Sporting Guide: Los Angeles, 1897

by Liz Goldwyn

A brilliantly imaginative, illustrated recreation of an 1890s Los Angeles pocket guide, or "Sporting Guide" to the brothels of the day.

Los Angeles, 1897, When Vice Ruled The City

Long before the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles was a city where dreamers from all over the world came to make their fortunes—where a madam named Pearl Morton entertained the most powerful politicians and entrepreneurs inside her namesake brothel. In a series of haunting, interlinked stories set in the period, author and filmmaker Liz Goldwyn re-creates a "sporting guide"—a secret diary and guidebook of the best brothels and prostitutes in the city. In this world a hushed conversation inside a velvet-lined boudoir could destroy a man, and the rustle of bushes might reveal a sordid assignation. Based on original research in the libraries and archives of Los Angeles, these fictional stories are often inspired by real historical characters—like the laudanum-addicted Cora Phillips, whose tombstone Goldwyn rediscovered, or Bartolo Ballerino, Italian immigrant slumlord of the forgotten red-light district, or thirteen-year-old Frances dreaming of life beyond the Children's Orphan Asylum. Interspersed in these stories—and featuring over a hundred historical photos and illustrations—Goldwyn reveals the history of the period, from the rage for corsets to crushed pearl powder cosmetics and the awful cures for syphilis. Sporting Guide evokes a lost world of those on the margins of Los Angeles, of the hustlers who made it into one of the great cities of the world, and Goldwyn gives a poignant voice to the people and stories forgotten by time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

Liz Goldwyn is a writer, filmmaker, and artist living and working in Los Angeles. She is the writer and director of the documentary Pretty Things (HBO, 2005) based on her non-fiction book Pretty Things: the Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens, (HarperCollins 2006 Hardcover, 2010 Paperback). Goldwyn’s short films include Underwater Ballet (2008), LA at Night (2009), The Painted Lady (2012) and Dear Diary (2013).

Goldwyn was New York Editor of French Vogue from 2001 to 2002 and has contributed to publications including the New York Times Magazine, the Financial Times, British Vogue and C Magazine. In September 2014 she became the first guest editor of Town & Country in its’ 168-year history.

She has been commissioned as an artist and designer by M.A.C Cosmetics, Van Cleef & Arpels, Altamont Apparel, and Le Bon Marché and has created jewelry for feature films including Running With Scissors (2006).

A collector and authority on vintage clothing since the age of thirteen, Goldwyn was hired as consultant and curator for Sotheby’s newly created fashion department in 1997 while still in college.

In 2014 Goldwyn founded Vintage Vanguard with partner Karen Elson, an innovative fundraising project supporting women’s issues. Goldwyn continues her work with writing, film, and design.

Reviews

[Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

"To capture a single moment in time in this city seems a futile effort, for it's people have no desire to remember even the recent past."

I remember, when I was maybe 8 or 9, I discovered the Ologies Series- these large, intricate interactive history books from Candlewick Press. There was Dragonology- a maroon tome with feathers and folklore from all of the world, Egyptology a golden book dedicated to Egyptian mythology and culture, fit with jewels and papyrus samples, and Wizardology, which focused on the magic and legend of Merlin. It was a fascinating way to learn about history, despite a few fictitious elements added to keep a kid like me interested.

Sporting Guide: Los Angeles, 1897 is a lot like an Ology book for adults. Author Liz Goldwyn utilizes archival footage and real-life people to construct a light narrative about the sex trade in the Gilded Age Los Angeles.

The 1890's have always been my favorite decade, because it was the last time society looked staunchly different from what it is today. (Just take a look at the fascinating film Dawson City: Frozen Time to see more). By the 1920's, you had modern society in the form of the radio, mass media, and the aftershocks of a World War. In Sporting Guide, we learn about that lost Era, a time of very legal, and very sumptuous prostitution houses and the grueling, unclean "cribs" for less fortunate women. There's also sections on contraception, male-for-male sex work, and corsetry.

What was the City of Angels like before movie stars and film noir? Was it a rakish, cruel Western Outpost? Or was it a stately city, built in the image of it's American counterparts? Goldwyn's project attempts to answer those questions. It's an ambitious, if a bit one-dimensional, product of her interest in sex and sexuality throughout history. In the end, the facts she weaved in throughout the book were far more interesting than the fiction.

[Alexa Oliphant · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some books where you want more than anything to love them, but are ultimately disappointed. This is mine.

A book about sex work at the turn of the twentieth century in my home town. It ticks all of the boxes for a good romp for me. Unfortunately, it also ticks my least favorite box - bad fucking writing.

In between some excellently researched timelines, maps, non-fiction essays on beauty are flash fiction pieces written from first person perspective of characters in the line of work at the time. Yes, that is a lot of prepositional phrases. They're written in time appropriate jargon and the overwhelming effect is at best awkward, and at worst kind of racist. When a well off white woman in the twenty first century tries to write in the voice of Victorian Cuban pimp, you're going to have a bad time. Please don't ever use the word "Bambino" again Liz. Stahp.

