Meanwhile, a battalion of prim, self-appointed reformers unabashedly favored sterilization for the lot. These denizens and their customers, happy to mix socially with any and all, were also among the nation’s more racially progressive citizens. Yet these prostitutes, pimps, saloon owners and “sporting men” occupy a certain moral high ground in Krist’s earthy tale.Īt least they’re honest about their off-color tastes - so much that prostitutes marched in for work shifts just like any other employee, arriving for what city native Louis Armstrong later described as a virtual assembly line of sex. You can practically hear him chortling with glee.Īs profiled in “Empire of Sin: a Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans,” society’s black sheep dominated Crescent City commerce at the turn of the 20th century. “Brothels specialized in all manner of interracial mixing and arcane sexual practices, while narcotics, alcohol and loud, degenerate music filled the saloons and dance halls, promoting deviant behavior of all kinds.” “It was a strange and disturbing place to many,” Krist writes, setting the stage. ![]() Perhaps the same goes for historians, because in Gary Krist’s well-researched account of New Orleans’ turn-of-the-century underworld, there is no mistaking his affection for the ribald and rowdy. ![]() Little has been heard about the project since it was first announced over a year ago, and it is not related to Mission Control Entertainment’s planned series.Though they spend years pawing through the lives of others, it is often said that biographers are actually trying to learn something about themselves. The project was based on an idea from film and theater writer-director George C.Wolfe, who was supposed to write and direct the series (Wolfe won three Tony Awards for his 1992 musical on Jelly Roll Mortion, Jelly’s Last Jam). ![]() In December of 2014, premium cable network Starz began developing its own show about Storyville. However, Deadline reports that project is targeted for cable and digital platforms on account of its violent, sexual nature. There is currently no word on when, or if, Storyville will premiere. “Walt Becker and Bill Macdonald have written an incredible pilot, and as a Louisiana native, the fact that the entire series will be shot in New Orleans and the state is very exciting.” “It was a sexually charged, violent era,” Mission Control Entertainment president Bill Borden told the publication. The creators plan to begin shooting in mid-2016, and scouting has already begun in Louisiana. The planned period drama would be set against the backdrop of the debaucherous neighbohood, with a gritty tone in the vein of HBO’s Rome and Boardwalk Empire.Īccording to Deadline, the company is currently in discussions with a network but has secured enough private funding to proceed with filming a pilot regardless. “Bill” Macdonald and Wild Hogs writer-director Walt Becker. The book will be used as source material for Storyville, a fictional series from Rome co-creator William J. (Krist was recently the keynote speaker at a Louisiana State Museum conference on the subject). Deadline reports that a company called Mission Control Entertainment has optioned the rights to Gary Krist’s bestselling book “Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder and the Battle for Modern New Orleans” in the hopes of doing just that. ![]() Those tales may be reaching a wider audience soon, if a planned television show about the notorious red light district ends up taking off. Though the neighborhood has been a very different place for the past century, most modern day New Orleanians have heard tales of the many vices–from prostitution to drugs, gambling and beyond–that found a safe haven in the brothels and gambling houses of Storyville. The famed (and completely legal) red light district, which reigned over a sizable area just outside the French Quarter from 1897 to 1917, was an unprecedented social experiment and an incubator for a then-nascent musical movement called jazz. Storyville holds a special place in the history of New Orleans and, in many ways, the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |