I am about ready to get my history degree from Goucher College. I'll have done it in a stunning 10 years. I have tried to major in almost everything. But, somehow history stuck when I realized I could research sex and drugs and live vicariously through the crumbling facades and sticky seats that inhabit The Block.
My project, as it has been coming along so far, is to collect everything I can about The Block from the period of 1900 through the present. At first I found nothing as if no one cared about such delicious subterranean goodness. However, the deeper I get the greater the information becomes. Yet, in so many little pieces and rumors and bits of gossip The Block has become more mysterious now than when I felt no research was available.
City officials I speak to deny that The Block is or was a political or social issue in the city. Articles in The Sun from the 1970's, age of urban renewal, published rosy and nostalgic remembrances of the "good Block" from the 1930's and 40's. Yet, the Block's fame peaked in just over ten years before the clubs began to fall into the vices of drugs and violence. Many girls are and were underage and sold their bodies to pay for apartments or habits of their own. The 1960's brought the demise of Baltimore's famous "Burlesk" and only the "go-go dancers" pranced around in cheap bikinis they were all to liberal with flinging back onto the stage. The Block had a problem and brought that problem right into the present day of Baltimore.
Why does the city, those in charge of urban planning, deny the existence of this cancer only blocks from City Hall and within sight of our giant police headquarters? Please understand that I am a proponent of legalizing all forms of vice drugs and sex for hire. But when looking at this research practically, if the main activities that drive The Block's economy are all illegal and our city is unable to maintain one block so close to their main headquarters how do they create confidence in the people of Baltimore that they may contain the very same issues in more scattered neighborhoods in town.
The "Jewish Mafia" dominated the ownership of The Block's clubs and buildings. Many of these men were lawyers and very wealthy investors. It is undeniable by any reporter to change that fact, however no links have ever been made to the influence of the mafia of The Block on city hall. One of the biggest gambling busts made in the city of Baltimore was arresting the owner of Oasis club in the early 1970's. His name was Julius Salsbury AKA Lord Salisbury. The night before his sentencing, while out on bail, he ran out of Baltimore and later America so fast that he's neve been caught. Some of his close reliable sources still living relate that he ended up in Jerusalem and died of old age. Lord Salisbury is not in any of the articles regarding The Block during this time. His picture is not found on line and he does not have information regarding him at the Maryland Room in the Pratt Library. Where did he go? What a story! So, why don't we know this?
The Block has lots of great dirty skanky sex and nasty tales of drugs and prostitution. That's all I was ready to get into. However, when the only information I have gathered over the course of 6 months talks about the fluffy dresses and beautiful girls available each night to gentlemen drawn in top hats and coats I know there is something holding the bottom up so Baltimore doesn't have to admit that our red light district failed and it failed because we ignored the problems.
Currently I am ecstatic with my reserach finds and am looking for individuals to give oral histories of their time dancing, working, bartending etc in an attempt to access the human element as another way to break though the haze of denial.
I would love help from anyone out there who has ideas for sources/oral history volunteers/or interesting independent article throughout the history of this project. This research has made me realize that the only way to tell a true story is to get to the bottom of the real people who lived it.
