Prostitutes and Pirates

Prostitution has been accepted by city authorities in private while condemned in public. Police, DA's and Judges have, for many years, quietly allowed prostitution. Today there is a bar in the French Quarter that is the site of the last city licensed "Bawdy House" in New Orleans. The license and pictures of the girls are on the walls of the bar and the original rules are posted. It wasn't that long ago.

Storyville was the district set up to limit prostitution to one area of town where it could be monitored and regulated by authorities. In the late 1890s, the New Orleans city government studied the legalized red light districts of northern German and Dutch ports and set up Storyville based on such models. Between 1895 and 1915, "blue books" were published in Storyville. These books were guides to prostitution for visitors to the district's services including house descriptions, prices, particular services, and the "stock" each house had to offer. The Storyville blue-books were inscribed with the motto: "Order of the Garter: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense (Evil to Him Who Evil Thinks.)" The District was adjacent to one of the main railway stations where travelers arrived in the city and became a noted attraction for many visitors.

Jazz did not originate in Storyville (it started off as a New Orleans style of music played all over town), but it flourished there as in the rest of the city; many out-of-town visitors first heard this style of music there before the music spread up north. Some early jazz writers suggested that Storyville was key in the development of jazz and that its closing was responsible for New Orleans musicians leaving for Chicago, but this is now regarded as inaccurate. Some people from elsewhere continue to associate Storyville with the origins of jazz. It was tradition in the better Storyville establishments to hire a piano player, and sometimes small bands.

The District was closed down by the federal government (over the strong objections of the New Orleans City Government) during World War I in 1917. In regard to prostitution, New Orleans Mayor Martin Behrman pronounced that, "[y]ou can make it illegal, but you can't make it unpopular."

The District continued in a more subdued state as an entertainment center through the 1920s, with various dance halls, cabarets, and restaurants. Speakeasies, gambling joints, and prostitution were also regularly found in the district.

A city with a culture that supports pirates and prostitutes has to expect a certain loose attitude about rules. Its the Big Easy.