There was a lot of money in honky-tonks and brothels, and by the turn of the century, New Orleans' reputation for decadence was well established. It never legalized prostitution, but required all prostitutes to live within the 64-block district of Storyville. New Orleans exported so many hookers to Texas that Congress passed the Mann Act in 1910, outlawing interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes. Rice is now the city's most famous literary citizen, and owns the elegant St. Elizabeth's Orphanage, a sprawl of elegant buildings where she holds parties, and keeps her huge doll collection and a gallery of paintings by her husband, Stan Rice. This is a city that clearly prizes idiosyncrasy.
Nicknames are part of the fabric, in life as in obituary headlines.
Every day is New Year's Eve. A few blocks away, singer Chris Owens still sings the blues at the club she has owned for decades. During an interview in her dressing room, Owens had to raise her voice to speak above the roar of drunken young men outside yelling for drunken women to disrobe. I think Bourbon Street will always be the Main Street as long as we don't have that major hurricane. The street that never sleeps is actually a good place to sit out storms.