A BA and The Block

It's official, I have my Bachelor's Degree in History from Goucher College.

Historian for Hire complete with BA and low rates!

My first edition of Sin In Mobtown: the academic version has been written and is under revisions. I will not sleep until the red light history of Baltimore is revealed and the people of Baltimore understand the dire need for change on East Baltimore Street. Learning about The Block isn't just history it's about human rights in the present. Adult entertainment can be profitable, fun and doesn't have to be exploitation.

Ye Olde Arguments for a War on Ye Olde Boston.

Boston Beauties

Even though I was in the heart of the American Revolution and the symbolic home of Independence all I could wonder about was, "Where did they keep the strippers?" I had heard of The Combat Zone from those who had visited many years ago. It was supposed to be the Boston equivalent to The Block, with a much cooler name. In the very brief research I had done to find this place I found that it had been destroyed during urban renewal projects in Boston and turned into City Hall.

Baltimore Gems: Ready to Move In !!

The complete irony did not get passed me as I stood around what had been the area of The Combat Zone at the edge of beautiful Boston Common and watched couples kissing and homeless rummaging and tourists touristing with no idea that less than 40 years ago the district would have been blanketed by prostitutes, neon lights and peep shows.

Boston chose to solve this issue of sleeze by removing The Combat Zone and building the bright domed building of democracy and law, City Hall... where naked girls had once done splits. Baltimore chooses to simply ignore the sleeze, the tourists and the homeless by surrounding the depressing scenes with City Hall and all of the important government buildings. For Bostonians it wasn't acceptable to have a city center filled with drugs, underage strippers and prostitution. Baltimore likes to think of itself as a rebel, one that can live with real combat zones in full view and be progressive enough to allow them to exist side by side with half-assed urban renewal from 1970.

Boston didn't have the same unique character or characters that Baltimore can boast. We Baltimoreans have the privilege of affordable housing and cheap beer with no suits or high heels required. It seemed Boston had a lot of professional up-tights wandering the streets looking productive and educated. Baltimore doesn't have too much to worry about it that area either; everyone in Baltimore knows that those from Hopkins can't bother to mix with the rest of the population anyway. Baltimore's a lot more friendly and have way better accents. There has never been an instance when either "park" or "car" have ever contained an "h."

I didn't come back after two days in Boston to rip on my favorite city in the world. Instead, I came back like one does after attending the wedding of a really rich friend with impeccable taste. Their uncle is a bank president, their mom a beauty queen and brother Secretary of State. You showed up with a Goodwill dress you thought was funky and interesting, but really just looked like you dumpster dove outside the reception hall when compared to the designer crap the twiggy women wore so elegantly. When you get home from an affair like that your life all of a sudden seems so sloppy and out of control. At your wedding the wedding singer sounded like Neil Diamond, the catering was from the pit beef place down the street paid for with a coupon, and the most educated guest was your brother with an A.A. in General Studies from a tech school. The kid that walked in drunk to his last final and announced, "I feel like Ron Howard!" when he really looked like King Koopa smelling like Natty Light and vomit.

There are many fundamental differences between those scenarios and I would never want to live a life of designer clothes with the Secretary of State's secret service at family dinners. I just want to know that I am good enough to have anything I want and that people realize I choose to live the campy life and love it. As of right now, I take my English guest to Boston after living with me for months in Baltimore and I found myself trying to show her dumpsters behind the historic churches calling them "monuments" or asking the few drunken homeless people I could find for directions to avoid the nicely uniformed "information" people milling about every corner. It was just too upsetting to show her how easy and wonderful it was to navigate around a city that embraced and capitalized on both its hard drinking Irish side and refined Puritan roots. Even after taking her to a soup kitchen for our final night out and telling her it was the best restaurant in town she was starry eyed about the city that had started the war against her nation with tar and feathers!

Baltimore city government wants to start a 4 cent bottle tax to raise money for city improvements. I am totally for the tax and insist that all of the money go to a "Government Exchange Program" so we can import the Boston planners and send our impoverished government lot up to them. Our Baltimore city council will have the extinct Combat Zone moved into City Hall in no time. Tourists will be mugged and possibly shot in front of famous monuments while liquors stores will be instated on every block. At least this "Government Exchange Program" will keep us competitive with Boston instead of our usual lack of recognition for creation of complete unemployment, total violence and most effective littering campaign. Let's spread the love.

Carnival Strippers.

photo by Susan Meiselas

Take a close look at the beautiful photo documentary book by Susan Meiselas, Carnival Strippers. It may not focus on the girls from The Block but does bring the sentiments of the current day Block strippers to life. It is sad and poetic and has blocks of transcribed interviews taken by the author beside images wavering between purity and total resignation.

Her documentation took place between three summers of 1973 through '75 as the carnival strippers performed in town. One girl cites Blaze Starr as an example of how well she wanted to do for herself as a stripper. Another girl candidly stated that all of the dancers were prostitutes veiled as strippers. It did seem this was true there as well as the way it seems to be on The Block. I can confirm that information for the present day and feel very strongly that the atmosphere of explicit sex acts on stage and prostitution were a common historical theme on The Block as well.

It is so unfortunate to me that a similar collection of photographs does not exist to document The Block of this same time period in the 1970's. The women interviewed for this collection spoke very often of their disdain for woman's liberation and their great desire for being homemakers. It makes me think deeper about the role of feminism in society beginning in the late 60's then taking flight in the 1970's and how it was translated to life in a strip club on The Block. I am curious how much of an effect the women's movement had on the souring of the adult entertainment district of Baltimore.

