The Bawdy Side of Town

The Bawdy Side of Town. South Third Street. Fortune Club , The Fortune Club was a famous gambling house and saloon and it was reported to also be home to one of the area’s most talked about Red Light Social Clubs with rooms for rent on the second floor – later the Fortune Club Hotel/B&B., Harry Land built the Fortune Club in 1899 with financial assistance from Adolph Coors. The club continued in operation until 1916 when prohibition came to Colorado and Harry Lang disappeared from Victor., Notice the painted advertisement on the east side of the building. Below, at sidewalk level, are openings for rolling kegs of beer into the basement., Union Theater/Isis Theater , A few doors south on 3rd Street is the Isis Theater, the last surviving original theater in the entire Gold Camp. The ticket booth, stage, screen, projection equipment, and theater seats are still largely intact., As early as 1896, Frank Monroe managed the infamous Union Theater on the west side of south 3rd Street. It is not clear whether the Union was on the present site of the Isis, but soon after 1899, this became a popular location for a theater – except for a brief period from 1902-03 when it was the Union Steam Laundry. In 1904-05 the building once again became an amusement hall called the Crystal Theater under the management of S.M. Burtis. In 1907, Lowell Marvin and A.A. Shell renamed it the Grand Theater where vaudeville acts and other sorts of live entertainment preformed. In 1912-13, it was called the Ideal Theater, a hall for silent movies and other dalliances. Since the 1920’s it has been known as the Isis Theater and has operated under that name even after it became an antiques and movie memorabilia shop in the 1980s., (sidebar) , Among the Fortune Club Ladies were: , Hattie May Jordan, the madam. Above, Room 10. , Violet Long, who later opened a cafe in Cripple Creek. Upper Right, Room 6 , Cleo and Hattie Fay, who were eventually run out of town, as their burlesque act was “so indecent as to shock the hardened men of the infamous Union Theater”. Right, Rooms 3 and 4. , Chicago Rose, who is buried in Victor’s Sunnyside Cemetery. Lower Right. Room 6 , Red Stocking Lee, who went on to open the famous Kansas City Red Stocking Lee Saloon after she was given a one-way ticket there in 1903 after having an affair with Victor’s mayor, Harry Clayton. Lower Left. Room 9. , Goldfield Lil, who came to Victor from Goldfield Nevada and was killed in a brawl at the Senate Bar. Left, Room 8. , Hazel Vernon Wright, who played the piano in the Fortune Club Saloon when she wasn’t busy in Room 7. Upper Left.