "the first true fracture in the sisters' empire." The larger and more pressing issues were raised by changes in American society. The Everleighs appear to have been honest in claiming that they did not acquire prostitutes through the "white slave trade," through which "America's daughters were being tricked out of their own lives and lured into ruin." But public indignation about it was rising, and political leaders felt pressured to act, as Congress did in 1910 when it passed the Mann Act, which banned the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes. Simultaneously, ministers and other guardians of civic virtue were on the march, especially a minister named Ernest Bell, who believed "he was meant to do great things," and an assistant state's attorney named Clifford Roe, who undertook a "fight against white slavers, those 'arch-enemies to society, the lowest of the lowly creatures on this earth' who 'stifle truth and trample upon innocence.' "

This was also a time when the country's ethnic makeup was changing: "They were everywhere, these so-called new immigrants, arriving daily from Eastern and Southern Europe, most of them 'undesirable' Italians, Poles, and Russians." Old-line Americans managed to convince themselves that these were the chief forces behind increases in urban crime and that they needed to be brought under control. That prejudice as well as outraged virtue was a motive behind the anti-vice campaign is obvious, as is the hypocrisy of a society that claimed to want to protect women while at the same time exploiting them in innumerable ways.

For the Everleighs, the turning point was the publication in 1911 of The Social Evil in Chicago, a report by the 30-member Chicago Vice Commission that provided a devastating account of the city's trade in prostitution and its widespread social effect. It called, unequivocally, for the "absolute annihilation" of the Levee district. Mayor Harrison was lukewarm about this, but the Everleighs gave him little choice when they published a booklet, "The Everleigh Club, Illustrated," which showed the whorehouse in all its garish glory and made its way into the hands of people who joked about Chicago's corruption. On October 24 he wrote what he called a "truly historic" note to the police: "Close the Everleigh Club."

That was that. The sisters went quietly, though Minna wrote a number of private letters describing in detail their operations and the bribes they paid, naming names and citing specific amounts. Three years later a judge said it was time to release these letters, but Karen Abbott does not pursue this matter, leaving the reader to wonder about how the city responded to the letters and what effects they had. It's a peculiar note on which to end what is, on the whole, a rather peculiar book. Abbott has done a lot of research, but she too often ascribes actions and emotions for which her notes provide no documentation: "Minna folded the paper, nervously fingering her butterfly pin," or, "Blocking out the rush hour chaos . . . he replayed yesterday's interview with Mona Marshall . . . ," or, "The train groaned into motion and pulled out of Union Station. Bell stared through the scrim of ice, watching his city's slow retreat." Perhaps there is factual evidence for all this, but without documentation, it must be read as invention. Too bad, because a story as juicy as this one doesn't need artificial flavors.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812975995
• ISBN-13: 978-0812975994
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (119 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,654 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting true story, as compelling as a novel, July 14, 2007

By	Bluestalking Reader "Bluestalking Reader" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul (Hardcover)

I've been completely side-swiped for days by Karen Abbott's riveting true story of the infamous Everleigh Club brothel that operated in Chicago from 1900 to 1911. Sin in the Second City reads like a novel. I had to keep reminding myself it's absolutely true. It's just so absorbing, it's easy to forget you're not reading fiction.

Sisters Ada and Minna "Everleigh" (a name they assumed) were raised in privilege in a wealthy southern family. They were very highly educated women, intellectuals in an age that wasn't prized in the female sex. The story of how they went from high society to becoming madams is incredible, reflecting on their innate intelligence and economic and marketing savvy. But equally remarkable is the difference between their establishment and others that existed around the same time. Rather than demeaning their girls, Ada and Minna lavished money and benefits such as expensive clothing on their whores. These were girls who were tutored in the arts, making them more like geishas than common prostitutes.

The Everleigh Club was an elite bordello, drawing the likes of literary great Theodore Dreiser, the actor John Barrymore, and even a Prussian prince. This was no common whorehouse. Though the girls did provide sexual services, the Everleigh was a much more refined establishment featuring string orchestras, lavish decor, and a class of girls that were a cut above those in lesser houses.

The history presented here illustrates the high level of research Abbott conducted. To say it's thorough is a vast understatement. Not only do we get all the known history on the Everleigh, but the rest of Chicago history is likewise splayed out before us, including all that was going on politically, socially and in the literary world. Really a fascinating portrait of an age and a city, Sin in the Second City is a thrilling read I'd recommend to anyone, whether interested in Chicago history in particular or not. It's a slice of an era, and a invaluable historical record of how the nation stood at the beginning of the 20th century. It's as engaging as any novel I've ever read. I can smell the awards now.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's like "The Devil in the White City," but with prostitutes instead of architects, July 18, 2007

By	Melissa Niksic (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul (Hardcover)

"Sin in the Second City" is a detailed journey into a part of Chicago history that some people would prefer to forget about. No, this isn't another book about a serial killer at the World's Fair: it's the story of Chicago's Levee district, the brothel-infested underworld based on the city's South side in the 1900's. Specifically, this book tells the story of the Everleigh Club, which was possibly the most famous house of ill repute in all of history. Located on Dearborn Street, the high-class club was run by two madams, Minna and Ada Everleigh, a pair of sisters that claimed to be "the only madams in history who had started out as debutantes."