Maybe it's not the actually writing, but the form. The best flash fiction I have ever read feels like free form poems - haunting and poetic. Trying to create believable characterization in a few pages seems like setting yourself up for failure, at any rate it feels ham-fisted.

Liz Goldwyn is a jack of all trades, which ultimately means there are at least one or two things she doesn't knock it out of the park on. I remember her burlesque documentary "Pretty Things" and it was marvelously researched and interviewed, but then topped off with her own interpretation of a classical burlesque routine and it soured the work.

I think as a writer and a creator you have to know your strengths, and Goldwyn's is her research and non-fiction writing (her follow-up book to the Pretty Things documentary was amazing). The extra stuff where you stretch your resources is where the work begins to look weak. Either take the necessary time and length to make it work like a realist novel, stop playing with gimmicky form, or get yourself a better editor.

[CrockRocket · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides a lot of insights into the social history of LA as well as the history of prostitutions with firstand third-person vignettes as well as pictures.

Prostitution was so brutal and commonplace in LA. It sometimes had a glamourous edge.

I would have liked for the writing to be better to make the characters telling their story more believable and entertaining. I enjoyed the third-person chapters, the photographs, illustrations, X’s foreword and the Los Angeles Timeline.

The design of the cover of the red leatherette is gorgeous. It might be worth owning this book as decoration.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally read this while on vacation and couldn't put it down. Everyone thinks LA has always been Hollywood, but Sporting Guide shows otherwise with the research and accounts from LA pre Hollywood, a city of vice.

[Nuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you can see it took me a little while to read the entire book. I read the first couple of chapters in the beginning of January, but put the book aside for a while, because I wanted to read something more exciting. I did and then came back to this book.

This is in no way an indication of how amazing this book is, because it is. A perfect mix of history and a sort of non-fiction/fiction. The chapters are part history lesson on Los Angeles' red light district and brothels and part stories of those residing in and visiting those places. It is entertaining, educating, and fascinating, to be honest.

I am always interested in history and especially those stories that are not talked about at school or really anywhere else. Brothels and the red light district of Los Angeles in the late 1800s is one such subject and this book explains a society I have never even given a thought to.

I am a little bit at a loss for words. I don't really know how to explain this book, because it is unlike anything I have ever read. The stories of Madams and Johns and Prostitutes are fictional, but at the same time they are not. They are very real, because the people were real people. Their stories actually happened, all that is fiction are the details. At least that is how I understood it. Maybe none of it is fiction.

If you have an open mind and love a bit of history mixed with real stories of people whose stories could fill whole books on their own, go ahead and read this book. Because as soon as I picked it back up on January 20th, I couldn't put it back down. So I eventually finished it in two days.

It is not super long, only about 250 pages, but - oh I forgot the best part: Many many pictures of that time, real ones, receipts and police data, all kinds of material from those days and even of those people that tell the stories in this book.

It's a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in the untold stories of history. It's not for the faint-hearted though as some stories can be a little cold. But those were just the times back then.

[Vanessa Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, let me start by commenting on the physical attributes of the book. I won this book through a goodreads. The title caught me off guard by making me think it was actually about sports. The book is red leather and very elegant and comes with a ribbon bookmark. Like a journal. Upon further inspection, I noticed it was an old time read focused around prostitution. What really drew me to it and what I felt tied the whole thing together were the very old photographs. It was like I was traveling back in time, standing next to these long gone humans. The book was written more like journal entries full of intertwined ideas, drama, beauty and lust, offering an inside look in the world of brothels. The book also contains timeline statistics and popular products. It was an easy as well as captivating read with that tidy ending. Everything about 'The Sporting Guide' was solid and beautiful. A must read for people with an application for adventure sex and historic events!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a chance on this little book and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The info/story was kind of all over the place and didnt really flow. But the historical documents and beautiful spreads of pictures really bumped this three star book up to four stars. If Liz Goldwyn puts out another version I would definitely pick it up.

[Emiley Allen Bowes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pictures from the Era are one of the best features of this guide. Little tidbits of information are woven thru the book. Fictional characters give a bit of depth to the guide. Most likely brothels existed throughout the States in this pre-prohibition time frame.

[Marcelle Karp · Rating 4 out of 5]

sent, hardcover

What a lovely literary journey into the 1800's, a world of businesswoman, sex trades, and Old Town Los Angeles. Lyrical and flush with tendered emotion, it's a beautiful film of a novel.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to find an author with similar interests (LA 1890s) and creative use of materials - a great start.

[Genevieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Photos were the best part.

[Claire Teasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this

[Annette Balter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fictionalized 'guide' to the LA red light district and brothel scene during the turn of the 20th century, with photos and ads from the era, and vignettes of some of the colorful characters.

[Tj Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book and I am not sure what that says about me :)