Minna Everleigh
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Minna Everleigh was born Minna Lester near Louisville, Kentucky on July 13, 1878. She died in New York, New York on September 16, 1948. Along with her sister, Ada, she ran the most successful brothel in Chicago, Illinois.
She became an actress along with her sister, Ada, following both having failed marriages. In 1898, the sisters came into a legacy of $35,000, retired from acting, changed their last name from Lester to Everleigh and opened their first brothel in Omaha, Nebraska. By 1900, they closed their Omaha brothel and purchased a flourishing brothel in Chicago.
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[edit] Entrance into the brothel business
They later told biographers that they had been to finishing school and had proper social debuts. After two failed marriages, and the death of their father, the sisters took their $35,000 inheritance and opened a house of prostitution in Omaha, Nebraska. As madams, they took the new surname "Everleigh," adapted from their grandmother's correspondence ("Everly Yours," she would sign). In a year, they had doubled their money and were looking for a new location. Chicago was where the money was.
They bought a brothel at 2131 Dearborn Street, fired all the women and completely redecorated the entire building with the most luxurious appointments available. Silk curtains, damask easy chairs, oriental rugs, mahogany tables, gold rimmed china and silver dinner ware, perfumed fountains in every room, a $15,000 gold-leafed piano for the Music Room, mirrored ceilings, a library filled with finely bound volumes, an art gallery featuring nudes in gold frames -- no expense was spared. While the heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson thought the $57 gold spittoons in his café were worth boasting about, the patrons of the Everleigh Club were obliged to expectorate in $650 gold cuspidors.
Gourmet meals featured iced clam juice, caviar, pheasants, ducks, geese, artichokes, lobster, fried oysters, devilled crabs, pecans and bonbons. Musicians played constantly, usually on the piano accompanied by strings. Publishing houses would publicize new songs by having them played at the Everleigh Club. The house was heated with steam in the winter and cooled with electric fans in the summer.
[edit] Standards at the brothel
The Everleigh sisters had standards for their employees:
- "To get in, a girl must have a pretty face and figure, must be in perfect health and must look well in evening clothes."
The sisters also provided training for their girls:
- "Be polite and forget what you are here for. Gentlemen are only gentlemen when properly introduced.... The Everleigh Club is not for the rough element, the clerk on a holiday or a man without a check book."
This led to many prostitutes desiring employment with them, as the girls would have a safe environment to work in, good accommodations, and better clientele. When Everleigh House opened, admission was $10, dinner was $50, a bottle of champagne $12. Private time with one of the girls was another $50. The prices only went up from there, so that it was difficult for a caller to leave without spending at least $200. A decent working wage at the time was $6 a week.
[edit] Closing
In 1911, after a vice commission report, Mayor Carter Harrison Jr., son of legendary Mayor Carter Harrison, ordered the club closed. Minna, always the more outspoken of the two, responded philosophically, stating "If the Mayor says we must close, that settles it.... I'll close up shop and walk out with a smile on my face." And so they did. She later stated "If it weren't for married men, we couldn't have carried on at all, and if it weren't for cheating married women we could have made another million."
[edit] Later life
When they closed their brothel business, Ada was 35 years old, and Minna 33. They retired very wealthy women. They took a trip to Europe. With $1,000,000 in cash, $200,000 in jewelry and a $15,000 gold piano, they returned to New York, changed their names back to Lester, and spent the rest of their days going to the theater and hosting poetry reading circles. Minna died in 1948, Ada in 1960.
