(EDITOR'S NOTE: You'll find the final part of this story in the Progress section of Sunday's Texarkana Gazette, where various aspects of local history are explored on the eve of the town's 140th birthday. The story will appear on Sunday's page 9F.)
Nell, Gladys, Odell.
More than a few readers will remember those names. Not so many will admit it.
These were some of Texarkana's most famous madams. They occupy a unique place in the city's lore. Many residents have heard of the red-light district that flourished on the Texas side for so many years. It was known throughout the South and made Texarkana a favorite stopping off place for truckers, military men and business travelers.
But the facts are usually clouded by legend, myth and faulty memories. The facts are a lot more interesting.
The Early Days
It's likely Texarkana's first prostitutes were doing business before the town was even here.
While railroad workers spent their days laying track, when the work was done, their minds turned to other pursuits. And it was not uncommon for wagons full of whiskey, girls and gambling tables to follow the progress of the line.
Temporary saloons and bawdy houses would be set up in tents along the right of way, operating until the work progressed a few miles farther, then they would pack up and move with workers.
When Texarkana officially became a town in 1873, the first residents wanted to build homes and raise families, build businesses and raise prospects.
But they also wanted to have a bit of fun, too.
Like most towns in the late 1800s, Texarkana had its share of saloons, gambling houses and brothels. The main red-light district was along Front Street, which made things convenient for men arriving by train. The more opulent houses were freestanding structures and offered expensive decor and live music. Legend has it that noted composer Scott Joplin got his start playing piano in one such establishment. Other brothels were situated on the second floor of other businesses, such as saloons.
In her book "Historic Texarkana: An Illustrated History," Dr. Beverly Rowe mentions well-known local madams of the time, such as Kitty Stone, Annabelle Lee and Zoe LeRoy.
In 1911, the authorities shut down the Front Street brothels and told the madams to find new quarters. They did, moving to Ward Street in the Rose Hill area of town.
This migration didn't suit the residents of that neighborhood. They put up a squawk, and, a few months later, the working girls had to find a new place to do business. It seems they scattered all over town.
It wasn't long before prostitution was rampant in Texarkana. A 1921 study by the U.S. Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board found 18 brothels with a total of 40 girls operating in Texarkana, Ark. The Texas side had 13 houses and 31 girls. Obviously, the '20s really roared in the Twin Cities.
The Golden Age
The 1940s and 1950s were the heyday of the scarlet sisterhood in Texarkana, and that was when the town's best-known madams made their names.
It's hard to say for sure when prostitution in Texarkana began to consolidate on the western edge of downtown near the railroad tracks and Swampoodle Creek. There were brothels operating there in the early 1920s, but by the late 1940s, the city's most famous red-light district was firmly established.
Nell Raborn began operating before World War II in the upstairs rooms at 210 1/2 Texas Ave.-directly behind City Hall. The "1/2" in the address indicates a street-level entrance leading directly upstairs. She originally called her place the Tulsa Hotel but later changed the name to the City Hall Hotel. By 1949, she had moved her girls to the house at 711 W. Fourth St. There, Nell presided over the largest house in the district and offered the widest selection of talent. Her husband, Jimmy Raborn, was a bookmaker and maintained his betting office in the brothel.
The house at 722 W. Fourth was run by Fannie Ritter in the 1930s and early 1940s. By 1951, Beulah Mae Pate had taken over the business. It was listed as the Ace Hotel, but many locals continued to call the place "Fannie's."
And at 807 W. Fourth St., the last house before the railroad tracks, Billie Starr welcomed visitors off and on for decades, beginning as early as 1922.
Not all the houses were on West Fourth though.
There were two well-known resorts in the 300 block of West Broad Street into the early 1960s. Gladys Bishop Mitchell had run a house-the Texas Avenue Hotel-at 105 Texas Ave. before moving in the early 1950s to the Broadway Rooms upstairs at 307 1/2 W. Broad.
Texarkana's best-remembered madam, Odell Gill, initially ran her second-floor house at 318 1/2 W. Broad. She would move to 314 1/2 W. Broad in 1947. It was listed in the city directory as the Cozy Hotel.
A Look Inside
A few Texarkana brothels were relatively plush; most were somewhat plain. But the experience was pretty much the same in all.
