Gold Coast Madam

Chicago, 1988. I was 52 years old, 5'4" tall, and 130 pounds, with red hair and a 36DDD bust, enjoying dramatic Lake Michigan and skyline views from my 21st-floor apartment in the landmark Lake Point Towers building. I had never felt more alive. I was Chicago's reigning madam, providing $400 an hour call girls to Chicago's business owners, traders, lawyers, judges, politicians, mobsters, pro athletes, and Hollywood stars at addresses all over Chicago's downtown and Gold Coast. Vice was on their way up--the doorman had tipped me off. I started thinking back on my life, where I came from, and how I ever got to where I was now. I began life the youngest of nine on a primitive farm in the backwoods of Tennessee. Seeking to make my own way in the world I would meet and marry a man from Cicero, Illinois. Soon I was pregnant eight times in eight years, malnourished, and beaten--once nearly to death. That’s when I left. When I recovered and returned for my five kids, I discovered they'd been put in a brutal orphanage. It took me years to get them back. God knows why I got into this business. It was to save my kids. But I chose to stay. I enjoyed it, I was good at it, and I’d still do it today if I could... From my earliest days as a hanky-panky entrepreneur in the 1960s--renting rooms by the hour at the Addison Motel--others took notice. Playboy, Penthouse, the Sybaris. My adventures took me to all over the Western Suburbs, to Atlanta, Savannah, and the Oak Brook Polo Fields, and eventually to the nightclubs, bars, yachts, and penthouses of Chicago’s Gold Coast. I’d work in this business until 2002 when the FBI busted me and I served 17 months in federal prison. Now I’m retired, living in Florida, and spending my days like many seniors here, walking, playing with my grandchildren, going to church. Let me take you back to my days of juggling three sugar daddies, living and breathing sex, providing the city’s elite with beautiful women, having loads of cash and tons of fun, and experiencing the joys and heartaches of a life on the edge, lived to its fullest.

What was once described as an undesirable swampland has been transformed into one of the most beautiful and wealthiest neighborhoods in America. Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood, developed in the late 1800s, was first called the Astor Street District. It was named after one of the first multimillionaires in the United States, John Jacob Astor--even though Astor never lived in Chicago. In 1885, Astor Street District's first mansion was built. Potter Palmer, a dry goods merchant and owner of the Palmer House Hotel, built his palatial, castle-like residence on the corner of Lake Shore Drive and Banks Street; inside the Palmer mansion were 42 lavishly furnished rooms, which required 26 servants to maintain. Many wealthy Chicagoans followed Palmer's lead and built mansions in the neighborhood. Several homes took up an entire city block and, as time progressed, the name Gold Coast was adopted. On January 30, 1978, the entire Gold Coast district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Join authors Wilbert Jones, Maureen V. O'Brien, and Kathleen Willis Morton, longtime residents of the Gold Coast, on an engrossing journey through the neighborhood's history. Includes archival images along with the more contemporary images of photographer Bob Dowey.

In Making an African City, Jennifer Hart traces the way that British colonial officials, Accra Town Council members, and a diverse group of technocrats used regulation to define what an "acceptable" city looked like. Unlike cities elsewhere on the continent, Accra had a long history of urbanism that predated British colonial presence. By criminalizing some activities and privileging others, colonial officials sought to marginalize indigenous practices of Accra residents and shape the development of a new, "modern" city. Hart argues, however, that residents regularly pushed back, protesting regulations, refusing to participate in newly developed systems, reappropriating infrastructure, demanding rights to city services, and asserting their own informal vision for the future of the city. While urban plans and regulations ultimately failed to substantively remake the city, their effects were and are still felt by urban residents, who are often subject to but not served by urban infrastructure. Making an African City explores how the informalization of Accra's development was a historical process, not a natural and self-evident phenomenon, which connects the history of the city with the history of urban development and the growth of technocracy around the world.

An innovative study of labor relations, particularly the interactions of recruitment agents and migrant workers, in the mining concessions of Wassa, Gold Coast Colony, 1879 to 1909.

1. Catch Your Breath As kids they steered clear of one another. That was then—this is now. As a dedicated reporter, Moira O'Leary has access to Chicago's swankiest affairs. With her confidence and style, she blends right in with the elite crowd. But when her childhood crush starts popping up at posh events, she struggles to keep her cool. Undercover cop Jimmy O'Malley has always tried to avoid his best friend's little sister. Something about Moira spelled trouble. Just as their chemistry ignites, Moira gets dangerously close to his investigation. Now, it's up to Jimmy to keep her safe. Can childhood crushes lead to breathless desire? 2. Just a Taste Grief brought them together. Will love seal the deal? Still reeling from her father’s death, Carmen Delgado has no idea what it means to have dreams of her own. But when sexy Liam O’Leary inherits a share in her dad’s successful food truck, Carmen is suddenly free to explore her life—never expecting Liam to provide a tempting path. His Irish charm can be irresistible. After just a taste, will Carmen find what she didn’t realize she needs? 3. Hold Me Close Taming a spirited, fun-loving O'Leary may be harder than he realized... After more than a year in Ireland, Maggie O'Leary is finally coming back to Chicago with a plan for her future. Confronting the tragedy that destroyed her is her first step. Luckily, her best friend, Shane Callahan, is her biggest support—and lovable in a way she doesn’t remember. Shane will do anything to protect Maggie. But when Maggie boldly tells him that she wants him to help her conquer her final fear—sex—Shane knows a single night together won't be possible. The idea of a spirited Maggie in his bed is everything, but will she believe he wants her heart, too?

This book provides a deep insight into the socio-economic reality and complexity of two of Ghana's largest slums - Nima and Maamobi - located in the capital city, Accra. It identifies and analyses the socio-religious, cultural and political contexts of the two communities. These are ethnically and religiously diverse populations with a common history of migration and integration. The book shows that the causes of economic stagnation and underdevelopment in the two slums are deeply contextualised, complex and nuanced. Through a biographical examination of the political activism of Agnes Amoah, a foremost local leader, the book brings to bear how Mrs. Amoah also brought socio-economic transformation to the communities by breaking cultural, religious and gender barriers in the interest of conviviality. In context, the book sheds important insight on the urban, political and the local and translocal histories that have shaped the social transformations of Nima and Maamobi.

In twentieth-century Britain, consumerism increasingly defined and redefined individual and social identities. New types of consumers emerged: the idealized working-class consumer, the African consumer and the teenager challenged the prominent position of the middle and upper-class female shopper. Linking politics and pleasure, Consuming Behaviours explores how individual consumers and groups reacted to changes in marketing, government control, popular leisure and the availability of consumer goods.From football to male fashion, tea to savings banks, leading scholars consider a wide range of products, ideas and services and how these were marketed to the British public through periods of imperial decline, economic instability, war, austerity and prosperity. The development of mass consumer society in Britain is examined in relation to the growing cultural hegemony and economic power of the United States, offering comparisons between British consumption patterns and those of other nations.Bridging the divide between historical and cultural studies approaches, Consuming Behaviours discusses what makes British consumer culture distinctive, while acknowledging how these consumer identities are inextricably a product of both Britain’s domestic history and its relationship with its Empire, with Europe and with the United States.