Yeah, I knew that would grab your attention right
away, and I aim to please. If you were around in the sixties and even the
seventies, I’m sure you saw Gunsmoke with Marshal Matt Dillon. And who
else…Miss Kitty.
Did anyone else realize that Miss Kitty ran the
saloon and would have been a well dressed whore? I was only five years old, how
would I have known that she was sleeping with the cowboys for money. And why
didn’t the sheriff ever marry her?
Since I like for my westerns to be as historically
accurate as possible, I do a lot of research on the west. One of my favorite books is Hell’s Half Acre
by Richard F. Selcer. This book is about the half acre of Fort Worth, Texas
back during the height of the cattle driving days. He talks about prostitution back in the old
west and how it contributed to the local economy. Women were not allowed in
most saloons, but they were close by. Most women rented rooms above the saloon
where the randy cowboys would pay them a visit.
While we like to think of a prostitute in the old
west looking like Miss Kitty, most were between the ages of fourteen and twenty
and were hardened women with names like Big Nose Kate, Squirrel-Tooth Alice,
Irish Kate and Monkey. Yes, can you imagine a cowboy coming in and asking for
Monkey?