Carnival Strippers will most likely not appear in your local library. It is very explicit and often times highly disturbing. I checked it out from Goucher College Library in Towson, MD. It's worth searching for to help with your understanding of the most basic adult entertainment that was and still can be found all over the country.

photo by Susan Meiselas

Three Sides of 1950.

Baltimoreans were busy during this time fixing the city or buying the new marvels being produced by re-purposed post war mega factories. A lot of money circulated in the new middle class formed by returning GI's and their young wives and children. This money made it quickly to the flashy Block. This area of the city had gotten much advertisement and legitimacy during the war blitz and now national reporters were looking in to see what was happening behind the extremely neon sidewalk.

The problem with this dissection of The Block was that little agreement could be achieved between the articles published. In 1954 Esquire called The Block, "the golden road." It invited visitors to experience some "innocent" entertainment. In 1951Washington Confidential defined The Block women, "Few have looks, none have wit, and at $35 a week most of these stag-show strumpets are overpaid." Ouch! The autobiography written by Blaze Starr in 1989 reflected on the days of The Block in terms of how it influenced the rise of Ms.Starr. She has mentioned The Block always as her home and The Two O'Clock Club as a fine club for adult entertainment. She settled down in Baltimore and bought the club without ever mentioning any problems on The Block until the mid 1960's.

It is a fact that The Block during the 1950's was not all horrible disgusting acts but nor was it a shimmering innocent night out. I don't think there is a balance that will be struck between good and dirty. It will be more like finding the shining parts amidst the dirty core.

Please look into these fascinating sources and find some answers for yourself. It is not just about the adult entertainment district of Baltimore, but more about what the city was allowing to pass legally situated in between police headquarters and City Hall. It also reveals how the city supported the prosperity of this district in an era of American history considered the most conservative ever. The Block continues to be a dynamic and revealing test to Baltimore history.

If you remember the 1950's in Baltimore or know someone who has memories of The Block please send them my direction. Thanks!

Stay underground!

Dear Baltimore, You Have a Mess on Your Hands.

It's just the 400 block of East Baltimore Street... The clubs serve as brothels and many of the owners and managers deal drugs and underage girls. The police station sits within eye shot pulling their cars up to the station doors and emptying the handcuffed cargo always blindly passing the sadness that blankets their street. City Hall refuses to even admit The Block rages out of control just three blocks away from their doors.

The Block may never have been classy or refined but it also never intended to be. Unfortunately now it has lost any motivation to be anything at all and we Baltimoreans have just allowed that to happen. The less I knew about today's Block the more I wanted to save it...to re-establish the glory days of Blaze and The Oasis. Now the more I understand the rot and decay that oozes from these buisnesses the more I say, "Take it down!"

Free Baltimore from institutionalized prostitution and drug dealing that happens right under the nose of our government. These aren't invisible gang members hiding behind their no snitching cowardice. The City of Baltimore Health Department rolls up every week to hand out clean needles to the users brave enough to ask for help and take care of their bodies. It is no secret that prostitution and sex slavery happens behind the doors of thinly veiled strip clubs. Liquor license violations are handed out to Block club owners like candy.

How many violations does it take to get to the center of a government scandal..1...2......3.. Nope keep counting.

Change is Good.

History is one important way to understand The Block but a situation as dire as it is in now must rely on the work of interested citizens. These citizens want change not based on religious beliefs or morality concerns these citizens would approach the government under the basis of human rights. Women and young girls are suffering with nowhere to go and no one to help them. The city knows this and lets it fester like a rancid boil on the tip of its nose.

Baltimore is a beautiful and history rich city that includes over 50 years of The Block at its prime. The city sees much suffering in every neighborhood every day. The Block is not a neighborhood it is just, one block, not one with shootings or armed robberies just one small block of sidewalk and awnings. Baltimore can't seem to find peace in many desperate gang fueled war zones or one block in front of police headquarters.

What Baltimore can do is take charge of one block, one tiny Adult Entertainment Zone smack dab in the middle of our political heart. Maybe Baltimore could show how change is done and lead the city into a new era of adult entertainment.

If you feel like the Baltimore where you want to live can do better here are some people you can contact with your ideas. Even if you don't want to go all the way to the top please send your ideas my way via comment or email: sininmobtown.gmail.com.  

The Mission on Gay Street where the homeless wait at dark to be allowed in for the night.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor                    
City Hall, Room 250
100 N. Holliday Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Phone (410) 396-3835
Fax (410) 576-9425


Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young 410-396-4804
410-539-0647 (fax)
Room 400, City Hall
CouncilPresident@baltimorecity.gov

Downtown Explosion.

The Block would never exist even in its shattered form today had World War II not brought the overwhelming influx of government contracts to the city. 210,000 jobs became available during this time and housing was so tight for the immigrant war workers that housing trailers were visible in even the wealthy neighborhoods of the city.

Of course The Block was not churning out life vests or bombers, but the street definitely did their part to support the troops. The clubs were filled all night with sailors, soldiers and the war workers off for the evening. Clubs like the 2 O'clock Club served men with fine burlesque shows and girls with some dancing and performing experience. The Gayety burlesque theater filled their seats three shows a day for 25 cents. One reporter who spent some of his wartime life in the balcony of the Gayety described the smell to be a mixture of a horse stall and a filthy YMCA locker room. The girls the men packed in to see had just a few minutes on stage dancing to the terrible house band in between comics and vaudevillian skits. They rouged their nipples with lipstick and interacted coyly with the howling crowd of soldier boys and lonely war industry workers.

The city of Baltimore took care of the needs of the soldiers overseas with their mass productions of dials and gadgets for trucks and planes while launching Liberty Ships into the Patapsco bound for Europe. The Block workers took care of the boys at home by giving them a little hope that they would be destined back to America someday to live this colorful life once again.