The Everleigh Club was very different from the other brothels in the Levee. Minna and Ada put a great deal of effort into bringing some "dignity" to the prostitution business. Harlots (yes, that's how prostitutes are referred to in the book) needed to be put on a waiting list to get into the Everleigh Club because the place was unlike any other brothel in the country: hundreds of women wanted to work there. The club was grandly decorated in expensive gold fineries and only admitted wealthy and well-behaved male clientele. While other brothels would obtain harlots through methods of white slavery, the Everleigh sisters only hired courtesans who sincerely wanted to work for them. Everleigh "butterflies" were the most beautiful and sought-after girls in the business, and within days of its grand opening, the club became the most prestigious brothel in the country and retained its status for many years.

Unfortunately for Minna and Ada, their success didn't last forever. Chicago became known primarily for two things: the Union Stock Yards and the Everleigh Club. Such notoriety did not please city officials, who desired a more respectable reputation for Chicago. Religious activists and community leaders eventually became more and more determined to put an end to white slavery and dismantle the Levee district altogether. In the end, the Everleigh Club disappeared along with the other Chicago brothels, but it left a lasting impression on the city for a very long time.

When I first picked up this book, I figured that author Karen Abbott was trying to capitalize on the success of Erik Larson's bestseller, "The Devil in the White City." Indeed, the general concept of corruption in Chicago at the turn of the century is present in this book, and Abbott's writing style is somewhat similar to Larson's. However, Abbott's book surpasses Larson's in several ways. First of all, "Sin" is much better written than "Devil." There aren't any dry chapters and Abbott doesn't bombard the reader with a ridiculous amount of unnecessary detail. Also, Abbott's book doesn't drag on forever the way Larson's does, and even though the narration of "Sin" shifts perspective as it does in "Devil," one point of view isn't any less interesting than the others. Finally, although Abbott does make some general assumptions in this book (you have to, I think, if you're writing this kind of story), she doesn't go over-the-top the way Larson tends to do, making "Sin" a more credible piece of non-fiction than "Devil."

"Sin in the Second City" is meticulously researched, and it forces readers to question their perceptions on what is generally a very taboo topic. Although the Levee district hasn't existed in Chicago for years, prostitution is still very active around the world. The Everleigh sisters firmly believed that their business was a good and necessary one, and that the way they ran their club distinguished them from sleazier houses where girls were lured to disease-infested brothels, beaten and raped, and then forced to turn tricks or face the penalty of death.

Ultimately, the best thing about this book is that it delves into a huge part of Chicago history that's pretty much been buried for decades. I've lived in the Chicago area my entire life, and although I knew there used to be a Levee district here, I'd never even heard of the Everleigh Club before, which is a shame. This may be a slightly embarrassing part of the city's history, but it's history nonetheless, and I really enjoyed reading about it.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Crassy to Classy, July 19, 2007

By	Rose Keefe "author" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul (Hardcover)

When I picked up a copy of "Sin in the Second City" during a recent visit to Chicago, my initial thought was "Finally! Someone has seen the Everleigh Sisters for the roguish and riveting characters that they were and given their lives a book-length treatment." After finishing the book in less than two days, I have to conclude that no one could have done a better job than Karen Abbott did.

Minna and Ada Simms were two Virginia-born debutantes who took their beauty, business smarts, love of refinement, and lack of subservience to men, and realized a fortune. Their palatial brothel in Chicago's raucous Levee district made them a cause celebre for the eleven years they remained in business. They catered to the millionaire element, becoming the Nordstrom's of the flesh trade, and injected class and humor into a profession that easily destroyed the bodies and souls of the unwary. Competitors like Madam Vic Shaw and the Weiss brothers hated them for setting gilded standards that the $2 dives like the Bucket of Blood and the Sappho could never hope to match. Religious crusaders and purity leagues blasted them as flagships for the dreaded white slave trade, conveniently forgetting that the Everleigh Club was so renowned for its generous treatment of the inmates that there was a waiting list to join the ranks of Everleigh 'butterflies', as Minna called them. But as the saying goes, "A narrow mind and a wide mouth usually go together."

Although the Everleigh Club's irreverent opulence caused its downfall and ultimately the closure of the old Levee, Minna and Ada had the last laugh. They took their millions, toured Europe, and lived out the last of their days in New York.

Through free use of anecdotes that make this nonfiction book read like the best-crafted fiction, Ms. Abbott has told a riveting story of two women who became successful and wealthy on their own terms. By going for the gold ring instead of the brass one, they went down in a blaze of glory... pun intended.