It's a slow week for all of us so I thought I would share a fun tidbit before I run on vacation myself.
Did you know the origin of the phrase "get laid?" Forgive me if you've heard this. I love this story.
In the early 1900s, two enterprising sisters born in the country in Virginia, Ada and Minna, opened a high class bordello in Chicago. They set their business apart by an attention to service and luxury, and for ten or so years, they did all right, until the vice crackdowns.
They named their place the "Everleigh Club." (pronounced ever-lay). Everybody who was anybody went there, once they managed to achieve entrance to the exclusive club, that is: business magnates, politicians, authors, nobility, judges, journalists, sports figures. The place became famous nationwide. Soon, the lingo among the rich and famous and wicked was: are you going to get "ever-leighed?" which of course got shortened to "get 'laid." True story! What we say commonly goes back to this one famous place.
Despite having to pay lavish protection to stay in business, Ada and Minna became very rich and sported impressive diamonds while greeting their customers, who they affectionately called "our boys." Other than that, they seemed to have nothing to do with men, despite having been providers themselves once. They had both been in abusive relationships early in their lives and I guess they had abandoned romantic notions.
But were they ever successful! Both women loved champagne and the practice of drinking champagne from a woman's shoe originated there one night.
They were known for being fair but strict with their "girls." Even if one of their employees left, they would still look after them. Once, it was heard that one of their former girls was being beaten without mercy in a less reputable cat house, and one of the sisters went herself to rescue her and attacked the other proprietor.
Their providers were known for quality, and they charged for it. At a time when a visit with a prostitute in Chicago cost about a quarter, time spent with an Everleigh companion was $50, and that was after spending as much as $150 on wine and foot. All the girls were medically checked frequently, and the ladies held them to high standards: being completely shaved was one of them, and they were instructed carefully on how to treat clients. That was a different way of doing things in turn-of-the-century Chicago. There were hundreds of brothels but none like Everleigh.
The place itself had no parallel. Evidently, they had some of the best cooking in town, in addition to the peerless providers. Live orchestras and a gold leafed piano. And the decor! Mirrors on the ceiling, gold spittoons, the finest rugs, china, and silver. Each of the 50 rooms was different. There was a room done in all silver leaf, and one in gold.
Anyway, after the place was closed down, the women sought a quiet retirement. Minna said: "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."
Both sisters lie buried next to each other in a cemetery in Old Town Alexandria, and I have visited to pay my respects. It's a nondescript area. You'd never know it was the final resting place of two of the most famous madams in history.
If you go, maybe bring a little champagne and toast the madams who were good to the girls, when many were not 
