Found: Sin City
I can’t decide which is campier: this book, which needs no introduction, or my more rare find, “Hollywood All About Motion Pictures” (published in 1940, produced for “Basic English Prague,” and soon to be covered on this blog). The truth is, I have to give credit to my husband for finding both.
I haven’t dug up too much on the elusive Samuel Paynter Wilson, but I do know that he penned another classic, “Chicago by Gaslight.” Both seem to document the perils, societal ills and sin of city life in the early 20th century (this was published in 1915). The title paints such a picture, doesn’t it? A city with explosive growth, creaking under the pressure only to spit the grit, grime and foul characters onto the streets.
And the passages are even better:
[On Chicago]
“It is unhappily true that the devil’s work is done here upon a large scale..”
[On Prostitution]
“Woe to the man who follows after one of these creatures. The next step is to some of the low dives which still occupy too many of the so-called hotels in the business district..”
(From this proclamation, Wilson launches into a 100-page diatribe about the dangers of the so-called “White Slave Traffic” and how parents can protect their girls from being captured by the city’s clutches; most of this is covered in a chapter entitled “Why Girls Go Astray.”)
[On Bars]
“The curse of Chicago is the vile, repugnant saloon. No one can realize the picture of its rottenness all at once; everything is deceptive about it, and it takes time to grasp the magnitude of this hydra-headed monster.”
[On Drinking]
“The American woman of the fashionable set lives in a whirl of unhealthful stress…she sleeps too little and keeps her nerves constantly on the Qui Vive. She tipples and drugs, she is often a degenerate..”
(Sounds a lot like one of my favorite cinema characters–Ginny, Bud’s wild sister from “Splendor in the Grass”–and, um, spoiled L.A. socialites and their ilk.)
To be fair, Wilson is able to muster some hearty praise for the City of Broad Shoulders. His description of bustling State Street is divine. And his passion for Chicago’s religious institutions and “good” theaters is clearly felt. But then, after all that optimism, he concludes with a sad chapter called “Tramps’ Paradise.” Can’t win ‘em all over, I suppose.
Aside from how awesome this post is, I had to tell you that Splendor in the Grass is favorite classic movie of all time. Ginny was a riot, but Warren Beatty was an absolute stud. Every time I pray for a different ending so Deanie and Bud can be together. But alas, I suppose that’s the whole point of the movie
The “Chicago By Gaslight” that I read was written by Richard Lindberg, who’s a living author.
Anyway, love your subject matter.
Richard — Thanks for the compliment (and the tip on Lindberg). Looks like he may have been inspired by Paynter Wilson: http://tinyurl.com/nwt9d9
You got me curious and I came across the full text of Wilson’s “Chicago By Gaslight” online: http://www.archive.org/stream/chicagobygasligh00wils/chicagobygasligh00wils_djvu.txt
I recently read “Chicago Confidential” by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, which was a post-WWII variation on the same theme, with a good dose of mafioso thrown in.
There are several books like this available on the Internet Archive including Wicked City; Chicago the Pagan and Chicago by Gaslight, as was previously mentioned. And then there is my favorite advertisement titled “Chicago by Night”
found at http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa.A0105/pg.1/
Great post!
Yes! What a hot, hot find! Part of the charm of an old book like that, or any old book, is wondering who read it what was her/his reaction. Did it reinforce their Puritanism?
I suspect there’s a long tradition of anathemas of the Windy City. In “Notes on Democracy,” H. L. Mencken writes that sensational exposes like ‘Night Life in Chicago’” did more to cultivate stodgy, agrarian populism (and anti-city sentiments) than any speech by William Jennings Bryan.
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers in her annotations to Dissident Books’ new edition of “Notes,” writes that Mencken might be referring to “Life in Chicago, or Day and Night in the World’s Wickedest City, Containing Many Graphic Sketches,” written “by an ex-detective” and released in 1876. “It was advertised as an expose of the highest crust of Chicago society and of ‘female innocence, take from life, etc. etc.”
For Chi-town literature that’s tawdry and retro, “Ladies In The Parlor” (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/ladies-in-the-parlor/2207680) by Jim Tully and published by Underworld Amusements (http://www.underworldamusements.net/books/) looks like a sure bet. According to the publisher, it’s:
The “saga of Madame Rosenbloom’s fashionable establishment in Chicago and of the ladies in her domain. And here is the Jim Tully of ‘Circus Parade’—the forthright Tully whose language is as frank as life itself. Tully does not pull his punches. The big men and the little ladies for whom Madame Rosenbloom’s house is a social center are portrayed with vigor and honesty. The novel is crammed with incident and penetrating word pictures. It is not a story for the squeamish. But if life itself, —that robust, lusty segment of life that is here so honestly and brilliantly depicted—does not frighten or shock you, this novel will hold your deepest interest. Upon initial printing of this book in 1935, copies were seized from the publisher and destroyed by police based on allegations that the material was obscene and blasphemous. It is unknown how many copies survived. This is the first printing since that time.”
(Incidentally, Underground Amusements also has a two-in-one-edition of two early 20th century portraits of the Chicago: Jack London’s “The Iron Heel” and Ben Hecht’s “A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago.” http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/1001-afternoons-in-chicago-the-iron-heel/7165462)
For more on fallen girls in Chicago a century or so ago, I can’t imagine you’d go wrong with “Sin the Second City” by Karen Abbott. The website alone is great fun: http://www.sininthesecondcity.com/ I love the ghostly piano.
Dissident Books’ other title, “Don’t Call Me a Crook! A Scotsman’s Tale of World Travel, Whisky, and Crime” also depicts many fun and sordid antics in the Paris of the Prairies. The author, Bob Moore, a Glaswegian, stayed in Chicago for a spell in the 1920s. I’m particularly fond of this vivid, almost surreal passage; Moore has just been thrown out of Woodlawn nightclub (where he witnesses Rudolph Valentino dance the tango; he’s not impressed) and is about to go to another place:
“[B]ut when I got there I found a whole crowd collected outside, and the cops were pitching tear-gas bombs in the windows, because it was being raided for being a disorderly house, so I stayed in the crowd and watched and did not go inside.
“All the windows and the doors had been barricaded through the cops trying to get in, but at the top you could see some girls looking out, and they looked terribly scared, because they knew the police were going to get them.”
Chicago, I truly, truly love you.
Wow,
While I can see where Wilson is coming from on all quotes, I mostly agree with him on the quote about drinking. Today (more than ever) women do live very stressful lifestyles, drink way too much and sleep way too little! Cannot believe he caught on to that so long ago!!