Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL O'LEARY sinful city WHO US, WHOLESOME? AS THE NEW BOOK GOLD COAST MADAM ATTESTS, CHICAGOANS ARE NOT THAT INNOCENT. BY PAIGE WISER T o the rest of the country, Chicago—sexually speaking—is about as wholesome as it gets. We're better known for our colorful corruption. For fixing World Series games, say, and raffling off Senate seats. When Republican Jack Ryan finally came through with a real sex scandal in 2004, it turned out to be with his own wife, for God's sake. But sex has been seething below Chicago's surface since the town's founding. Cuddly Al Capone put us on the map with so many tales of bootlegging, gambling, extortion, tax evasion, and the bludgeoning of coworkers with a Louisville slugger, it's easy to forget that he pioneered a thriving prostitution ring, too. Now a redheaded ex-con grandmother is confirming that lust ha s never left town in Gold Coast Madam: The Secret Life of Rose Laws, her memoir of sex and sin in the city. Rose Laws lived in a 21st-floor condo in Lake Point Tower and had a base of operations at 405 North Wabash Avenue, right next to the Chicago Sun-Times. She charged up to $1,000 an hour for some of the yummiest girls in town. She's now in her mid-70s, but at the height of her game, Rose would set up dates in apartments on North Dearborn and West Illinois with Chicago's finest. Her clients allegedly included movie stars, Second City comics, Blackhawks, politicians, lawmen, and the Super Bowl champion Bears of 1985. The only name she has voluntarily, gleefully offered is former Bull Dennis Rodman. He still owes her for a party at the Ambassador Hotel with two of her best girls. Tacky. But then, Rodman never was a real Chicagoan anyway. Will Gold Coast Madam shock the world? It may not put Chicago in the same class as Italy, with its bunga bunga orgies, but hey, the Viagra Triangle wasn't named for nothing. This town has always had a lascivious underbelly. Rose Laws brings to mind another red-haired hostess: Minna Everleigh, who opened the world-renowned Everleigh Club in 1900. The palatial bor- dello at 2132 South Dearborn Street introduced Chicago to mirrored ceilings, mood music played by orchestras, and a gold piano that required tremendous upkeep. (It also introduced the phrase "getting Everleighed," now shortened to, yes, "getting laid.") Here, newsmen and state legislators were entertained for free, while the sisters had protection from aldermen "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Scandalous? Well, it depends on your definition. The Everleigh Club had customers like "Uncle Ned," who would show up around the holidays to rent the whole place out for himself. He'd order two buckets of ice for his feet, drink sar- saparilla, and shout, "It's a wonderful day for an old-fashioned sleigh ride!" The Everleigh girls would dance around him singing "Jingle Bells." It was sweet, really. Gold Coast Madam is just the latest chapter in Chicago's historic Kama Sutra. Maybe this time we can stop pretend- ing to be shocked and celebrate entrepreneur Rose Laws, who simplified sex with one-stop shopping. A movie deal would be a nicer gesture than another indictment, perhaps with New Trier's own Ann-Margret playing Miss Rose. Considering her expansive client list, plenty of room for cameos. MA 152 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM Onward! there would be