20 Disturbing Truths Hollywood Hides About Wild West Brothels

Thanks for watching. If this brought back a memory or taught you something Hollywood never would, subscribe and share it with someone who needs to hear the truth about the real American frontier. The real story of frontier brothels is worse than anything Hollywood ever filmed. The movies gave us golden hearted madams, velvet curtains, and saloon girls who chose their lives with a smile. The truth left behind in census records, coroner's reports, and city council minutes is a story of debt bondage, teenage girls listed by name and age in federal records, mercury poisoning passed off as medicine, and entire towns that profited from the trade and then erased every trace when the cameras arrived. Twenty truths the legend never wanted you to find. Further reading and resources on this topic: Anne M. Butler, Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery. Prostitutes in the American West, Eighteen Sixty Five to Nineteen Ninety Michael Rutter, Upstairs Girls. Prostitution in the American West Jan MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos, and Bad Girls. Prostitution in Colorado, Eighteen Sixty to Nineteen Thirty Benson Tong, Unsubmissive Women. Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century San Francisco Mildred Martin, Chinatown's Angry Angel. The Story of Donaldina Cameron William B. Secrest, Dark and Tangled Threads of Crime. San Francisco's Famous Police Detective, Isaiah W. Lees Anne Seagraves, Soiled Doves. Prostitution in the Early West Paula Petrik, No Step Backward. Women and Family on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier, Helena, Montana, Eighteen Sixty Five to Nineteen Hundred Ronald M. James, Richard D. Adkins, editors, Comstock Women. The Making of a Mining Community The United States Federal Census Records, Eighteen Seventy through Nineteen Hundred, accessible through the National Archives This video is made for educational and informational purposes. Our goal is to widen your knowledge of real American history using documented sources, named people, and verified records. Every script on this channel is written by a human researcher and writer. All visuals, compositions, and storyboards are brainstormed and developed internally by our production team. We believe the real stories of the frontier deserve to be told with the same care and honesty the people who lived them deserved in their own time.