You were screened at the door and, if deemed OK, allowed into the house. There would be a parlor, where the available girls would line up for the customer to make his choice. After that, the girl chosen would lead the customer back to the room, he would pay, she would inspect him at a wash basin for signs of venereal disease, and they would get down to business.
How much was the tariff? In the mid- to late 1950s, the going rate was $5-the same as a house call from a doctor, as one older gentleman has said-for a 15-minute session of what was called "straight sex"-conventional intercourse. If one wanted more variety-and there was plenty of variety available-the price increased accordingly. By 1970, the base price had risen to $20.
One did not have to rush, though. The age of live music in the brothels had long passed, but some houses had a jukebox for dancing-provided the customer fed coins into the machine, of course. A man could buy a soft drink to mix with the contents of his flask or brown-bagged bottle. Some houses offered beer and liquor as well. But time is money in the brothel business. The houses made money on volume, so lingering was not really encouraged except for the more preferred regular customers.
About The Girls
Hollywood has given us a stereotype of the tough madam with the heart of gold, who tried to keep her girls on the straight and narrow-to a certain extent, at least. Some would have us believe that the girls who worked brothels had no pimps, did not use drugs and chose their own path in life.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is that most of these girls had pimps and were exploited ruthlessly by them. The madams charged a set weekly fee for room and board and then took at least half of what they earned from customers. Their pimps took most, if not all, of the rest.
These pimps were often violent with their girls. Many of the girls were on drugs, and their addiction was used to keep them in line. A pimp may have just one prostitute-sometimes it was even his wife-or he may have two or more. He might live entirely on their earnings or he might also be a burglar, armed robber, drug dealer, small-time gambler or some other type of criminal. He might operate alone or be a part of that loose-knit fraternity known as the Dixie Mafia.
While some girls came to the houses on their own, most were on a circuit. They would spend a few weeks in one house, then move to another in a different city, spend a few days or weeks there and move yet again. Their pimp might be the one to move them around, or they might be part of a larger prostitution ring tied to the Dixie Mafia or Carlos Marcello's New Orleans Cosa Nostra family.
One such ring was broken up in February 1954 when the FBI arrested 16 in a Louisiana-based operation that provided prostitutes on a wide-ranging Southern circuit that included brothels in Texarkana, Fort Smith, Baton Rouge, New Iberia, Houston, Port Arthur, Galveston, Biloxi, Panama City, Fla., Aiken, S.C., and Savannah, Ga.
The madams and the pimps worked together. They may or may not have liked each other, but they needed each other. A constant supply of "fresh" girls meant more money for the madams. Their customers liked variety. And the pimps made money supplying fresh girls to brothels in different cities.
The girls were expected to put on a happy face, but their lives were often brutal. The "Cinderella story" of a prostitute finding true love, marrying well and settling down was more myth than reality. Some young women did get out of the business and settle down. A few became madams with houses of their own. Many more died young, the victim of booze, dope or violence.
The Cleanup That Wasn't
In 1956, the American Social Hygiene Association-a group devoted to ridding the country of prostitution, venereal disease and other moral ills-did a survey of 50 cities in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. While they found prostitution a problem in every location, Texarkana was found to be one of only three cities among the 50 that still had a wide-open, sanctioned, red-light district.
In January of 1957, the association presented its finding to the Texarkana Ministerial Alliance. The ministers demanded a grand jury investigation.
On Jan. 8, 1957, the Texas-side City Council met and ordered the brothels closed. City Attorney William Brown Jr. said he didn't think the brothels were still operating.
"If there ever were any," he added.
Police Chief Leon Arnold said he would have his officers look into the matter.
The word went out: Shut down until the heat is off.
The grand jury convened on Jan. 21. They heard testimony and reviewed what then was called a "secret report" by the Hygiene Association, which listed the owners, operators and other details about the houses.
On Jan. 31, the grand jury announced its findings.
While acknowledging that wide-open prostitution may have existed in the past, the grand jury said present evidence "indicates open bawdy houses do not exist."
They dismissed the ASHA "secret report," saying the information contained was insufficient for an indictment.
The grand jury did, however, urge police to be vigilant.
With that, the grand jury adjourned. And the girls went back to work.
The brothels carried on undisturbed for the next few years. But there were changes coming with the new decade-changes that would eventually put an end to the red-light district.
Officially, that is.