The Enterprising Career of Tom Savage in Los Angeles’ Red-Light District, 1870-1909

Summary

In 1909, the "closure" of Los Angeles’s "tenderloin" represented the influence of progressive reform ending an era of the "tacit acceptance" of municipal red-light districts nationally. Existing scholarship has focused on progressive reformers who helped launch the new policy, but there has been scant examination of the male subculture that helped transform the business of prostitution even as the era of regulation came to a close.  This paper examines Tom Savage, a saloon-owner, prize-fighter, politician, and brothel owner to shed light on the what would be the decline of the "independent" madam in the business and the tendency for prostitutes’ profits to flow into the hands of men. Securing political alliances, formalizing the business of prostitution, investing in prostitution that catered to the "masses" rather than the "classes," Savage was a pioneer in the kinds of practices that would persist in Los Angeles’s vice business well into the twentieth century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Streetwalkers, Fallen Doves, and Houses of Ill Fame: A Historical and Archaeological Discussion on Prostitution   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 343