Talk:Lou Graham (Seattle madame)

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An entry from Lou Graham (Seattle madame) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on July 9, 2006.

Lou Graham (Seattle madame) is a former good article candidate. There are suggestions below for which areas need improvement to satisfy the good article criteria. Once the objections are addressed, the article can be renominated as a good article. If you disagree with the objections, you can seek a review. Date of review: 14:12, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Bill Speidel 2 Featured 3 GA failed 3.1 Further questions

[edit] Bill Speidel

I know that Bill Speidel wrote extensively about Graham in Sons of the Profits. I haven't yet had a chance to ransack that. - Jmabel | Talk 04:50, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Got it. Man, other than HistoryLink, the other two sources I found on line clearly derived from Speidel without acknowledging him. - Jmabel | Talk 02:25, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Featured

Although this is a new article, it is extremely informative and of very high quality. The addition of the location on a street map would be useful, however. I'll try to draw one if I can find the lattitude and longitude, or if I can find the address. Even without one though, I think this is outstanding and deserves a nomination for Featured Article. --CommKing 11:42, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Preparatory to a map, using Google maps, this is the neighborhood. The building is on the southwest corner of 3rd Ave. S. and S. Washington St.

Thank you very much for the praise, but I think this is short of a featured article. For a featured article, one would probably want to research into the Seattle newspapers of the time, etc., rather than just rely on secondary sources like Speidel. He's fun, and generally accurate, but he's pretty casual, especially in Sons of the Profits (Doc Maynard was a slightly more careful piece of research). At the very least, I'd like to get material in here from other secondary sources confirming Speidel.

On the other hand, I'd welcome a good article nomination. - Jmabel | Talk 05:48, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA failed

These reasons are given :

• The lead should be cut down to give a little less history information and a new section should include that historical background.
• Who is this Bill Speidel guy? Maybe a wikilink should be added or a bit more information on him should be given.
• The text is tough to follow ... maybe less quotes and more background information should be given.
• The Graham in Seattle section should be split into 2 sections or more, one about the lady and another one about her brothels (her establishment purchase).
• The last quote should say who it is from and have end quotes.
• Not enough background information is given about the person.

[edit] Further questions

• If the date of death is known why isn't there information about her death available.
• Did she work in a brothel all her life? Was she convicted of having a brothel?
• Did her business flourish? Did she have success?
• Did she have a lover, associate, accomplice, friends?

Lincher 14:12, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Speidel is mostly known as a Seattle historian, something of a popularizer, but he did some good archival research, especially for his book Doc Maynard. I don't think he really merits a Wikipedia article in his own right as an author of two books on local history, any more than a newspaper reporter merits an article. What do others think? - Jmabel | Talk 05:59, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't necessarily think this is up to GA status but the review remarks above leave me wondering: did you actually read the article?

• It says she died of syphilis in San Francisco; what more about her death should it say?
• It says that she "[became] a wealthy landowner, one of the largest landholders in the Pacific Northwest. She owned one of the Seattle's great mansions…and "contributed liberally" to projects sponsored by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce"; how then can you ask if she was a success in business?
• As for whether she was "convicted", her one and only run-in with the law is described: "On February 14, 1891, a rookie policeman involved in a general crackdown on prostitution… arrested Graham, unaware of who she was. The result was acquittal in a jury trial, and (according to Speidel) the subsequent resignation of reform mayor Henry White". What else can we say? It seems to me that there is no more reason to talk about the lack of other run-ins with the law than with any other prominent business person.
• I placed in the missing closing quotation mark (pretty trivial, wouldn't it have been simpler to fix it than to write about it?). And the quote is cited to its source.

- Jmabel | Talk 06:08, 10 August 2006 (UTC)